Top 10 Guitarists of All Time

Top 10 Guitarists of All Time

Written by Zeromage 125 Comments
Last Updated:: September 9, 2009

Old-Wizard’s Top 10 Guitarists of all time will not be your traditional Top Ten Guitarists of all time list. There won’t be obvious choices on here. Just because a guitarist can wank to no end doesn’t mean anything to us here at Old-Wizard. We could go into a guitar shop, turn on a Marshall Stack, plug in any guitar, and sound like we’re good wankers. So fuck the Stevie Ray Vaughn’s and Eric Clapton’s with their boring ass blues wanking. This list isn’t for the old farts whose conception of good guitar playing is limited to the most banal modes of style. This list of the more adventurous at heart who don’t hear just plain technical musicianship, but aesthetically pleasing sounding styles and innovative work that influenced guitarist past their own records. Certainly there was a history of guitar after the Blues. This list’s focus is on those great guitarists who did something else with the guitar.

10.Will Sergeant

Will Sergeant of Echo and The Bunny is an often overlooked guitarist. One listen to their album “Ocean Rain” though and one will hear some of the most innovative and neurotic guitar playing of the 80’s. His classic delay used on their previous album’s was overwhelmed by spontaneous creativity on every single song off of Ocean Rain; more specifically the song “Thorn of Crowns”. It’s hear that Sergeant matches the Voltairian madness of Ian McCulloch’s vocals delivery to a song that exists somewhere in the sadistic reaches of and 18th century romantic comedy. Beyond the brilliance of his work on Ocean Rain is his work on subsequent singles like “The Cutter”and “Lips like Sugar”. He could play pop, spontaneous guitar madness; everything under the sun but his work always sounded distinctly his own. Break out Ocean Rain to hear what creative guitar playing sounds like.

9. Noel Gallagher

Hmmm…Noel Gallagher on the greatest guitarists of all time list? Well, this is Old-Wizard’s list so we didn’t have a choice so we might as well start going into his great solos and ending it like that. First off, listen to the solo in “Live Forever“. Simple, but emotive and perfect in the context of the song. Listen to his massive amount of guitar overdubs in “D’Ya Know What I Mean”; That was certainly a new sound for the time regardless of how much someone would like to simply call it psychedelic. Listen to his hypnotic guitar lines in “Up in the Sky” and “Columbia” and one will find further evidence of a man who just had a sense for what a tune was and what a guitar needed to do to carry that tune. Alright, that’s it.

8. Jonny Greenwood

Since The Bends onwards, Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead has established himself as one of the greatest guitarists of his generation. Whether it’s in alt-rock modes like “Just” or the twiddling heard on “Paranoid Android“, Jonny Greenwood is always looking to expand the sound of the guitar, and when he couldn’t anymore he turned to the programming for his sounds. But between The Bends and Ok Computer, he exhausted all the emotion out of the guitar that there could possibly be. Beyond his actual playing is his striking sound that pierced the listeners ears especially during a solo. He moved across the fret board with a feeling of limitlessness not seen in most guitarists. His expansion of what the guitar can sound like puts him in high rank among the endless list of guitarists through the instruments history.

7. Kevin Shields

Kevin Shields, leader of shoegazing’s most coveted band My Bloody Valentine took the guitar and made it sound like something it never sounded like before. Forget the simple overdrive and sometimes guitar interplay of his “alternative-indie” contemporaries. He made the guitar sound like flowers and volcano explosions at the same time utilizing the whammy bar of a fender Jag more creatively than any guitarist before. It was with Kevin Shields that the obsession with guitar pedals became enormous for better or worse. What many people didn’t understand though was that Shields got his sound from the way he played his guitar, the way he would exaggeratedly bend notes on entire bar chords with countless amounts of amps portraying the sounds. The sound of the guitar had never seen it’s most outward limits since Kevin Shields and no one has come close since.

6. Jimmy Page

There is no guitarist with as many recognizable riffs as Jimmy Page. No matter how queer it sounds, he is the “riff master”. It would be too obvious to name the obvious songs that one recognizes immediately by his playing. Beyond his penchant for creating memorable guitar riffs though was someone who commanded the guitar itself like a toy. Watch him during the early days in the DVD “How the West was Won”. Watch his playing during “Misty Mountain Hop“. He has total control over what he’s playing that answers every musical move by the rest of the band with an ease unseen by any guitarist before or after. He just knew what to do with the guitar at every second and created memorable lines in 80% of the songs in the band. He is THE hard rock guitarist of all time.

5. John Squire

John Squire of The Stone Roses may be more recognized by “GUITARISTS!” for his second album “The Second Coming” which perfectly updated Jimmy Page’s style into a 90’s alternative sound, but it was with their debut album that John Squire will always win his legacy. Every one song on The Stone Roses debut album was sprinkled with the shine of the best Byrdsesque guitar playing and sound. When he wasn’t sprinkling sunshine on the groove of these songs, he was going to subterranean Caribbean guitar styles that took this pop music into a completely different place never occupied by pop music before. Take a listen to “Bye Bye Badman”. Listen to his solo at 3:00 minutes in and think about the style he played in the entire song before. Combining this Caribbean shuffle with guitar lines that literally sounded like a sunny day made for one of the most enjoyable guitar experiences put to record. Whatever Squire was being influenced by at the time, we were the beneficiaries

4. Jimi Hendrix

${57567E44-D460-45C2-BF06-3737EC84EEBC}_jimmy_hendrix$ What Jimi Hendrix did with the guitar influenced so many guitarists afterwards. It would take an endless amount of time to list all of them. He not only influenced guitarists who concentrated on their musicianship, but all those other guitarists who wanted bend the living shit out of the guitar string, the other guitarists who wanted to make one note sustain for five minutes, the other guitarists who wanted to combined 10 delays with 20 reverbs to see what massive sound would come out of their Marshall Stack after all this work. Hendrix epitomized a figure who influenced the most disparate amount of guitarists of all time. Think about it. What other guitarist could both influence Eric Clapton and Kevin Shields? The legacy of Jimi Hendrix is without question. You know him, you hear him, you know what he does. It’s pretty simple actually.

3. Johnny Marr

The jangly guitar is owned by Johnny Marr. Listen to the entire Smiths catalogue and at every turn you will find Marr coming up with the most creative guitar lines that was perfectly complimented by Morrissey’s idiosyncratic lyrics. But this is what makes Johnny Marr such a great guitarist. It was never just guitar wankery. Every song had to be tuneful and melodic guitar lines. Everything popped out in Johnny Marrs pop playing. Listen to “This Charming Man” and “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” to get a glimpse at the quality that Johnny Marr put into his guitar work. Every note meant something. There was no chugging or power chords; it was all just melody that never got in the way of the vocalist. This sense for restraint and melody puts Johnny Marr as one of the greatest guitarist of all time.

2. David Gilmour

One feels like a charlatan putting David Gilmour as the 2nd greatest guitarist of all time because of not including Syd Barrett with his psychedelic musings that must have influenced Gilmour. But when one listens to Gilmour, one hears a guitarist more controlled while still retaining the intensity that Syd Barrett originally brought to songs like “Astronomy Domine.” One hears this equal control and intensity in Gilmour’s guitar playing on “Meddle“, especially “Echoes” which is listed on our greatest songs of all time list. It’s hard to argue the greatness of Gilmour during the solo of Echoes. He pulls something off that’s unspeakable from any guitarist before or after. It’s unfortunate that Gilmour turned into such an average musician ‘rehashing the classics’ in his old age when he was at one time operating at such a primal level in his guitar playing. It’s hard to think of a guitarist who just understood the instrument more naturally than Gilmour.

1. Keith Richards

Keith Richards certainly wasn’t the best technical guitarist of all time but we already said in the introduction that we could care less about that. What we do know about him is that he wrote the beginning guitar line to “Gimme Shelter.” What we know is that he wrote the riff to “Brown Sugar.” What we know is what he played in “Can’t you hear me knocking.” We know how he responded to all of McJagger’s vocal lines. What we know is that we listen to him and we hear someone playing the guitar in a way that evokes more soul than any guitarist before or after. He has an instinct for knowing when to make his playing sound haunting. He has an instinct to know when to make his playing sound more raw than any player in guitar history. 2 albums; Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street. Listen to these albums, and you will hear a guitarist with the most instinctual sense for the guitar. He is the rock guitarist who matters most. The guitar was more than a guitar for Keith Richards. It became his body and something more.

Related Articles: Top 10 Songs of All Time

125 Comments

#1 REVROCK says:
March 15th, 2010 at 5:56 am

decent list… but Jimi Hendrix should have been #1

and – Page is a wanker!

#2 LEGONESFISH says:
March 15th, 2010 at 6:42 am

please get back doing your other genres of articles, they’re much better

#3 BERSERKR says:
March 15th, 2010 at 7:46 am

Decent list but if your horizons were higher it would be better, Ever here Kawabata Makoto from Acid Mothers temple? do yourself a favor and see them live. He can play every stringed instrument under the sun and then some and sometimes more than one at a time!:P

There are soooo many great guitarists out there you can’t really make a top 10 greatest of all time list, its more like a top 10 greatest guitarists that i KNOW of list:P

#4 Alex says:
March 15th, 2010 at 11:45 am

This might be the first decent music list I’ve read on this site. It would almost be perfect if you took off the #9 and #10 picks and added Duane Allman at #10 and George Harrison at #9.

#5 Alex says:
March 15th, 2010 at 11:46 am

(although I have to admit, the reasoning behind Noel Gallagher was excellent. You ALMOST made a believable case for him).

#6 Mike says:
March 15th, 2010 at 11:50 am

I really enjoyed reading this list. It was very insightful. Although a couple of the choices were preposterous (Noel Gallagher? Jonny Greenwood?) all around nice job!

#7 Angry Music Guy says:
March 15th, 2010 at 11:59 am

There are so many things wrong with this list where to start? Hm…What the hell is John Squire doing on this list? Why isn’t Jimmy Hendrix #1? Why isn’t Duane Allman on this list? What the hell is the guy from Radiohead doing here? NOEL FUCKING GALLAGHER?!!! WTF? And where’s Steve Vai, and Joe Satrianni?

#8 Dave says:
March 15th, 2010 at 12:01 pm

I’m surprised Noel isn’t #1…

#9 steve952hippie says:
March 15th, 2010 at 4:34 pm

Interesting…as mentioned above James Marshall Hendrix should always be No.1,most influential since Chuck Berry,Django Reinhardt or Leadbelly. But what about Eric Johnson or John McLaughlin. Anyway have you seen the Times Magazine Top Ten Guitarist Pole??

#10 Noel's Nose says:
March 15th, 2010 at 10:19 pm

Noel Gallagher is the greatest guitarist of all time simply based on the DLBIA solo. It’s a spiritual experience hearing it (and seeing him play) it live. Noel Gallagher is the greatest musician of all time!

#11 BERSERKR says:
March 15th, 2010 at 11:09 pm

Noel Gallagher maybe the best guitarist for those who have not heard Kawabata Makoto, i firmly believe that the more variety of music you listen too, the more you have heard, the better you will be at discerning what is good and what isn’t, same thing goes for movies ect..

#12 dood says:
March 15th, 2010 at 3:08 am

Johnny fuckin’ Marr! Nice to see him get props.

BTW – If you’re gonna take a chance and put Will Sergeant up on this list, you totally missed the boat on John McGeogh who was all kinds of awesome and an influence on at least two of the guys on this list.

#13 Bye, Oasis. says:
March 15th, 2010 at 4:49 am

This list should be called: “My top ten guitarrists of all time from my old 90´s bullshit hype.”

#14 The AI says:
March 15th, 2010 at 3:01 pm

Good list for the most part, actually. But Noel fucking Gallagher? I could attempt to play Eddie Van Halen’s Eruption with my penis and it would still sound better than Noel’s playing.

#15 Vintage Junkie says:
March 15th, 2010 at 3:43 pm

@Bye, Oasis:

You do realize that most of the guitarists on this list aren’t from the 90’s, right? God, I hope so.

#16 UP2IP2 says:
March 15th, 2010 at 11:53 pm

Im sorry im just speechless right now i cant think up of something awful and retarted to say Sorry everyone

#17 Delta says:
March 15th, 2010 at 1:44 am

UP2IP2…..

You’re speechless because it takes entirely too much brain power for you to blink and breath at the same time. You’re also incapable of drooling, blinking and breathing at once, so how many times have you gone into cardiac arrest due to brain-overload stopping your heart?

#18 Troll 4 Life says:
March 15th, 2010 at 9:04 am

I’m very glad you have Page at #6, Hendrix at #4, and Richards as #1, but the rest, nah. I’d have more vile, but this is actually better than I expected, despite my list being radically different:

10. Mick Taylor
9. Jack White
8. Chuck Berry
7. Kirk Hammet
6. Robert Johnson
5. Eric Clapton
4. Jimi Page
3. Jimi Hendrix
2. Keith Richards (Though still the best rhythm guitarist)
1. B.B. King (Seriously, if lead guitarists were videogames, that guy would be Super Maro Brothers of lead guitarists, what the hell is he doing off this list?)

#19 Troll 4 Life says:
March 15th, 2010 at 9:08 am

So fuck the Stevie Ray Vaughn’s and Eric Clapton’s with their boring ass blues wanking. This list isn’t for the old farts whose conception of good guitar playing is limited to the most banal modes of style.

What the fuck? Vaughn and Clapton could kick your ass, Zeromage, not just at guitar. 60 odd year old Eric Clapton could beat you to death with Vaughn’s bones, and not crack a sweat. You have no business writing about music if you can’t appreciate great musicians like them and put freaking Noel Gallagher on this list instead of them.

#20 Brian says:
March 15th, 2010 at 2:44 pm

Clapton sucks. Great list.

#21 P.SO The Earth Tone King says:
March 15th, 2010 at 3:54 pm

Still love how Bias this site is, it’s really entertaining. THANK YOU Troll 4 Life for creating a REAL list. Jack White, Eric Clapton and BB King definitley should be on this list. And Hendrix should be top 3

#22 UP2IP2 says:
March 15th, 2010 at 10:34 pm

Delta you fucking NIGGER asswipe DICKEATING Cock mongler dick wanking pompous motherfucker

yeah i went there

#23 UP2IP2 says:
March 15th, 2010 at 10:35 pm

And why the fuck does everything you say has to hav like a smartass word and nerdy ass comeback with no slight humor ask me why?

#24 Delta says:
March 15th, 2010 at 5:01 am

Yeah, nothing I say is funny. Your judgment sure is credible since your grammar and spelling is equivalent to that of a retarded 5 year old. You’re so fucking stupid, it’s obvious you’re an inbred pussy little bitch.

#25 UP2IP2 says:
March 15th, 2010 at 4:05 pm

Yep and you chewy santa clause’s fat hairy dick sence your a 6 your Pussy little twat

#26 BERSERKR says:
March 15th, 2010 at 8:12 pm

“This list of the more adventurous at heart who don’t hear just plain technical musicianship”

Seriously guys Listen to Acid Mothers Temple and Solo Records from the Guitarist Kawabata Makoto.

In 2000, Kawabata wrote “Music, for me, is neither something that I create, nor a form of self-expression. All kinds of sounds exist everywhere around us, and my performances solely consist of picking up these sounds, like a radio tuner, and playing them so that people can hear them.”

Definitely the best guitarist i have ever heard or seen live.

#27 BERSERKR says:
March 15th, 2010 at 8:24 pm

An Example of his Majesty if you can sit through it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ikc9GeD61kw&feature=related

#28 BERSERKR says:
March 15th, 2010 at 8:39 pm

They are definitely not for everyone, only the more musically enlightened:P:P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhA-YJm7JxI&feature=related

#29 Delta says:
March 15th, 2010 at 8:44 pm

UP2IP2…..

Well they say you are what you eat, but don’t forget that you should be calling me your mom’s pussy. And since you are what you eat, that makes you a huge serving of snasauge with a gallon of man-milk. You love it thick and all over your face, then wipe it off with your hands and guzzle it best you can.

You really are a sick, somehow less than worthless piece of shit. Fagot.

#30 Amrllica says:
March 15th, 2010 at 11:14 pm

Good List yet you seem overlooked few of the greats like Yngwie Malmsteen

#31 UP2IP2 says:
March 15th, 2010 at 1:33 am

lolwut?

#32 UP2IP2 says:
March 15th, 2010 at 1:34 am

Anyways delta i just fucking with you man why you have to be so serious =\

#33 Delta says:
March 15th, 2010 at 8:27 am

Since you didn’t get it UP2IP2, I had said you were a huge dick and a gallon of semen.

#34 BERSERKR says:
March 15th, 2010 at 8:58 am

I guess no one here actually cares about good music, just arguing:P

#35 George says:
March 15th, 2010 at 9:21 am

Fuck you, Zeromage. Clapton and Vaughn are GODS. Whenever you see lightning fall from the sky, that’s just Vaughn up in heaven playing a killer riff. What the fuck is Noel Gallagher doing here? And while I recognize that no one could put out a “Top Guitarist” list without leaving out someone important, the glaring absences of some of the greatest of all time (Chuck Berry) are, quite simply, disgusting.

Although I have to say, Keith Richards is the king of the guitar, that call put this list significantly above many of your music lists in my standing.

#36 UP2IP2 says:
March 15th, 2010 at 12:35 am

Cant we all be friends

#37 BERSERKR says:
March 15th, 2010 at 1:26 am

Maybe if everyone would listen to Acid Mothers Temple together it would bring peace……at least the mellow stuff:P

#38 Bronsonman says:
March 15th, 2010 at 3:24 am

Don’t venture too far out of the Britpop do we? The list is ultimate fail for having NONE of the traditional bluesmen. Someone mentioned BB King and you could at least have him, but seriously how about Robert Johnson, Leadbelly, Bo Diddly. You may not realize it, but those fuckers could wield an axe and Blues is much harder to play than the 4 chord bullshit mostly presented here, especially considering that the blues guys played the rhythm and the lead on one goddamn guitar at the same time by using their thumbs and their fingers to play different parts of the song. Also Chuck Berry pretty much invented Rock N Roll so he’s automatic.

#39 big guns says:
March 15th, 2010 at 2:31 pm

Base on how list was made I think Hendrix should be number 1.

#40 Brad says:
March 15th, 2010 at 6:00 am

Worst list of guitarists I’ve ever read. Keith Richards is a complete talentless hack who has as much business being called a musician as monkey crap has of being called cheesecake.

Whoever wrote this list has absolutely no taste or knowledge of music whatsoever! Why they are in charge of writing music lists completely eludes me.

I mean, Page, Hendrix and Gilmour are the only DECENT guitarists on this list! None of them even deserve to be on any sort of “top ten guitarists” list.

#41 TP says:
March 15th, 2010 at 8:32 pm

BB King
Eric Clapton
Steve Vai
George Harrison
Yngwie Malmsteen
Duane Allman (great call, whoever put that up there)
Eddie Van Halen (used to have to turn around so people couldn’t figure out how he was making the noises with his guitar)

#42 Amanda says:
March 15th, 2010 at 8:43 pm

There’s no excuse why JIMI shouldn’t be #1- always!!! I agree- keith richards is a complete talentless prick aswell.
Yeah i love oasis and everything, but noel should not be up there- not even in the top 100.

Eddie Van Halen should of at least had a mention- espesially if noel is up there – Yeah i love oasis and everything, but noel should not be up there- not even in the top 100.

And “troll 4 life” your list is just as wank – Jack white, seriously????? NOOO!! Yeh i agree with clapton tho.

#43 else3573 says:
March 15th, 2010 at 6:05 am

hahaha!!!Noel Gallagher??? You guys are REALLY stretching to include Oasis in EVERYTHING. How bout Oasis as the best hip hop group of all time?? Or thrash metal? Or ska?? Be realistic fellas, Hendirx is number 1, and you left off some of the all time greats like Joey Satriani, Steve Vai, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Yngvie Malmsteen (spelling?) Chet Atkins, Eric Clapton, Randy Rhoads, Vernon Reed, etc.

#44 else3573 says:
March 15th, 2010 at 6:17 am

I see the preface where you were leaving off Clapton and SRV, Fine, but Satriani is arguably the most technically proficient guitarist alive. Also, the guy from Dinosaur jr. (can’t recall his name, but he’s an amazing guitarist)

#45 Gyb says:
March 15th, 2010 at 11:22 am

I’d vote for my guru, actually, if there were something like a poll for this. Like Berserkr said, there are just too many good guitarists out there…including me…*ouchieeee*…

#46 lola says:
March 15th, 2010 at 3:20 pm

I believe truly that Jimi Hendrix should be 1 and I think that Keith Richards should be 2 only playing with Mick Jagger as they are as one.

#47 avi says:
March 15th, 2010 at 9:36 pm

i’ll comment on what i can.
9.Noel Gallagher-I think I might be one of the few people who agree with this choice, really i actually think he is an amazing guitarist.
8.Johnny Greenwood-this is the only one i truly disagree with, cmon guys, i love radiohead, but Johnny doesn’t belong here-not even top 100.
7.Kevin Shields-I completely agree! I think she should be higher!
6.Jimi Page-a pretty good choice, would honestly place him a bit lower though.
5.John Squire-good choice, my favorite stone rose-mind you, that’s not saying much.
4.Jimi Hendrix-it’s hard to imagine a top 10 guitarists without him.
1.Keith Richards-YES! he is definitely the best guitarist ever!
overall, the best music list on the site. Johnny Greenwood shouldn’t be on there, and you should definitely add Joe Satriani and Duane Allman, but otherwise, nice.

#48 Mullet2dmax says:
March 15th, 2010 at 5:14 pm

“The Top Ten Shoegazer/Hipster/Riff-licker Guitarists that Zeromage thinks are Awesome” EH… Ya know what though, the list is not half bad. I find Will Sergeant an interesting choice. In the search for Guitar Idols, I always thought of him as an attainable aspiration in his TALENTED amateurism. BUt Jimmy Hendrix should be # 1 only because everyone else made such a buttload of crappy nonhits while Jimmy Hendrix has the highest hit ratio… cause he died. THANX Fer no Brown SOund!!!

#49 Alien Person says:
March 15th, 2010 at 5:57 am

Where, exactly, is Buckethead?

#50 Michaela(Paul's wife) says:
March 15th, 2010 at 2:33 am

Where the FUCK is Pete Townshend?
he is the best.. ever.
you’re a fucktard.
oh yeah, and if you’re actually going to put up things like this, you might wanna make them accurate, not just your own fucking opinion.

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Top 10 Guitarists of All Time

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