Guitar heroes

[peacock1987]

No doubt this has been done many times butttt- who are people's top 5 guitarists of all time (could be from an influence standpoint as opposed to technical skill). Reasons would be nice too.

cheers.

[guitargeek62]

no particular order;

SRV for feel
Gibbons for everything
Frusciante for showing me the way
Corgan for everything also
Neil Young for the melody

[uncle_psychosis]

Joe Strummer. 'Nuff said. My all time #1. "YOU'RE MY GUITAR HERO!"
Johnny Marr - Has a sound all of his own, was in The Smiths ffs
Mogwai, collectively - A big influence on my playing
Billy Corgan - he can do it all; huge riffs, awesome solos, weird noises.
Josh Homme - I'd kill for his song/riff-writing talent

[Nas]

My guitar heroes..

Wes Montgomery - Cos for me he's the greatest guitarist everer
Pat Metheny - Cos his rhythmic awareness
Jim Hall - Cos no one can comp like him
Francis Dunnery - Cos he's Francis
Dave Navarro - Cos he's well cool

[alexanderzz]

Peter Green - for feel
Wilko Johnson - no-nonsense approach
Keef - for being Keef
David Gilmour - for melodic phrasing
Eric Clapton - It was listening to Bluesbreakers and Cream that got me started

I'm breaking the rules of the game and adding a few more...

Mick Jones (The Clash)
Chuck Berry
BB King

Regards

[peacock1987]

here we go i have a couple which i may be slated for.

Tom Delonge- because he made being a teenager much more fun and was the reason I started playing guitar.
Kirk Hammett- because he is the lead player in the biggest best metal band in my opinion. I also feel sorry for the hammering he gets.
Jimmy Page- because he made me wanna wear catsuits and grow my hair long.
Dave Gilmour- tone tone tone.
Randy Rhodes- who knows what might be.

Worthy mention- John Mayer, Edge, Billy Corgan, Hendrix.

[Ian B (again)]

Richard Thompson.....the best player ever imo.
SRV, simply amazing.
Johnny Marr, love his sound.
Peter Green, head and shoulders above Clapton and the rest.
A toss up between John Lee Hooker and Elmore James, both pretty limited, but that's more than made up for by feel.

[thereformant]

Well most influential on me would probably be:

Adam Jones - for odd meter and effects usage
Josh Homme - For groove
James Hetfield - For that kind of earthy blues fell yet still in a heavy context
Rob Flynn - For chugging and harmonics of both natural and artificial stylee
Dave Wyndorf - Groove and psychadelia

[sfocata]

I get very easily inspired, influenced and captivated by loads of musicians. I've had no end of favourite players over the years, depending (I imagine) on what I was sub-consciously looking to gain from listening to music. Some are fleeting, some last forever. For example, a decent chunk of my work at the moment involves transcribing Guthrie Govan solos, and some of that stuff is bound to be getting under my musical skin, changing *something* about how I'll play in the future.

But I still think the pivotal moment for me was when I started (obsessively) listening to Frank Zappa in my late teens. That pretty much changed every preconcieved idea I had about what music (and the guitar) was supposed to do.

[gweilo]

Steve Vai - Got me wanting to play guitar.
Slash - Coolest man on the planet when I was growing up.
Mark Tremonti - Can do melody and shred. Legend and a really nice guy.
Synyster Gates - Coolest guy now I have grown up (ish).
Hendrix - Actually getting to appreciate him more for the fact he didnt really care about the "rules" of guitar playing.