Dean McMullen (Muncie Girls)
The Total Guitar Best in guitars 2016 polls have received over 68,000 votes, and we're now ready to roll out the winners. The nominees were what we considered to be the guitarists and guitar gear that have excelled in 2016. Here, we present the best new guitarist of 2016. First up we have Dean McMullen of Muncie Girls…
Seemingly from out of nowhere Muncie Girls appeared with a clutch of brilliant punk pop tunes and an insanely catchy noise for a humble three-piece.
Guitarist Dean McMullen wears his ‘90s influences on his sleeve and his playing on the band’s debut From Caplan To Belsize helped edge it into our top 10 albums of the year.
JP Jacyshyn (Tax The Heat)
When your debut albumrocks as hard as Tax The Heat’s anthemic blues rock longplayerFed To The Lions, it’s inevitable that you’ll end up getting high praise on end of year lists such as this one.
TTH’s guitar maestro JP Jacyshyn brings equal parts retro style and guitar muscle to the band, particularly the stellar slide work on Highway Home which opens up the album with bang.
Dan Steer (Reigning Days)
You’ve likely already heard of one supermassive rock trio from Devon. Now it’s time to add another one to that list. Reigning Days have already been likened to Muse and Royal Blood, and those comparisons are pretty damn accurate.
Guitarist Dan Steer supplies the band’s hefty backbone with his groove-drenched riffs, and their self-titled EP is a great indication of big things to come.
Aaron Keylock
Young blues guitar prodigy Keylock has already drawn comparisons with Joe Bonamassa in his short career, and we’d be inclined to agree.
Whilst 2016 was spent mainly on the road, Aaron has also been squirrelled away in the studio to commit some of those formidable chops to tape, and his debut album is almost ready to roll. In the meantime, check out Against The Grain for a taster.
Jock Norton (Puppy)
On their debut EP Vol. II Puppy vocalist/guitarist Jock Norton calls on his ‘90s grunge guitar heroes to fill the London trio’s sound with a wall of fuzz-drenched magic.
Opening track Entombed is a lumbering, half-time beast (with a nod to Ghost for good measure), and closer Here At Home sounds like Under The Bridge played by Metallica. Not a bad comparison at all.
James Tranter (Broken Witt Rebels)
They might be from Birmingham, England, but Broken Witt Rebels’ roots lie firmly in the southern states of America, and their early Kings Of Leon blues rock is as authentic as it comes.
James Tranter’s playing on the band’s 2016 EP Georgia Pine revolves around big, chunky guitar tones and rootsy riff-led swagger, giving tracks like Low and Suzie that sought-after smoky bar feel.
Oliver Burdett, Ian Miles (Creeper)
With AFI continuing to move in a poppier direction and My Chemical Romance nowhere to be seen, it’s a blessing to have bands like horror punks Creeper here to fill the void.
Their 2016 EP The Stranger, plus new tracks Suzanne and Hiding With Boys, illustrate a band on the rise, and with guitarists Oliver Burdett and Ian Miles managing the riff department we can’t wait to see and hear what 2017 brings.
Winner: Dan Dorney (The Hunna)
It’s easy to be wary of bands who rise rapidly, seemingly out of nowhere, but no such fears are needed with Hertfordshire quartet The Hunna, whose hype is more than justified.
Uplifting, euphoric and epic are all words that could be used to describe the band’s music, and a lot of those emotions stem from guitarist Dan Dorney and his love of intricate, dynamic riffs and experimentation with guitar effects.
If you’re a fan of Kings Of Leon, Jimmy Eat World or Foals then you’d be foolish not to check them out.