I’m not someone who’s really into guitar wankery or skill for skill’s sake so you won’t see Joe Satriani or Yngwie Malmsteen on my list. My favorite guitarists tend to be dudes that get a bit experimental with the sounds they get out of the guitar not guys who like to show how many different scales they can run through in 8 seconds. I just don’t understand that sort of musical masturbation. It totally misses what music is about to me. I’m not saying I can’t appreciate a good guitar solo, I can get down. But it’s got to be something that moves the imagination and not just something that shows off how fast they can move their fingers.

So without further ado, my 10 favorite guitarists (in no particular order.)

Frank Zappa

Zappa was a madman. He was a technically brilliant guitarist but more important to me, he had an incredible amount of imagination and more than a small experimental streak.

“Stinkfoot” solo live:

Syd Barrett

I chose Syd almost entirely on the strength of his playing in “Interstellar Overdrive” which may be my favorite psychedelic instrumental of all time. Barrett is great example of what I mean when I say I value imagination over technical skill as he was not a particular great guitarist by any standard evaluation but there are more cool guitar ideas in “Interstellar Overdrive” than most ’shredders’ have in their whole careers. Barrett’s playing on the first Pink Floyd album (The Piper at the Gates of Dawn) I think was extremely influential to experimental guitar playing that has come since (including a lot of David Gilmour’s work when he replaced him.)

“Interstellar Overdrive” live in 1966:

Part 1

Part 2

Jonny Greenwood

Greenwood is Radiohead’s lead guitarist and he is responsible for a lot of Radiohead’s sound. I like him so much as a guitarist because of the unique sounds he gets out of his guitar. Again it’s not just the notes he plays, it’s the sound he creates. I’d also like to point out that Greenwood is more than “just a guitarist.” He writes a lot of the music for Radiohead and his solo album Bodysong is quite an incredible piece of work (it’s the soundtrack to a documentary by the same name.) He also wrote the music for the movie There Will Be Blood.

“Paranoid Android” is one of the best examples of Greenwood’s skills on the guitar so I’m including a live performance of it below.

“Paranoid Android” live in 2003:

Jimi Hendrix

What kind of list would this be without Jimi? Everyone knows that Hendrix was an incredible guitarist but again, as the theme of my list seems to be, it’s not his technical skill that interests me. It’s the otherworldly sounds that he was able to coax out of it. And it’s also the passion that he got out of it. I’ve heard many covers of Hendrix’s songs that sound like a piece of plastic, but when he played them they were alive.

“Machine Gun” live in 1970:

Neil Young

I love Young’s guitar solos. He’s often thought of as an acoustic strummer but he could/can kill it on lead guitar too.

“Cortez the Killer” live:

David Gilmour

Gilmour can do more with one note than a dude like Eddie Van Halen can do with 100. Gilmour’s guitar solos are among the most evocative I’ve ever heard. Maybe evocative is not a strong enough word. Some of his solos are a lot like the aural equivalent of an orgasm. Yeah, I think that’s strong enough. With Gilmour, it’s not just a bunch of notes, it’s a story being told. You close your eyes and you take the journey, of course it helps a lot if you’ve recently eaten some mushrooms.

“Comfortably Numb” live in 1980:

Dean Ween

First of all let me get this straight: Ween are not a “joke” band. Dean Ween is one of the best guitarists around. I’ve included a live version of “Captain” below which seems fitting enough after talking about David Gilmour as this is definitely Ween doing their best Pink Floyd impression.

“Captain” live in 2007:

Pete Townshend

The sound The Who got out of just three instruments is incredible. The bass (John Entwistle), the drums (Keith Moon), and of course the guitar (Pete Townshend) were all an equal part of that sound which I think is what makes it so powerful. They were one of the greatest live bands of all time. I’m including a clip from their live album Live at Leeds below as I think it’s the best live album ever.

“Young Man Blues” in 1970:

Ronald Jones

Ronald Jones was the Flaming Lips’ guitarist when they recorded their best guitar based albums in the 1990s (Clouds Taste Metallic for a good example.) Like most of the guitarists on this list he’s here more for the sound he got out of the guitar than his technical ability (although he had that as well.) The Flaming Lips were (and still are) one of the most creative original bands around and Jones had a great deal to do with that during the first half of the 90s (before he left the band due to personal issues.)

“The Process” live in 1993:

George Harrison

Being the huge Beatles fan that I am I have to include George Harrison. He’s not often mentioned when talking about the greatest guitar players but his melodic riffs and solos are a big part of what made the Beatles greatest band of all time.

One of my favorite Harrison guitar solos is the one he played on “Let it Be” so I’m including a live version of it below.

“Let it Be” live (in the studio) in 1969:

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