Top 10 Guitarists of All Time

Top 10 Guitarists of All Time

Written by Zeromage 126 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

126 Comments

#1 The Author is Gay says:
March 16th, 2010 at 7:34 pm

This author is gay!

#2 Chris says:
March 16th, 2010 at 11:15 pm

Keith is a damn good guitarist, but technicality is dominated by metel, which is a music forum seemingly not known to Old Wizards…

#3 parker says:
March 16th, 2010 at 7:37 pm

Any top guitarist list without the name Derek Trucks on it loses credibility pretty quickly.

#4 The Author is Gay and a Moron says:
March 16th, 2010 at 9:38 pm

This author is gay and a moron! Listen to any modern metal band and you’ll find yourself a great guitarist. Just because they were popular guitarists doesn’t make them the best; actually having the most skill at playing guitar will, though. Listen to any of the following and you’ll see what I mean:

Kirk and James of Metallica (should have been in your list, by the way)

Trivium

All That Remains

Shadows Fall

Unearth

#5 Luskar says:
March 16th, 2010 at 3:07 pm

If you want to take out the Blues guitarist, you have to take out Hendrix, Page and even Richards to.

For a ‘out of the box’ list, those are way too commun.

For a ‘no blues’ list, you should at least have John McLaughlin and Tom Morello.

#6 Matt says:
March 16th, 2010 at 7:27 am

Dude: Steven Wilson

#7 Cody says:
March 16th, 2010 at 8:51 am

i agree if you dont want blues guitarist take out page hendrix and especially richards. and if you let those three in you should have put angus young in there he isnt technical and plays with feeling and was also self taught he cant even read music. and he can play it all while spinning around on the ground

#8 Rodrigo says:
March 16th, 2010 at 5:10 pm

Whatt?????? No Joe Satriani or Eddie Van Halen.. you’re out of your mind!!!!

#9 The Rabbit says:
March 16th, 2010 at 6:54 pm

There they go! Every time someone starts talking about guitarists, a white man has gotta pull a Keith Richards out their ass! Thats their one! Thats their one! Keith Richards! Keith Richards! Let me tell you something once and for all! Keith Richards is good, but compared to Chuck Berry? Keith Richards ain’t shit!

I mean, even Keith Richards admitted that he took every riff and lick from Chuck Berry!

Normally I’d consider this a crappy list but the fact that Johnny Marr is recognized for his incredible talent and bastards like Yngwie Malmsteen are off is amazing as it is, good job Old-Wizard.

#10 George says:
March 16th, 2010 at 8:30 pm

Enough of the Yngwie Malmsteen should be here crap, yeah, he’s a technical genius, and can play with the best of them, but he’s never once found a proper songwriter to build his craft. Keith Richards may play 100 times slower than him, but Richards guitar songs are 10,000 times better than Malmsteen’s.

#11 Noah says:
March 16th, 2010 at 3:55 am

I must be blind, I mean I thought I read it right, no Duane Allman?!?!

#12 simoniff says:
March 16th, 2010 at 11:16 pm

i agree with the person who noticed a lack of metal on this list, but again, zeromage is drawn to a very specific sort of music, as evidenced by almost every article on music that he writes here. oh well, its his damn website, his damn perogative. i do, however, completely agree with david gilmour, except that he should have been number one.

#13 ST says:
March 16th, 2010 at 3:36 am

Just off the top of my head what about these guys?????

Yngwie Malmsteen – no offense to the ignoramuses that posted eariler, but he is probably the best ever – as of today.
Chuck Berry
Dominic Frasca
Joe Satriani
Django Reinhardt
Les Paul
John Petrucci
Phil Keaggy
Eddie Van Halen

#14 vule says:
March 16th, 2010 at 3:02 pm

Jimi Hendrix is the first guitar in the world.

#15 Dear The Author is Gay and a Moron says:
March 16th, 2010 at 6:12 pm

hahahahahahahahahahaha…i can’t believe your chocie for good guitarists

#16 Zootoxin says:
March 16th, 2010 at 4:17 pm

I think the list is meant to higlight guitarists working as part of the band.

Not being singular in context.

Many of the metal guitarists are extremely gifted but will the stand the test of time?

I think thats the idea anyway.

I would have included Gary Moore and Slash though.

#17 Nora says:
March 16th, 2010 at 5:42 pm

Any such list without Duane Allman is meaningless. He was simply the best. Ever. Happy Birthday and Wailon, Skydog!

#18 babu says:
March 16th, 2010 at 6:01 pm

f..k oll!!! where is eddie van halen supeeeer!!!!!! eddie eddie eddie

#19 babu says:
March 16th, 2010 at 6:03 pm

eddie is best guitarist oll time

#20 Rooti says:
March 16th, 2010 at 3:09 am

Tal Morris—When I saw him play, I just knew he was the most awesome guitar player I had ever seen. If he plays a woman like he plays guitar—OMG!

#21 George says:
March 16th, 2010 at 12:53 pm

Wizard, what the fuck do you know about anything?

#22 Anonymous says:
March 16th, 2010 at 11:25 pm

Its hard ,almost impossible, to do a top 10 list of the best guitarist that includes everyone of importance, but seriously Ritchie Blackmore should be up there surely.

#23 The List Author Hasn't a clue And Probably Isn't Very Good At Technical Guitar Playing says:
March 16th, 2010 at 7:28 pm

These are in no particular order. I don’t think there is a best overall guitarist because they all play different styles. If there was someone who mastered every style of guitar playing then they could be called the best but as it stands there is only people who are the best at there style of playing. People who should be in the top 20 are people like:

Satriani
Vai
Malmsteen
Van Halen
Nuno Bettencourt
Tommy Emmanuel
Jimi Hendrix
Robert Johnson
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Ry Cooder
Randy Rhoads
Paul Gilbert
Petrucci
Clapton
Jeff Beck
Gary Moore
Frank Zappa
David Gilmour
Mark Knopfler
Angus Young

Polls or votes are just opinions on a persons preference to music The list author has clearly and ignorantly gone from preference not overall ability). People will say Slash is the best because they like Guns ‘N’ Roses or Hendrix because they don’t really have a clue. Hendrix was the best but many guitarists have far surpassed him. I think of the guitarists above as some of the best in the world, especially people like Satriani and Vai, there both advanced virtuoso rock instrumentalists and Satriani taught Vai and Kirk Hammet

#24 Noah says:
March 16th, 2010 at 3:34 am

Still no Duane Allman in anyones lists? Are you people crazy!

#25 ANjim says:
March 16th, 2010 at 6:35 am

Wtf ? man ????
No alexi laiho no John Petruchi no steve vai !
The author sounds like a homo ! WHo has no idea abt Music ! JACK ASS !@

#26 Troll 4 Life says:
March 16th, 2010 at 5:50 am

Just update the site. We all know you’re just aching to do a greatest singers of all time list so you can put Liam Fucking Gallagher at number 1.

Hurry up and do it, so I can complain about it.

#27 ShadowHunter says:
March 16th, 2010 at 6:23 am

Where the fuck is Angus Young? Remove Gallagher and add Angus god dammit.

#28 BERSERKR says:
March 16th, 2010 at 9:30 am

@The Author is Gay and a Moron

There are FAR better examples of today’s metal than

Trivium

All That Remains

Shadows Fall

Unearth

Those are some of the more well known kinda mainstreemy of modern metal, lets dig a little deeper for some better example such as..

Nevermore

Opeth

Amon Amarth

Enslaved

The list goes on

#29 George says:
March 16th, 2010 at 5:11 am

Jesus Christ, I’ve seen a ton of recomendations for metal bands on here, but have any of you retards actually bothered to learn who plays guitar for Opeth or All That Remains? Fuck no.

The best guitarist isn’t the fastest, the first, or the smartest, they’re just the best.

#30 avi says:
March 16th, 2010 at 5:23 pm

10.George Harrison (The Beatles)
9.Chuck Berry
8.Robert Johnson
7.Eddie Van Halen (Van Halen)
6.Stevie Ray Vaughn
5.B.B. King
4.Keith Richards (The Rolling Stones)
3.Joe Satrianni
2.Jimi Hendrix (The Jimi Hendrix Experience)
1.Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin)

#31 Furyof5 says:
March 16th, 2010 at 7:31 pm

KIETH RICHARDS OVER JIMMY FUCKING HENDRIX?!!! ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?!!!

Dude you need to stop writing these top 10 articles NOW.

Jimmy Hendrix is the greatest guitarist EVER. This man invented the majority of guitar theory, techniques, and revolutionized the art 10 times over, and the fact that this man was only 27 shows how godly he was.

He is a hell of a lot better than Marr, Gilmore, or Richards.

Berserkr:You have some awesome taste in music there man

#32 BERSERKR says:
March 16th, 2010 at 10:08 am

@ Geeorge

Mikael Akerfeldt is the main man and main guitar player of Opeth, i have met the man twice, so no i am not a retard.

#33 ShadowHunter says:
March 16th, 2010 at 4:06 pm

Where is Van Halen?

#34 Furyof5 says:
March 16th, 2010 at 6:46 pm

Another great example ShadowHunter, Zero seems biases against most American guitarists, at least the good ones, just read his other top lists of music, theyre simply abhorrent

#35 BERSERKR says:
March 16th, 2010 at 9:06 pm

Zero’s Guitar tastes are pretty Emo lame except for the classics of course.

#36 Alberto says:
March 16th, 2010 at 10:22 pm

What? no Joe Satriani?

And You have Noel Gallagher?

Some list shoud be called

MY 10 FAVORITES BY ZEROMAGE

Wait and what happen to classic guitar, Are those not considered guitarrist?

#37 Furyof5 says:
March 16th, 2010 at 11:14 pm

Zero really has shit taste in music, he should be allowed to do these posts. It seems you guys should do it from now on, as you actually have good taste in music lol

#38 Alberto says:
March 16th, 2010 at 1:51 am

We should give Zero a lot of credit, All the work in the OW is made by the staff for free.

FOR FREE, WE USUALLY DISAGREE, BUT I THANK HIM FOR RUN A PLACE WHERE I CAN GO VENT ALL OF MY NERD FRUSTATTIONS

Thank you OW staff

#39 BERSERKR says:
March 16th, 2010 at 1:56 am

Ya he may not have the greatest taste, but i still like the guy and OW

#40 Furyof5 says:
March 16th, 2010 at 2:55 am

Very true

#41 ShadowHunter says:
March 16th, 2010 at 6:07 am

You know who I would add to the list? It’s my opinion : Johnny Cash. That’s my favourite singer of all time and even guitarist. He wasn’t doing the same kind of music then Keith, Van, Jimi , etc… Still, he managed to get popular in a very hard domain (I’m not even talking about the life he had).

#42 TheWarfreak says:
March 16th, 2010 at 4:00 pm

No Van Halen? He’s the shit.

#43 fishyfis says:
March 16th, 2010 at 8:42 am

For my tastes Chris Oliver shouldve been on the list. One of the most under rated guitarists ever. Some of his work on Gutter Ballet is awesome. Well, most of his work is great, but thats a stand out album in regards to guitar. Randy Rhodes is another I’d have liked to have seen, as is Alex Skolnik (Satriani’s most talented student in my opinion (Vai is good, but boring, same ol’ wanky crap over and over)).

#44 fishyfis says:
March 16th, 2010 at 9:38 am

For my tastes Chris Oliver is one of the most under rated guitarists ever, and should make any top 10 list that has to do with guitarists. His work on Gutter Ballet is awesome (other stuff is good, but for me that album is a standout for guitar playing). Other notable omissions are Randy Rhodes and Alex Skolnick (the best of Satrianis students in my opinions (Vai is technically good, but boring as mud with the same wankery year after year).

#45 fishyfis says:
March 16th, 2010 at 9:41 am

Oops, sorry about posting twice. Wrote the 1st one about an hour ago and after refreshing the page a number of times it still hadnt updated. It only did so after I rewrote and posted my original opinions.

#46 George says:
March 16th, 2010 at 11:29 pm

@Berserkr

I just want to make sure that you’re not one of those idiots that doesn’t even know the names of their favorite guitarists, such as the thousands of retarded 15 year olds who have one song on their iPod (“Through the Fire and the Flames”), and then says that they’re a great guitarist.

I still despise Zeromage’s list, just as I know I will hate his inevitable “Top 10 Singers” list. And even though there are a lot of acoustic guitarists (Michael Hedges, Tommy Emmanuel, Adrian Legg, Chet Atkins) and jazz legends (Joe Pass, Herb Ellis, Charlie Chirstian, Wes Montgomery, John McLaughlin) that have failed to be mentioned, I’ll focus on rockers for simplicity, and prove Zeromage is an idiot.
10. Prince, I think this clip speaks for itself.
9. Keith Richards, a riff legend, but he still behind these others. But the man made me pick up a guitar, he’s an inspiration.
8.Rhandy Rhodes, vastly underrated, incorporates classical playing into rock like no other, if he lived, he’d be here on everyone’s list.
7. Slash, the reason that retard Axl had a career, he has the best vibratto of any player since B.B. King, and is truly a worthy successor to him if you ask me. It’s great that a black man finally got to steal white music (heavy metal) for a change, and make it better even.
6. Duane Allman, died at 24, and the man already figured out how to make the guitar sing. No artist has ever made the guitar sound so beautiful.
5. Kirk Hammett, shut up, Metallica haters, he’s not only the only one in the band who’s not an asshole, mentally impaired, or dead, he’s helped to create the greatest works in metal history since Led Zeppelin broke up. Pay your respects.
4. Jimi Hendrix, if only he hadn’t died, he’d be even higher, but no one can deny his ability.
3. David Gilmour, you win this one, Zeromage, I cannot deny his power.
2.Alex Lifeson, no guitarist has ever done more only to be denied the spotlight. He has tons of discipline to let his guitar not crowd out Neil Peart and Geddy Lee, and his solos are the stuff of legend, not to mention his whammy bar technique on songs like “Red Sector A.”
1. Jimmy Page, yeah lots of guys are faster, but he’s still the best. He has so many great riffs, I could have placed an HTML to any Zeppelin song, and it would still be excellent.

#47 ShadowHunter says:
March 16th, 2010 at 11:37 pm

George : It’s Throught the fire fire and flames.

#48 ShadowHunter says:
March 16th, 2010 at 11:39 pm

Throught the fire and flames*

#49 Furyof5 says:
March 16th, 2010 at 11:50 pm

Lmao, has anyone actually seen Herman Li and DragonForce Live? They are horrible. They had a live performance on G4 once and they were totally out of tune and Sam Toteman fell over, the hosts were trying everything in their power to not burst out laughing.

#50 Lee says:
March 16th, 2010 at 12:28 am

George:

Your list is even worse than Old-Wizard’s. Prince? You can’t be serious. Slash? Kirk Hammett? WTF?

Here’s my list of top 10 guitarists of all time:

1. Hendrix
2. David Gilmore
3. Satriani
4. Steve Vai
5. Jimmy Page
6. Keith Richards
7. SRV
8. George Harrison
9. John Petrucci
10. Eric Clapton

« Older Comments

Newer Comments »

Top 10 Guitarists of All Time

126 Comments

Leave a Comment