In no particular order within each group...

As a guitarist for 35yrs, my all-time favorites are:

Nile Rodgers
David Gilmore
Warren Haynes

Others almost as important to me:

Carl Perkins
Willie Nelson
Jack White
Jonny Greenwood
John Mayer
Derek Trucks
Ry Cooder
Dave Matthews (and Tim Reynolds)
Roy Clark

I like all/most of the flashy shredders, too, but less so.

Eddie Van Halen
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Akira Takasaki
Kirk Hammet
Warren DeMartini
George Lynch

And probably fifty others if I keep thinking about it.

In reading through many of the posts, I'd like to add a few honorable mentions that were favorites and influenced some of my playing as Les Paul wielders.

Toy Caldwell from The Marshall Tucker Band (I'd also add that Toy's tone was contributed to some of the fact that he didn't use a pick, just the callous of this thumb to hammer out licks)
Charlie Daniels
And Duanes counterpart Dickie Betts


Additionally, I was thinking back to those early years last night, some 50yrs ago now when Mike and I were about 14yrs old. I also had one flashback of Mike who had several great guitars even at that age, pick up his Gretch Country Gentleman and play Chet Atkins style, amazing!

I was so lucky that in my small neighborhood growing up we had about a dozen guitar players within a few blocks and played almost every day for years. Some recorded music, and a few ended up in the studios. They all contributed to helping me advance and influence my playing style. No doubt I'd still be hammering the runs and licks out if I hadn't had a stroke that disabled my left arm and hand. Man do I miss playing but, music and the memories will always be with me.

This list could literally go on forever but many are:

Joe Satriani
Tommy Bolin
Terry Kath
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Eric Johnson
Eddie Van Halen
Larry Carlton
Eric Clapton
Alan Holdsworth
Steve Vai
Jeff Beck
Randy Rhoads
Mike Stern
Al DiMeola

This message has been edited. Last edited by: smschulz, September 07, 2020 11:30 AM

I'll even dare to add this funny photo of a late night studio session we did at our local Public television station channel 2. My good friend Tim and fellow Martin enthusiast held a producer/director job there in the early 70's. We would go down late at night and cut sound tracks on their studio equipment. The management allowed us as they ended up using some of our music as background tracks on a couple of their programs.

Yea, in the early 70's we were just starting to adapt to the longer hair styles, I surfed all the time. I'm stringing up my first and best sounding Martin D-28. It sounded incredible when playing songs like Emerson, Lake, and Palmers In the Beginnings or Neil Young The Needle and the Damage Done and many of America's tunes. That Martin would resonate and ring on forever...

quote:

Originally posted by thunderson:
Lots of my favorites in OP.
Knopfler, Clapton, Vaughan, others.


Tim Pierce- session guitarist. Dude has chops for sure. Played on 1000's of recordings including remastering recordings of some of the most influential musicians of our time.

[FLASH_VIDEO]<iframe frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EYR_LDtij8Y" width="560"></iframe>[/FLASH_VIDEO]

Good to see some session guitarists mentioned. I was watching a Boz Scaggs clip of loan me a dime last night and Drew Zingg did a great job on that one.

in no particular order:

Clapton
Gilmour
Harrison
Page
McCartney
Felder
Walsh

quote:

Originally posted by 46and2:
In no particular order within each group...

As a guitarist for 35yrs, my all-time favorites are:

Nile Rodgers
David Gilmore
Warren Haynes

Others almost as important to me:

Carl Perkins
Willie Nelson
Jack White
Jonny Greenwood
John Mayer
Derek Trucks
Ry Cooder
Dave Matthews (and Tim Reynolds)
Roy Clark

I like all/most of the flashy shredders, too, but less so.

Eddie Van Halen
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Akira Takasaki
Kirk Hammet
Warren DeMartini
George Lynch

And probably fifty others if I keep thinking about it.

How could I have forgotten Ry Cooder. I’ve given instructions that I want “Feelin Bad Blues” played at my memorial service

Oh in the Hendrix vein, Robin Trower!

Dan Tyminski, Glenn Campbell
Jerry Reed, Van Halen
Brad Paisley , Les Paul, joe walsh
Rickey Scaggs , Vince Gill
Marty Stewart , Billy Gibbons
Prince did wonderful things as well

This message has been edited. Last edited by: bendable, September 10, 2020 07:00 PM

Also Les Paul and Mary Ford

The main ones I listened to growing up were in order:

1 Duane and Dickie

2. Jimmy Page

3. Ritchie Blackmore

Larry Carlton is way up there.
Still kick myself for not seeing SRV live. Particularly later when he was clean and on top of his game.

Oh and btw, I may not be able to play anymore but by gosh I can still look so, please feel free to post any photos of your guitars and rigs! Would love to see them!

Kenny Wayne Shepard
Vernon Reid

Here's another one who played with lots of folks:

Mark Ribot

His guitar on Tom Waits' Hoist that Rag has always been compelling to me. The dirt is perfect and his solo is as much about the space between the notes as it is the notes themselves.

Just adding names to the list

Phil Manzanera
Pat Metheny
John Abercrombie
Mick Ronson
Martin Barre
Adrian Belew
Robert Fripp


0-0

Roy Buchanan
Joey Santiago

Leslie West
Alvin Lee
Gary Moore Voodoo Child
Carlos Santana

^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Wow, who could forget Mississippi Queen first thing in the morning to get the blood pumping

I'll toss in for guitar enthusiasts my last vintage Strat. A 65' along with one of my more compact blackface Fender amps. This 65' Strat was a classic, super light and sounded amazing. In my small collection though, my favorite playing Strat was a much cheaper later model this red 57' Reissue. It wasn't until I played it that I found that I much preferred the maple fret board necks, I don't know if it was just my imagination but they seemed much easier when doing lead runs and bends..

the 65'



The favorite 57' Reissue...loved playing this one and sounded great to boot!