The 10 biggest guitar personalities in the world right now

The MusicRadar/Total Guitar Best in guitars 2017 polls have received over 136,000 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 2017. Here, we present the best guitar personalities of 2017. First up we have Brett Kingman...

2017 highlight: Aussie-native Kingman set up his YouTube page in 2006 and since produced countless guitar gear demos (with a particular penchant for effects) amassing almost 30 million views. It’s Brett’s combination of playing prowess, earned through years as a respected session guitarist, insight and delivery that keeps people coming back time after time.

The MusicRadar Best in guitars awards are brought to you in association with Allianz Musical Insurance - the UK's Number 1 Specialist Instrument Insurer

2017 highlight: Fluff’s channel - the brilliantly named Riffs, Beards & Gear - is an absolute haven for guitarists wanting to improve their approach to playing, recording and buying the right gear. From demos and tips, to answering important questions like ‘what is the ultimate travel guitar’ and ‘can a baritone guitar do metal’, Fluff is hugely deserving of his 220k subscribers.

2017 highlight: Musician’s Institute graduate Pete Thorn started life playing in bands before becoming a pro studio guitarist and working regularly with top producers including Linda Perry. Subsequently he went back on the road with musical luminaries including Chris Cornell and Don Henley. More recently the self-confessed ‘guitar nerd’ has started demo-ing guitar gear for his own YouTube channel. Pete’s exceptional playing and fascinating videos are well worth your time if you consider yourself a fellow nerd.

2017 highlight: The Haunted and Feared guitarist Englund has already made a name for himself through his work with the aforementioned bands, but players are flocking to his YouTube channel to tap into all that experience and knowledge. From demos and shootouts to tutorials and Q&As, if you play heavier music, Englund is the oracle as far as we’re concerned.

2017 highlight: He might be best known for playing heavy metal on a shovel but Scallon is no one-trick pony. In the last year alone he’s racked up millions of views of his innovative and entertaining videos, such as the hilarious ‘Metal in very inappropriate places’ and The Trooper played on banjo, complete with solos. Yes, really. No other channel is doing anything like this and 1.2 million subscribers can’t be wrong.

2017 highlight: Chappers continues to lead the way as far as gear demo channels are concerned. One of the originals and the best, each week Rob makes it his business to run the rule over the latest gear to help you choose the right stuff, doing so with humour, insight and some damn fine playing. Did we mention he owns Chapman Guitars and fronts Dorje too? Where does he find the time!

2017 highlight: Considering That Pedal Show was only started at the tail end of 2015, Mick and Dan have created an absolute monster of a channel with 116,00+ subscribers at the time of writing. Covering all things guitar effects, the knowledge and enthusiasm the guys inject into each and every video is worth a subscription alone. This year the duo also poured their know-how into a Keeley Electronics signature pedal, the D&M Drive, which has become a bonafide smash hit.

2017 highlight: Exceptional hair aside, Massaad has become a YouTube star in his own right since rising to fame alongside Rob Chapman on the Andertons Music Co channel. Aside from running his own superb guitar-fuelled channel and performing clinics for the likes of D’Addario, the versatile player and Chapman Guitars endorser also fills much of his time making music with not one but two progressive metal bands, Toska and Dorje.

2017 highlight: There are few places online (other than MusicRadar, of course) where you’ll find such a comprehensive range and quality of tuition as on Justin Sandercoe’s excellent YouTube channel and website. Whether you’re a complete beginner or six-string maestro looking for your next challenge, Justin has something for every type of player, and with over 267 million views under his belt since getting started, we reckon a fair few of you are into Justin’s work too.

2017 highlight: If we could only ever watch one YouTube channel for the rest of our lives it would be Jared’s. Not only do his hilarious covers, parody videos and general goofing off generate millions of views every month, but Jared’s also a complete shredder! In fact, he recently challenged Matt Heafy to a shred-off and was invited to play a couple of songs live with Trivium. He completely ripped and once again proved why we're a tad jealous of his awesome life.