Time’s top 10

Supposedly, this is a tribute to Les Paul.

It’s pretty hard to **** up a top ten list this badly, you have to really work hard.

Putting Slash at number 2 is a good start.

Leaving off Eddie Van Halen gets you very close to home.

This entry though seals the deal.

Yngwie Malmsteen


The Swede’s superfast “neo-Classical” style —he credits Bach and Paganini as influences—is a blur of scales and technical precision. It almost makes you forget that the great bulk of his music is so fast that it’s unlistenable.

Uh, if most of his music is unlistenable, then he isn’t a very good guitar player. This isn’t Guitar Hero - you don’t get masturbation points.

This list is absolutely horrible. How can Eddie VH get left off that list??? I like Malmsteen personally, but hes more of a classically trained rocker. If you include him, you may as well include Nuno Bettencourt. I'd put Randy Rhoads well above Malmsteen.

Van Halen and even Randy Rhoads revolutionized metal. I guess nobody cares though.

Just looked at Rolling Stone's top 100



I guess I was right, nobody cares.

Yeah. The Rolling Stones list was terribad. I like Jack White, but putting him in the top ten...? And EVH @ 70 way below Joan Jett?!?!?!?

...but that Time list is just stoopid. No EVH and no SRV kills it.

I feel like Time's top 10 is not in order, it's just their 10 favorites. The only reason I think that is because they start you at #1. I mean, I guess I'm torn because Jimi should absolutely without question be #1 on that list (and he seemingly is), but what kind of list starts at #1 and then gets worse!?

Where is Nancy Wilson of Heart? I mean, the intro to Crazy On You is pure genius.

My favorite guitarists:

Frank Zappa

Justin Hayward (Moody Blues)

Danny Gatton

Jimmy Page

Mick Ronson (Bowie, Stones, Rolling Thunder Revue, etc)

Adrian Belew (Talking Heads, Bowie, Zappa, etc)

Kurt Cobain

Holy thrown together piece of dogshit.

Les Paul himself would never place his name in consideration as a top 10 electric guitarist of all time, that's just absurd. Chuck Berry's ego would claim that he's top 10, but there's no effing way.

Johnny Ramone? C'mon now.

Add Tom Morello, add Randy Rhoads, add Kirk Hammett, and the fact that EVH and SRV aren't on the list automatically invalidates it.

Rhodes, Van Halen and SRV all deserve to be up there. Just because we got shortchanged in recorded material for Randy doesn't mean he wasn't incredi-awesome. Same goes for SRV, even if he was a tad derivative of Hendrix.

Not to mention super GD difficult.

While I am not a huge fan of Slash, it does not surprise me to see him on the list. If he was actually listed as the #2 then I have an issue but he is a very underrated player and I think GnR and their actions take away from what he can do on a guitar.

SRV is an obvious choice to be in the top 10.

Joey? While he was a master at 3 chords I don't think top 10 material.

YM, yuck.

I am a huge Satriani fan and I would put him maybe 15-20.

Kirk Hammett was who inspired me to play guitar some 21 years ago and I still would not put him in top 10.

Tom Morello is a top 10 guitarist imo.

Jeff Beck as well.

Never was a big Van Halen fan but him not being in the top 10 is ridic.

This post would be better and more thought out if people would stop coming into my office...

Big 70's rock fan here and grew up lusting for the Wilson sisters. But one decent acoustic guitar vamp 35 second intro doesn't qualify you for the Top 10 best of all time. For Example, compare that to the acoustic work on "Mood for a Day" or "Clap" by Steve Howe or Lindsay Buckingham's work on "Never Going Back Again". Then try and name 3 other signature tunes of hers (please don't try and sneak "Dog & Butterfly" into this discussion). I believe that Howard Leese was more responsible for most of the Electric guitar work on their biggest hits, including "Crazy on You". She was (is) a great rock guitarist, but nowhere near top ten of all time.

I can almost accept Chuck Berry on a top ten or twenty list because of the influence he had on all of rock & rolll as well as R&B. He really helped establish and define how R&R riffs were written and how the guitar was used in modern music. Add in the fact that he had a racial barrier to overcome.

YM just can't even be a serious addition to a top ten, If you must have a "shredder" with classical runs, then yeah Satriani, Vai, Eric Johnson, or even Steve Morse would be better choices with my personal vote going to EJ.

Steve Vai, anyone?

Crossroads is probably one of my all time favorite movies. The cutting heads scene was just awesome.

why no ry cooder on the list?

Not sure if this is a level, but he is talking about the scene from the movie where Steve Vai plays the Devil's Guitarist in a Guitar battle for Souls...

...but come to think of it I think there is a ton of Ry Cooder on the soundtrack

ummm, ok.

ry cooder played all the "maccio" guitar parts and owns vai's soul. in real life, and in the movie.

Agreed. Forgot about Ry Cooder's involvement in the Movie

...but I think Arlen Roth played a lot of Maccio's guitar parts.

Ry Cooder is def awesome too.

Also fwiw, Steve Vai played Macchio's classical parts, Cooder played the blues......so Vai really owned his own soul at the end.

Heh, that's funny, I was just watching that after reading through this topic, it's on Youtube. Amazing scene, I first saw that movie about 10 years ago.

Arlen Roth was one of Danny Gatton's biggest supporters

Roth/Gatton/Tequila

Blues Newburg

Cool clip. I covet that Copper Telecaster Gatton is playing, can't believe that the "Master of the Telecaster" isn't playing a Fender.

I love that prince is on their list.... Prince's skill at guitar playing is often overlooked because of the poppy style of many of his songs, and his general weirdness.. but he really is one of the best guitar players alive..

anybody have a link to that concert where he's sharing the stage with a dozen other well known musicians and when it's time for his little spotlight-solo he goes off for like 5 minutes?

What about Django Reinhart?

Just went and reviewed the Rolling Stone Top 100 List. I guess Jack White was in the top 20, not top 10. EVH @ 70 and Joan Jett @ 87 not ahead of EVH, but still a strange list. The RS top 10 was:

Jimi
Duane Allman
BB King
Eric Clapton
Robert Johnson
Chuck Berry
SRV
Ry Cooder
Jimmy Page
Keef Richards

All in all not a horrible Top Ten if you consider "influence" on the art as part of the list of criteria. It is a little skewed towards prior to 1975 players, which they make up for with the 11-20 list.

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/593...ts_of_all_time/

didn't play electric

you tube while my guitar gently weeps - hall of fame with tom petty et al

yeah just saw electric in the title, still amazing guitarist.

Fair question. Django certainly influenced a ton of guitarists. But the Time list was "Electric Guitarists" and Django played an acoustic "Gypsy" guitar.

There are a lot of "Jazz" players like George Benson and Wes Montgomery who could be considered.

that's the one, thanks.

Duane Allman was the fckn bomb...

David Gilmour is my favorite to listen to all time. He is not the best, talent wise but his style makes him my favorite. To each his own.

Tom Morello definetly belongs on any list. Not sure if someone mentioned he did not belong

Prince, Yngwie Malmsteen, and Johnny Ramone have no business in the top 10. The rest I have no problem with.

However where the hell are Joe Satriani, Jeff Beck, Tom Morello, and Eric Johnson?

# 96 Angus Young


Should be in the top 10

Carlos Santana?

http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play?p...d=0001434348803

There are times watching this video where I literally get chills.

I like his jacket too.

DG does a hilarious prince impression.





You have no idea at Prince's guitar ability if you think that. He could very well be the best living guitar player.

god damn it still pisses me off that some crazy **** shot him

A potential top 10 imo would have to be John Mayer. For anyone who's never really heard him do anything other than his early pop stuff.

One of my favorite solos of his...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B462-3AhYYk

starts at around 6:34. It's from his Live in LA album which is full of some really excellent guitar playing and awesome muscianship overall from everyone else.

Another one...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOfCsoRlNio

really nice funky intro.

I so wanted to be a Mayer fan. Seriously. I literally wanted him to be my next favorite guitarist. And while that first solo you linked had some tasty parts, he just doesn't do it for me. Maybe if he could just figure out what he wants to be as a guitarist/performer long enough to really nail it. But he has been all over the map from pop to blues and a little R&B without really establishing something new and really groundbreaking in any of them.

Kurt Cobain would've been lucky to be in the top 10 at open mic night at the local blues bar.

I know how great of a guitarist he is...it's just that I can find 10 people better than he is.

I used to be the same way, but when I heard the John Mayer Trio album and Live from LA, I became a fan.

I suggest "buying" both of those albums and giving them a listen.

QFT. I can appreciate what he did for music, but when I think of Kurt Cobain great guitar player doesn't come to mind.

Great guitarist. I don't know if it's the genre of music he performed or what but he is always way to low on these lists.

As far as the main list is concerned not having SRV on the list is a travesty. Slash is really overated and Ramone shouldn't be in the top 50. I'm not real familiar with Malmsteem's music but Satriani would make a nice replacement.

Didn't say he was Top 10, just that he's one of my favs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifp_SVrlurY

Jesus...I had no idea he was that sick on guitar.



I can do a mean air guitar from his Abraxis and Filmore albums. More air bass, actually.