Favorite Electric Guitarists
 

A twist on 'your favorite acoustic guitarist thread', who are your favorite electric guitarists? Did they influence you in the beginning when you started playing, or farther down the line, or perhaps they haven't influenced you at all.

Adrian Smith and Dave Murray of Iron Maiden are why I picked up the guitar in the mid/late '80s. Those amazing harmony solos. Adrian Smith is still my favorite guitarist of all time. He plays with so much feeling, so musical, and so melodic.

How about you? Also, did you see them play live or meet them?

I'll play.... Duane Allman & Dickie Betts. Both showed just how much you can do within a mostly penatonic scale. Toy Caldwell a little country and a little jazzy swing influence, and a mighty fast thumb. And one I'm sure is not on anyone's list J.J. Cale. I just really like the space he leaves.

Favorite Electric Guitarists
 

Ok Dru, here we go...

Francis Dunnery (former It Bites). Seen him live many many times. He’s now a friend and has played at our house 2 times, and at our friends’ one time (also organised by us).

Alex Lifeson - saw Rush 3 times live (first time was the concert that was released as A Show Of Hands). Never met him but would love to tell him and Geddy what great influences they’ve been on my playing.

Gary Moore - a huge influence on my electric style, especially the rock blues albums. He was a fantastic acoustic player too, his work on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Variations is excellent.

Mark Knopfler - he made me want to get a Strat (I did eventually!) Saw him live in a Stockholm when touring with Emmylou Harris.

Dave Gilmour - the other Strat influence. Wonderful player. Never seen him live unfortunately...

Chris Rea - Strat influence no 3! On The Beach is still one of my all time favourite albums.

Steve Vai - I wish I could play like him. Saw him live in London with GT3: Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Adrian Legg. They had an unexpected guest artist...

Brian May - there’s no one who plays like him: I never saw Queen live but he was the secret guest artist at the GT3 gig. A very special moment.

Oh yeah - I met Albert Lee when he was playing a bar gig in Stockholm (for real!). Very charming and humble guy, awesome country picker!

David Gilmour, Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, Jerry Donahue, Albert Lee, Steve Howe (and a few more TBH).

Jerry Garcia, Pat Metheny and Nils Lofgren.

favorites?

that's easy for me

Duane Allman
Steve Morse
Jerry Garcia

George Harrison and David Gilmour. Both have a breathtaking talent for figuring out parts and solos that make whatever song they're playing on sound as good as it can possibly be.

How could I have forgotten George Harrison? Easily one of my influences!

Let me be the first to mention Jeff Beck. His approach to the electric guitar is like no other player I've ever encountered.

J.J. Cale
Mark Knopfler
Eric Clapton
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Peter Green
Otis Rush
Freddie King
B.B. King

just to name a few.

the late Sugar Hightower (Rev Slim and the Supreme Angels) could carry a melody right along with a complex vocal group. You may not like this style of music but listen to the way he blended himself in with a lot of vocals and instruments. The players at his memorial (youtube) are pretty good too.

Lately I've been listening to Melanie Faye an amazing young neo-soul player.

Guitarists I've seen live:
Jimi Hendrix
John McLaughlin
Steve Morse
Joe Pass
Al Dimeola
Robben Ford
Garcia
Terry Haggerty
John Cipollina
Elvin Bishop
Mike Bloomfield
BB King
Mick Taylor
Pat Metheny
Alan Holdsworth
Sonny Landreth
Dicky Betts
Carlos Santana
EVH
Jeff Beck
David Hidalgo
Charlie Beatty
Roy Nichols
Derek Trucks
Duke Robillard
Terry Kath


These are my tops.


Trey Anastasio almost makes the list along with Mike
Stern, Scott Henderson, Kid Anderson,Carl Verhayen, John Jorgensen, Freddie King, Otis Rush, Robert Cray, Warren Haynes.
I didn't care for Robin Trower, Tony Iommi, and others i can't recall.

The late great, but massively underrated James Calvin Wilsey is my all time favourite. (Reason why I wanted to learn guitar and get a Stratocaster). The most tasteful player I've ever come across (his haunting sounds on Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game" is but one of many examples) and it was the sound of his Stratocaster for this Australian in the 80's that conjured up all sorts of visions of early 60's Americana. (The music of Chris Isaak was so different to that which I had been listening to up until that point).

It also led me down the road to exploring and finding other guitarists that I liked or would go on to influence me in some way or another. (Danny Gatton, Carl Perkins, Luther Perkins, James Burton, Roy Clark, Glen Campbell, Hank Marvin, Dick Dale, Brian Setzer, Redd Volkaert, Albert Lee, Martin Cilia and Chet Atkins and some of the more modern guys like Deke Dickerson, Ken Carlson, Johnny Hyland and Doug Seven).

I'm a suburban Australian guitar picking man, but I own a Stetson cowboy hat and a whole bunch of western shirts ... go figure.

In no particular order:
George Harrison
Pete Townshend
Jimi Hendrix
Jimmy Page
Elliot Easton
Gary Moore
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Eric Clapton

Les Paul
Chet Atkins
Tony Mottola
Chuck Berry
James Burton
Nokie Edwards
B.B. King
Jack Wilkins
Lonnie Mack
George Harrison
Eric Clapton
Terry Kath
Carlos Santana
Roy Clark
Buddy Guy
George Benson
Duane Allman
Dicky Betts
Mark Knopfler
Stevie Ray Vaughan

- and the ladies:
Mary Osborne
Nancy Wilson
Emily Remler
Anita Cochran
Susan Tedeschi
Debbie Davies
Grace Potter
Orianthi

Clarence White

John Lennon and George Harrison, Keith Richards, Robbie Blunt, Jimmy Page, Tom Petty and Mike Campbell among many others.

Lately I've been getting into playing some Scorpions, and both Rudi and Matthias are really fun to try to follow. There's technical complexity even in their clean rhythm parts that I'm digging.

Steve Lukather is another guitarist I admire but I haven't tried any of yet. The guy is crazy good, and even his impromptu stuff like "Duet For Guitar And Leafblower" is excellent.

Randy Rhoads. Shame he died in a senseless plane crash at the age of 25 when he was hitting his peak, back in 1982.

10 off the top of head this morning...

Howard Alden
Tab Benoit
Jimmy Bruno
Chris Cain
Larry Carlton
Robben Ford
Duke Robillard
Martin Taylor
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Frank Vignola

I just stuck to living guitarists. Many of my favorites are actually long gone.

Carlos Santana, Derek Trucks, Warren Haynes, David Hidalgo, Mick Taylor, Jorma Kaukonen, Kenny Burrell, Wes Montgomery, George Benson, Jerry Garcia, Steve Kimock

Growing up with a Strat I was always drawn to typical strat guys like Mayer,SRV, Hendrix, Clapton, Trower etc

My favorite rock guitarist of all time is probably Joe Walsh. I really like Duane Allman and Gary Rossington too.

Blues, I really like the 3 Kings. Being from the same state I have a soft spot for BB, but Freddie is so fun to watch and listen too and Albert was just such a good player.

I also really some of the old country/ rockabilly guys like Scotty Moore, Luther Perkins, Bob Wooton and love Merle and Waylon’s telecaster work.


I’ll throw this one in there. It probably gets overshadowed because he’s such a powerful vocalist and does a lot of acoustic playing, but I really love what Chris Stapleton is capable of on the electric. Definitely has a signature tone and is so good at a mixture of soulful playing and straight up southern rock type of playing.

The guys that “move” me...

Terry Kath
Josh Smith

Apart from the usual suspects - Hendrix and Beck being my top two electric players probably - I came across this comparison of contemporary players, improvising over the same track. While I'm not particularly a fan of most of their music, tbh, there is no doubt they are amazing players. My person favourite in this vid was Chris Buck.

I had a my rock playlist on Amazon playing as I drove to work this morning and realized I left off two of my favorite rock guitarists.

Malcolm Young and Billy Gibbons. Angus is great but I’ve always loved Malcolm’s rhythm playing. I’ve seen Gibbons live in person three times now and he’s never disappointed. He gets such an amazing tone live.

Not a person in particular, but I got hooked on The Ventures in the mid 1970's. The surf sound got me into wanting to play guitar.

Lately I've been on a big Bill Frisell kick. This was his contribution to the Fretboard Journal "You Are My Sunshine" project.

Richard Thompson. I like that he comes at it from a non-blues base.

I also think Bruce Springsteen is underrated, because his guitar supports his vocals and songwriting, not the other way around.

Jeff Golub

He left us almost five years ago. I had the good fortune to meet him several times at jazz festivals. He had a great sense of humor and never seemed in a hurry to move along. And oh boy the stories he could tell. Always played smoothly and confident no matter what was thrown his way. We miss you Jeff.

I am horrible at superlatives so here are some influences:

Joe Walsh. Every now and then I am overdubbing in a recording session and I look up at the monitors and say, "Oh, crap." I'm channeling Joe again!" The apple doesn't fall from the tree: The James Gang Rides Again was my second album.
Duane Allman/Dickey Betts - Well, I am from the South, after all.
David Gilmour - "Playing for the song" is thy name.
Andrew Latimer of Camel - emotion and melody in every lead
Andy Powell and Ted Turner of Wishbone Ash - That English folk sensibility runs deep.
Steve Howe of Yes - I almost NEVER look up at the monitors and say, "Oh Crap. I'm channeling Steve again." He's so idiosyncratic and so idiomatic that I really have a hard time playing in his choppy style. BUT, he is imaginative and inspiring to the max.
Justin Hayward (Moody Blues) - I must admit that "New Horizons" and "This Morning" were early starts for me on the road to melodic playing.
Tony Peluso - With Richard Carpenter he created the "power ballad" genre on the Carpenters' "Goodbye to Love." I fell in love with the song and his solos and decided I wanted to solo on guitar. Then I met and played with him.
The Doobie Brothers - these guys taught me the art of the precis solo.
Steve Lukather - He plays some killer solos and showed me that higher gain can be done with taste.

Bob

Cliff Gallup
Darrel Higham
Hank Marvin
Keith Richards
Stephen Stills
Eric Clapton
Tommy Tedesco
Glen Campbell
Kevin North
Stevie Ray Vaughn