Difficult question really.

I can't really give a single best. But a 3 man shortlist of my personal favourite.

Stevie Ray Vaughn (R.I.P)

-

Joe Bonamassa

I can't think of a third person that is able to go along side those 2 names. So the short list is 2.

A nice example of the work of Bonamassa:

*not_secure_link*www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AOsP8KBp8g&feature=relmfu

 

Stevie is by far my number one.

Fuck Joe bananas, he isn't worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as Stevie.

How many fingertips did he superglue back on? FUCK him, I could name at least a dozen more deserving.

 

My favs:

Eddie VanHalen - in his prime
Slash - anytime
Carlos Santana
Eric Clapton

Here are Rolling Stones Top 100:

1. Jimi Hendrix
2. Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers Band
3. B.B. King
4 Eric Clapton
5 Robert Johnson
6 Chuck Berry
7 Stevie Ray Vaughan
8 Ry Cooder9 9 Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin
10 Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones
11 Kirk Hammett of Metallica
12 Kurt Cobain of Nirvana
13 Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead
14 Jeff Beck
15 Carlos Santana
16 Johnny Ramone of the Ramones
17 Jack White of the White Stripes
18 John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers
19 Richard Thompson
20 James Burton
21 George Harrison
22 Mike Bloomfield
23 Warren Haynes
24 The Edge of U2
25 Freddy King
26 Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave
27 Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits
28 Stephen Stills
29 Ron Asheton of the Stooges
30 Buddy Guy
31 Dick Dale
32 John Cipollina of Quicksilver Messenger Service
33 & 34 Lee Ranaldo, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth
35 John Fahey
36 Steve Cropper of Booker T. and the MG's
37 Bo Diddley
38 Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac
39 Brian May of Queen
40 John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival
41 Clarence White of the Byrds
42 Robert Fripp of King Crimson
43 Eddie Hazel of Funkadelic
44 Scotty Moore
45 Frank Zappa
46 Les Paul
47 T-Bone Walker
48 Joe Perry of Aerosmith
49 John McLaughlin
50 Pete Townsend
51 Paul Kossoff of Free
52 Lou Reed
53 Mickey Baker
54 Jorma Kaukonen of Jefferson Airplane
55 Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple
56 Tom Verlaine of Television
57 Roy Buchanan
58 Dickey Betts
59 & 60 Jonny Greenwood, Ed O'Brien of Radiohead
61 Ike Turner
62 Zoot Horn Rollo of the Magic Band
63 Danny Gatton
64 Mick Ronson
65 Hubert Sumlin
66 Vernon Reid of Living Colour
67 Link Wray
68 Jerry Miller of Moby Grape
69 Steve Howe of Yes
70 Eddie Van Halen
71 Lightnin' Hopkins
72 Joni Mitchell
73 Trey Anastasio of Phish
74 Johnny Winter
75 Adam Jones of Tool
76 Ali Farka Toure
77 Henry Vestine of Canned Heat
78 Robbie Robertson of the Band
79 Cliff Gallup of the Blue Caps (1997)
80 Robert Quine of the Voidoids
81 Derek Trucks
82 David Gilmour of Pink Floyd
83 Neil Young
84 Eddie Cochran
85 Randy Rhoads
86 Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath
87 Joan Jett
88 Dave Davies of the Kinks
89 D. Boon of the Minutemen
90 Glen Buxton of Alice Cooper
91 Robby Krieger of the Doors
92 & 93 Fred "Sonic" Smith, Wayne Kramer of the MC5
94 Bert Jansch
95 Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine
96 Angus Young of AC/DC
97 Robert Randolph
98 Leigh Stephens of Blue Cheer
99 Greg Ginn of Black Flag
100 Kim Thayil of Soundgarden

 

That list is a joke. A quarter of the names on it are not even very good guitarists, much less the 'top 100'.

I agree with most of them, since much of the decision-making is based on taste, rather than measurable ability.

Finally, any list that does not contain Donald Roeser SOMEWHERE is not worth anything.

 

shows commitment. though thats only a rumour. besides. your agressivness is not worthy of being on this forum.

 

Jimmy Page

He's the man!

 

Yup, my aggressiveness isn't worth being on this forum. You wanna bump chests with me and push me off!!!? you want to lock horns!!!? YOU WANNA THROW HANDS!!!!?

Stevie was the man. I think that the glue thing is a lie too, but being a person that people could questionably attribute it to you in my mind makes you worthy of that title.

I also love the blues, and the way he could make it sound hit me like no other.


But my aggressiveness not making me be worthy!!? I once again challenge you to see who can chug the most concentrated hemlock. Let's go. I am a joke, and you are for real. You will probably win. Let us both go for it.

Chug, chug, chug, chug.

Yes. I am joking. But of course, what else could explain this unreasonable aggression? Huffing too much male deer piss while out on a hunting trip? Possibly.

But I digress, come on dude, last one standing wins. It's just you and me...(proof enough to try to get me banned?)

 

your funny *poke*

 

Man I don't deal with that hokey-pokey face book shit. That is for weaklings who aren't man enough to black a girl's eye.

 

hmm hmm hmm

funny boy!!! though the poke was not in reference to facebook (of which you obvoiusly deal with cause you know about it) it was in reference to making the beast angry, and i see you have a way with the women.

 

Must agree with you. Some of these are a joke. Think you've probably listened to more guitarists than these guys have had hot dinners.

 

william, if you are refrencing my list of 2...well i think umpire was talking about the rolling stones list - and on that case i am familiar with are large amount of them. maybe unfamiliar with about 20 of them.

twas just looking for opinions is all.

and i know it may be a bit biased, but when i ever go to appreciate guitar, i go to guitarists who are iconic as first guitarist second lead singer.

 

Jeff Beck
Steve Howe
Steve Vai
John Williams

 

AHHH Steve Vai...How did i forget?!!!!

John Williams...nah Slim Dusty!!!

I heard Old John is a bit of an Angry bastard!!

 

Man, I apologize. I have made a point of not getting on there for the last 2 years. I saw the word "Poke" and assumed the worse. It is bad these days, I think Facebook is a crock of shit considering that at one point a pledge was made never to "open up to the general public." I saw poke and assumed the worse, and when you told me what you meant I still didn't get the reference, though I will try my best to rectify that transgression if it is good music. I HATE Facebook, what I said was dumb. I apologize once again.

 

Segovia!

 

I don't go in for sayings much either, could you put what you said into context? If it is a nursery rhyme I didn't hear many of them where I'm from, and it is probably something I should have learned long ago.

 

I was referring to the Rolling Stone list; like it's take on most most things over the past 20+ years, Rolling Stone itself is a joke, pandering to the mediocre so-called 'taste' of now not-so-young-urban-professionals.

 

Dead?...Jimi Hendrix

Alive...Joe Walsh, David Gilmour

 

Well no big surprise that Rolling Stone only listed 2 female guitarists - Joni Mitchell and Joan Jett - and they still got it wrong. Joni's strong suit was never her guitar playing and if they were going to choose a guitarist from The Runaways it should have been Lita Ford. Still, they could have easily had Nancy Wilson, Bonnie Raitt and Chrissie Hynde on the list.

Stevie Ray Vaughan will always be a sentimental favorite because we lost him way too soon and not because of drugs. But for my money, here are the others on my list, in no particular order:

Eric Clapton
Buddy Guy
Jimi Hendrix
Robert Cray
Albert Collins
Dick Dale

Now a special mention for a very talented guitarist who might just still make it. His name is Vince Converse. He's originally from Houston but lives in Denver now. He was playing clubs in Houston with his band Sunset Heights when he was still in high school in the 90's. We couldn't even buy him a beer! They developed quite a following and even toured Europe, but they could never get a major label interested. Eventually Vince and SH parted ways and he released a very good CD in 1999. Here's a couple of videos of Vince with Sunset Heights in Germany in 1996.

*not_secure_link*www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbwTV360VPc&feature=related

*not_secure_link*www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NBEs8KFUnM&feature=related

So skip to 2011. He had a bad drug problem for a while, but he's cleaned up his act and he'll have a CD coming out this year. He also has a 7 year old son name Stevie Ray Vaughan James Marshall Hendrix Converse. I think he's the real deal and I'm hoping that lightning will strike this time around. Here's his Facebook page if you want to follow him:

*not_secure_link*www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100001738833221