The greatest exponent of...the electric guitar

It’s clips like that one of Peter Green that clarifies with thousands of guitarists all over the world that they are in fact not guitarists.

Just when you think you are getting somewhere he shows you how far you still have to go.

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would be easier to write a top 5 and even that would be nearly impossible

I have had many favourites over the years but the one I keep going back to is Steve Howe. For his work with Yes alone he is a giant amongst plank spankers but he has also had a career with Asia as well as producing many solo albums. He started out with a psychodelic band called Toomorrow and they had a hit with My White Bicycle. When Keith Emerson broke up The Nice and was looking for a guitarist he asked Steve Howe to joing him in ELP. Steve Howe chose Yes instead and as they say, the rest is history. He wasnt the guitar hero of the day type player. His style wasnt so much the Blues as Jazz, Classical, Ragtime, Folk all mixed up. He rarely played the usual guitars of the 60s and 70s (Gibson Les Paul/Fender Statocaster etc) but prefered the hollow body guitars of Gibson and Gretch. He also used the peddle steel to greta effect on tracks like And You And I. He took the art of playing guitar to another level in Yes as can be evidenced on The Gates of Delerium, a 20 minute plus epic that blows you away with it power only to fade out with a beautiful and peace coda, the song Soon. Prog Rock isnt everyones cup of tea, but for a period in nthe early to mid 70s it pushed the boundaries of what was possible in rock/contempory music and left us with some modern classics. If you were putting together a best of Prog band, you would have to have Steve Howe and Robert Fripp on guitars. Steve gets my nod over Robert simply because he defines the sound of his band.

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If you have 20 minutes to spare, give this a listen. Steve Howe at his best.

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OK - let me introduce you to certainly the best current working guitarist and I think worth consideration as the best ever:

Guthrie Govan

Who? I hear the majority ask - well Wiki can save me a lot of typing here.

He is a master of any genre, has been at the top of his game for 25 years, a teacher, session man, band member, and the ‘virtuoso’s virtuoso’. Bit of a hippy but there you go.

He is currently touring with Hans Zimmer (and Johnny Marr!) playing orchestral music.

Guthrie Govan - the best guitarist you never heard of.

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Some wonderful ethereal peddle steel from Steve Howe takes this song to another plain.

I was there that night. If I could play guitar I would like to play it like this guy…

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Tom Morello.

One of my favourite bands growing up were Rage Against the Machine. Was always listening to them at home and on the old Sony Walkman on the school bus.

Tom Morello’s sound/sound effects were the first time I can recall hearing something a bit ‘different’. It all sounded slightly experimental, though always provided a wow factor when listening.

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Loved Tom Morello’s work on Springsteen’s The Ghost of Tom Joad.

Hendrix.

No explanation needed.

Originally posted by @Rallyboy

Hendrix.

No explanation needed.

Who?

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Originally posted by @Lets-B-Drinking

Originally posted by @Rallyboy

Hendrix.

No explanation needed.

Who?

That would be Pete Townsend

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Good shout!

Just watched Springsteen and Morello perform Ghost of Tom Joad at Madison Square Garden. Epic!

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There are so many possible choices for this accolade. Most of them, though, are very much lead guitarists. Nothing wrong with that in itself, but it does rather ignore the other side of electric guitar playing. And you can certainly make the case that the electric guitar is first and foremost an instrument for artisans, an accompanying instrument.

So, enough of the tricksy-wicksy lead stuff, twenty-minute solos and all that bollocks. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the late, great Johnny Ramone

It might sound easy, but try doing it. Then try doing it on stage for a couple of hours, non stop. That buzz saw sound is a lot harder to achieve than you might think. And, of course, it sounds fucking wonderful. You can keep your solos and twiddles.

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Bletch :laughing:

Jonny Marr was only 17 when he wrote This Charming Man

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Interesting that Clapton’s name used to be “God” but he seems to be a mere mortal nowdays.

I don’t think their should be competition in artistic processes though.

I agree totally. Different people react to different things in different ways. We are just so lucky to have so much choice! It is interesting to get people’s opinions but at the end of the day, its what turns us on is all that matters.

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I wouldn’t go as far as saying SaintBletch looks a bit silly, but I just have

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