Dean, you should definitely check Les Paul out, if you visit NYC. I had the opportunity to see him about 1998 or so, and it was definitely a great experience. He is a superb player, and he puts on a great show at the Iridium.

Les Paul is way too low, and they have Eddie Van Halen clear down at #70!?! The guy re-wrote the textbook on rock guitar only rates #70?

Kurt Cobain at #12?

The list is a travesty, I tell you.

That list borders on the moronic. Its based on name recognition and not talent. Its so bad it made me angry.

mpolitics & Andrew:

I completely agree. This list maybe qualifies as a "most famous rock guitarists, but lacks many of the best technicians.

Jack White above Eddie Van Halen? Surely they copied this list down from "The Onion."

Joni Mitchell?

Danny Gatton is way below where he should be, and Duane Eddy and Junior Brown belong on the list.

I didn't realize that John Fahey played electric guitar, but if we were rating these people for talent on the acoustic guitar I would move him and Jorma Kaukonnen near the top.

Kurt Cobain? Kurt Cobain???

Bleh.

My list:

Michael Gurley of Dada
Bernard Butler, formerly of Suede
Doug Martsch of Build to Spill

I see I have been proceeded! :)

Putting Kurt NoBrain on ANY "best" list (aside, perhaps, from best-medicated) decends into farce.

Putting him at #12, and Carlos Santana at #15 is absurd.

Some other Real Bad Selections include:
Johnny Ramone
John Frusicante
The Edge
Tom Morello

Some Good Selections that should have been rated WAY higher:
Santana
Frank Zappa
John McLaughlin
Ritchie Blackmore
Dickie Betts
Vernon Reid (DEFINITELY should be in the top 20)
Steve Howe

Artists They Forgot:
(ok, have a question, here: we are limiting this to electric, right!?)
Robert Cray
Jeff Healy
Jerry Reed
Al DiMeola
Gary Moore
Phil Collen
Jim Messina
John Lee Hooker

Ara: Joni is an excellent acoustic guitarist. Maybe they rated her on her rare electric performances? Dunno...

Oh, almost forgot God, himself: Chet Atkins. :)

Does anyone else remember in about 1989, when Spin still used its sarcastic edge to intensify its love for music rather than as a too-cool-for-you tactic, its throwaway list of the 100 Best Guitarists? It had the usual berserk point system: being dead gets you so many points, playing jazz or even trying to play jazz gets you docked so many points, marrying Valerie Bertinelli gets you docked several hundred points. And of course, the list itself was about as good as any of the poker-faced ones.

Whoever made the list, I guess is not a guitar player himself/herself. orif it was a committee decision, they decided to rank them based on how recognised or how "cool" the guitarist in question was/is. there are so many names that were left out, that this list makes absolutely no sense to guitar freaks like me!!!

Alex Lifeson isn't even on it.
Madness, complete madness.
And to miss Chet Atkins!
Sorry, RS, try again.

I have seen about 30 of the top 100 in concert; the best on this list that I've seen in SRV - hands down. Hell, B.B. King stated matter of factly that SRV was well beyond himself.

Regardless, none on this list can touch Pat Metheny, who didn't even make the list. Oh well, opinions, just like a-holes...we've all got'em.

Tim the Soldier

I always thought Pat Metheny was just a pleasant-sounding noodler until I heard his recording of Steve Reich's "Electric Counterpoint."

And no Adrian Belew on that list? The man's an incredible player. There's a story, possibly apocryphal, about how Belew ended up a member of King Crimson. Seems he worshipped Robert Fripp's guitar playing and had after weeks of pratice, had succeeded in mastering some fiendishly difficult bit of music from a Crimson track. He then ambushed Fripp at a music trade show, told him he'd finally figured out how he'd played the tricky part, and when Fripp said "Okay, let's hear it," strapped on a guitar and played the bit flawlessly. Fripp stared at him for a moment and then finally admitted, "Actually, I multitracked that -- it's three separate parts." And so Belew was invited to join the new incarnation of King Crimson.

Hi Dean,

I only had a limited amount of time with Mr. Paul, before his 8:30 show at the Iridium, and I had to divide my time between the material that ended up in Blogcritics, and questions about the Gibson Les Paul Custom guitar (which became part of an article that ran in Vintage Guitar magazine). Believe me, there were dozens and dozens of questions I would have loved to ask him!

Glad you liked the piece, though. And yes, everyone should see Les at the Iridium in New York--he's a national treasure!

Ed

Any list that doesn't include Charlie Christian, the man how invented the solo style of playing the modern electric guitar, highlights a lack of historical context so profound as to render the list meaningless.

Also to mention the rockers who have no historical or stylistic contributions to the art like Joan Jett, Lou Reed, Tony Iommi, Ritchie Blackmore, Angus Young, Glen Buxton and a number of others is weak as well. Also there are a number of people you could list as being influential artists that were really good guitarists but should not really be in the pantheon of all time great guitarists, Frank Zappa is a notable in this regard as he mentioned himself several times in interviews that his guitar paying was derivative, his music was not however.

There are some many of the great studio players that had such an influence on an entire generation of music across all genres that make this list pretty weak. God how can you leave off Carl Perkins, Cheat Atkins, Steve Vie or even Peter Frampton for that matter?

But Les Paul makes the list in any case.

BTW the Les Paulverizer was a tape looping, device(think of a portable mellotron), by todays standards pretty primitive, at the time revolutionary.

From what I've seen, Rick, the Les Paulverizer is still in regular use by Les Paul, and, everything I've seen on the subject to date says that no one's yet been able to figure out quite how it works. If you've seen it in action and seen him explain how it works, it seems to be something more sophisticated than a tape looping device--and he still steadfastly refuses to release the design.

Actually I got that quote from a interview with him in Guitar player magazine. As to how it works, sure it's still his secret.

I have not payed a professional gig in about 15 years, so i'm not up on the state of art in guitar gizmos, but I'm sure there has to be similar devices that do the same thing digitally. In fact, Todd Rundgren used a device that did the same thing only he was playing a keyboard and that was in 1991 when I saw him.

> Kurt Cobain at #12?

My thoughts exactly. Sure, the guy had influence and came from my in-law's little town, but no way should he be in the top 15 while Joe Satriani and Phil Keaggy aren't even listed.

> 37 Bod Diddley

Is that Bo's buff little brother?

Chet Atkins, CGP, of course
And whattabout
JJ Cale
Albert Collins
Roy Clark another CGP
Skunk Baxter (Did he do the lick on Bhodisattva?)
and personally I like Buck Dharma, but don't know if he fits.

Skunk and Denny Diaz did the duet on Bodhisattva. Which brings us to Rick Derringer, who's not always melodic but always aligned to the song.

Somebody already mentioned Phil Keaggy. How about Robin Trower? Amoz Garrett (remember Midnight at the Oasis)? John Hall and the crew from Orleans? Electric guitar isn't always about flash.

Another superb guitarist who plays anything from Bulgarian folk to progressive rock (and sometimes combines the two) is Dave Beegle. Dave and Rick Derringer both appear on the new blues rock CD from the Glenn Kaiser Band.

Like you better buy my next movie.....who wants a piece of me?