The people at Gibson Guitars asked their website readers to name the people they felt were the greatest guitarists of all time. The people at Gibson then added their own votes in and came up with a top 50 that they have been revealing all week on their website.As these lists normally go, Jimi Hendrix came out on top and they actually did a pretty respectable job of pulling out most of the greats (although they are a little light on blues and folk, i.e. B.B. King, Leo Kottke, John Fahey). It's obvious that the people at Gibson were a major factor in shaping the list as the reader's vote included nine guitarists in their top twenty that didn't make the overall list, including Warren Haynes (#4), Rik Emmett of Triumph (#7), Frank Marino of Mahogany Rush (#8), Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains (#11), Dickey Betts (#13), Derek Trucks (#15), Jerry Garcia (#16), Joe Satriani (#19) and Joe Bonamassa (#20).
We were going to originally just list the top five and the rankings of the veteran artists that fell lower on the list, but there were only four that weren't veterans, so here's the whole thing. You can go to the Gibson site to see their write-up on each guitarist:
- 01. Jimi Hendrix
- 02. Jimmy Page
- 03. Keith Richard
- 04. Eric Clapton
- 05. Chuck Berry
- 06. Jeff Beck
- 07. Eddie Van Halen
- 08. Chet Atkins
- 09. Robert Johnson
- 10. Pete Townshend
- 11. George Harrison
- 12. Stevie Ray Vaughan
- 13. Jack White
- 14. Prince
- 15. Steve Cropper
- 16. Mike Bloomfield
- 17. B.B. King
- 18. Wes Montgomery
- 19. Mick Ronson
- 20. Django Reinhardt
- 21. Johnny Marr
- 22. Les Paul
- 23. The Edge
- 24. Ron Asheton
- 25. Angus Young
- 26. Neil Young
- 27. Danny Gatton
- 28. Ed O'Brien & Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead)
- 29. Duane Allman
- 30. Roy Buchannan
- 31. Bo Diddley
- 32. Ry Cooder
- 33. Scotty Moore
- 34. Slash
- 35. Buddy Guy
- 36. Mike Campbell (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers)
- 36. Charlie Christian
- 38. Lou Reed
- 39. Frank Zappa
- 40. Steve Jones (Sex Pistols)
- 41. David Gilmour
- 42. Richard Thompson
- 42. John Frusciante (ex-Red Hot Chili Peppers)
- 42. Rory Gallagher
- 42. Clarence White
- 42. Hubert Sumlin
- 47. Andrea Segovia
- 47. Robert Fripp (King Crimson)
- 49. Kurt Cobain
- 49. Ritchie Blackmore
Comments
Edge, Cobain, garbage.