Quote:

Interesting and challenging topic.

As others have observed, the hard part is narrowing it down to five. Anybody can make great speakers for $20,000, right? So all you "five more" guys are a bunch of cheaters.

The spirit of the original question included not only "top" but also "ability", "fun" and - most importantly - "favorite". So, we're not really looking for "most influential" here.

It's freaky how we're all stuck in roughly the same period.

Speakergrrl?

Eric Clapton
Wes Montgomery
Django Reinhardt
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Carlos Santana

Great listings, everyone. Your comments certainly motivated me to revisit some tunes I haven't heard in a while.


Tom's usual perspicacious post!

The thread title asks for our "top" 5 guitarists without specifying what criteria to use when defining "top." Are we to decide by how influential the guitarist has been, his technical proficiency (skill), his taste (what specific notes are played at a specific moment), or some other measure?

There are guitarists (or pianists, or clarinetists, trumpet players, etc.) who, while not really being technically proficient, have been major influences on the music world. There are those who are technical masters, and have the skill to play things others simply can't play.

And then there are those who have been neither major influences nor technical experts, but who, for whatever reason, touch us, thrill us, make our hearts sing, or whatever euphemism you chose for "their taste satisfies me." This, of course, is entirely subjective, and is probably, and reasonably, the most used criteria when someone names the "top" or "best" anything.

So here, in no particular order, are 5 guitarists who have "floated my boat," lifted my soul, and, more than once, made me say "WOW!"

Chet Atkins
Eric Clapton
Jim Messina (Buffalo Springfield, Poco, Loggins & Messina)
Django Reinhardt
Segovia

There are certainly many more, but those are the ones that popped into my head





Jack

"People generally quarrel because they cannot argue." - G. K. Chesterton