Greatest guitar players of all time

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by Kaye Boss

Created on: April 23, 2009 Last Updated: April 24, 2009

To claim that a certain group of people are the greatest guitarists of all time, one must consider to whom they are preaching their argument. As many before have mentioned, a greatest guitarists can be determined by personal preference in music or by a different set of standards in regards to what it takes to be a greatest guitarist. Someone that enjoys the comfort of country music may not relate to the greatest guitarists selected by a heavy metal fan. In order to relieve readers of the curiousity of what defines a great guitarist for this article in particular, a list has been constructed outlining the things that were considered in creating the list of almost fifteen of the greatest guitar players of all time.

So, what defines an incredible guitar player? Is it the length of time that they have been playing for? How famous they are or were? Do they have to be the lead guitarist in a band? Or do they have to produce a solo album?

While all of the above things may contribute to the greatness of a guitar player they were not the guidelines for this competition. In order to be a great guitarist, the guitarist music be unique in their musical usage, meaning that they must have their own sound rather than some of the newer bands coming out that always seem to be mimicking a band from the past. How many bands have produces records that show a remarkably similar sound to "old Metallica"? Far too many to count!

A great guitarist must be someone that influences other guitarists, famous or otherwise. This sounds quite contradictory to the previous definition of a great guitarist. A great guitarist does not copy someone else's sound but rather they introduce a new sound tht will influence other guitarists. This can be measured by the availability of their tablature, or through other bands noting that they were influenced by the particular artists.

A great guitarist, in order to create their unique sound will experiment with their sound. In order to do so they must possess a vast knowledge and range of technical music abilities and concepts. A guitarist that understands different scales is a successful guitarists because they are not limited, which is beneficial because another factor involved in deciding whom the greatest guitarists are was a lack of repetitiveness.

So then, to see the opposite, although it will most likely remain quite obvious. What is the opposite of a great guitarist (in order to create a black and white contrast for those following separate music genres than was more focussed on for this article). A less talented guitarist is full of arrogance and they are repetitive in one technoque. Often a lot of their songs sound the same, simply because they do the same things and they often play in the same scales all the time.

Bad guitarists build songs around lyrics; good guitarists could survive alone with no lyrics.

So the list now will be presented for who the greatest guitarists are. Each has demonstrated several of the above listed traits of a great guitarists, many two or three. Much depth will not be explored for each of the artists below, search and discover more if they are unfamiliar at first glance.

(Artists are presented in no "special" order)

1. Jimi Hendrix

2. Alexi Laiho

3. Andre Olbrich

4. Randy Rhoads

5. Yngwie Malmsteen

6. Timo Tolkki

7. Adrian Smith

8. Dave Murray

9. Darrel "Dimebag"

10. B.B. King

11. Tony Iommi