good guitar players

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if youve never heard of alexi laiho you need too. of course the best metal guitar player will always be the late great dimebag darrell. he pioneerd so much for so many. have any favorites?

I have never actually heard of Alexi Laiho, sorry. To me, the term "Best" when placed on front of of a phrase that include the successive words "guitar player" is largely a subjective matter.

There are a lot of guitar players who who are technically proficient, however unfortunately many of these players tend to overlook the expressive and emotive aspects of playing, and instead focus on how fast they can crank out formulaic riffs. -- The guitar players that came out places like GIT in the 80's and early 90's come to mind when I write this.

On the other hand there are also guitar players who are usually not as technically proficient as the GIT graduate types, but are incredibly proficient at producing emotive content within the context of a song, or within a particular genre of music. --many times as not with a minimum of notes.

That being said, here's a list of my favorites, as well as the bands that they play(ed) in, when the bands thay they played in aren't readily apparent. (In no order of favoritism)

Frank Zappa
Leslie West-Mountain
Greg Sage-The Wipers
Eddie Van Halen (David Lee Roth era of Van Halen, excluding the Diver Down release)
Jimi Hendrix
Thurston Moore-Sonic Youth
Paul Leary-Butthole Surfers, primarily
Carlos Santana-Early Santana and collaborations with...
John Mclaughlin-Mahavishnu Orchestra/Miles Davis Era, and above
Al DiMeola- early stuff as well as Miles Davis collaborations
Helios Creed-Chrome and post-Chrome Solo projects
Peter Laughner- Rocket From the Tombs,Pere Ubu
Cheetah Chrome- Rocket From the Tombs, The Dead Boys
East Bay Ray- Dead Kennedies
Greg Ginn- Black Flag, Gone
Kaspar Brötzmann (Son of Improv Jazz artist Peter Brötzmann)
Blixa Bargeld- Einstürzende Neubuaten, The Birthday Pary
Kazuyuki K (KK) Null- Zenigeva
Guido Codeluppi-Raw Power
Tony Iommi- Black Sabbath
Ian MacKaye- Minor Threat, Fugazi
Brian Baker-Minor Threat, Dag Nasty

Oh yeah, Dimebag Darell was pretty good as well.

--And that's my opinion on the matter

Dimebag Darell is my favorite guitar player

sam here theres alot of good metal guitarists out there.

I would say that these are the best guitar players ever.

Justin Trosper - Unwound
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - The Mars Volta, At the Drive In
Dave Knudson- Botch, Minus the Bear
Peter Fripp- King Crimson
Jimi Hendrix
Eddie Van Halen

These bands have the best guitar players whose names I don't know

Choke (the canadian one)
Sleeping People
Hella
Don Caballero
The Dillenger Escape Plan

It's pretty dumb how good these guys are.

I'll go with the aforementioned Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, Jimi Hendrix, Paul Leary, Tony Iommi and East Bay Ray, and add:

Pete Solowka - The Wedding Present
Kevin Shields - My Bloody Valentine
Bernard Sumner - Joy Division/New Order
Bob Mould - Husker Du/Sugar
Andy Cairns - Therapy?
Tom Morello - RATM

I also love the sort of heavy fuzz guitar Fu Manchu, Monster Magnet, QOTSA etc pump out - some debt to Tony Iommi there.... Makes the hairs on my neck stand on end.

hes a metal guitarist whos main inspiration was steve vai. check him out if all possible.

Faraquet: Hella is awesome.

I remember back in the 80's I liked the ripping fast guitar players like Malmsteen and those fellows from Cacophony. I still reminisce with old Yngwie once in a while, but now that whole style of playing just sounds obnoxious to me.

Guitar players I currently admire would be:

Tommy Emmanuel
David Grier
Tim Reynolds
Erik Wollo
Ottmar Liebert

Guitar players are okay, but mandolin is so much better. and no one beats Chris Thile on mandolin

dimebag darell
zakk wylde
kirk hammet/james hetfield
dave mustaine/any body he plays with
jeff hamenem/kerry king

Rex Carroll - Whitecross in the late 80's/early 90's

Steve Vai is the all-time, absolute, undisputed best guitar player ever! Yngwie Malmsteen sure gives him a run for his money. In the end, I'd say Steve Vai is the guitar God, whereas Yngwie Malmsteen is the guitar Satan.

As a matter of principal I'd say that music is all about expression. I personally would disregard guitarists such as Yngwie Malmsteen and Steve Vai as being shallow.
Songs should in my opione express human emotions, because otherwise you may as well have sequencer playing a million notes a minute.
That is why in my list I'll include soley expressive guitarists:
Bernard Butler- Suede
Nick Drake
Bernard Sumner/Albrecht/Dicken- Joy Division/New Order (also Keyboardist/Vocalist for Electronic, and collaborated on 'Out of Control' by The Chemical Brothers)
Johnny Maher- The Smiths, The The, The Talking Heads, The Pretenders, Billy Bragg, Oasis, Electronic, The Healers, Bryan Ferry, and Black Grape.
David Byrne- The Talking Heads (Also provided vocals for ''Lazy'' by X-Press 2)
Robert Smith- The Cure
Nile Rogers- Chic
Edwyn Collins- Orange Juice
James Kirk- Orange Juice
Neil Young- Buffaloe Spring Field
John Lennon- The Quarry Men, The Beatles
George Harrisson- The Beatles
Paul Mc Cartney- The Beatles

Well that is all I can think for articulate, artistic and expressive guitarist. I'm certain there are many I have overlooked but we'll get on to those later.

I'd throw Peter Buck of R.E.M. into the ring too.

Not technically brilliant, but incredibly effective. Take Find The River, Fall On Me or Southern Central Rain for example. Great riffs, executed with perfect emotion.
And how about the mandolin on Losing My Religion?

Another great overlooked so far: John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Under The Bridge is unforgettable, as is much of the rest of the guitar work on Blood Sugar Sex Magik.

I'd also nominate Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood for Creep alone. (Had to get Radiohead in there somewhere!)

I'm sorry I over looked those guitarists.
Perhaps we should all ad Roger Mcguinn from the Byrds soley for 'Eight Miles High'.
I play the mandolin.