The question about the best guitar players of all time is one that has haunted us for decades. Moreover, every generation has an answer, and the definition of the best guitar player in the world changes with time.
Well, we’re taking the answer to the quintessential question a step further. We chose the best 9 guitar players of all time, including all generations since guitar playing and rock and roll became cool.
But that’s not all, there will be tips to update your ax to pursue that style.
The Best Guitar Players of All Time
Who are the best guitar players of all time for you? Will you let us know in the comments? Here are our choices of players and how to overhaul your guitar to sound like them.
Jimi Hendrix
The question about who is the best guitarist of all time is usually answered with this name. This is the hero of most of your heroes, the one who started it all with killer riffs, virtuoso moves, great songs, and an uncanny style that’s been imitated by most of the names on this list.
Jimi Hendrix is the greatest to ever play the instrument. He’s worth checking out in the rare case he’s not already one of your influences.
Guitar Overhaul
Jimi Hendrix’s use of the Stratocaster is not random, he pioneered the use of the vibrato arm to create different effects. So, a tremolo guitar bridge and single-coil pickups are a definite must.
Carlos Santana
One of the trademarks a player needs to be considered among the greatest guitar players of all time is that you can recognize him or her with one note. That’s the case with Carlos Santana, a player with a stellar career that enjoyed momentum in the ‘70s (he played Woodstock with Jimi) and in the 2000s. If you haven’t heard Supernatural, please do, it’s the comeback of the century.
His thick lead tone laying memorable melodies over great songs that mix rock and roll and Latin-infused sounds is timeless and uncanny. In case you don’t know him, go find Abraxas (1970) and enjoy guitar playing at its very best.
Guitar Overhaul
Carlos Santana plays with his signature PRS guitar and tinkers a lot with his volume and tone knob to achieve his sound. So, you need numbered knobs and humbucker pickups so you can fine-tune the audio of your guitar and get that thick lead tone.
Eddie Van Halen
If you ask anyone who likes metal, virtuosos, or shredders who is the best guitar player of all time, the response might be old uncle Eddie. Well, he was a player who created a new category, a new style, and even overhauled his guitar to be up to his demands.
Rock and roll and guitar playing were never the same after Eddie Van Halen, that’s why he made it to the podium.
Guitar Overhaul
The Frankenstein, Eddie’s guitar (now hanging loud and proud at the MET) had two key elements that made it one-of-a-kind, beyond the looks. What Eddie did was carve it to stick a humbucker pickup at the bridge position, and a double-locking tremolo unit. So, that’s what you need, besides practicing 12 hours a day.
Brian May
The man behind some of the best-known riffs of all time backing the otherworldly voice of Freddy Mercury in Queen is also a name that comes up with the question of who's the best guitar player of all time.
His one-of-a-kind approach to playing, taste for melody, and rocking tones make him a unique talent that has shaken stadiums and arenas around the world for decades.
Guitar Overhaul
One of the trademarks of Brian’s playing is his use of the vibrato arm. His guitar, the Red Special was homemade by his dad and him. It’s an uncanny instrument with a very similar tremolo system to a Jazzmaster. You need that kind of tremolo system on your guitar to add those extra vibrato touches.
Jimmy Page
For rockers, rock and rollers, and virtuosos, this riffmeister, Les Paul legend, and English icon is the best guitar player of all time. Well, he is responsible for pushing forward one of the biggest rock bands of all time and was the spearhead of a movement that granted his band, Led Zeppelin, and many others, a well-deserved spot playing arenas around the world.
He’s often quoted as an inspiration by the newest generation of rock and roll players and bands like Greta Van Fleet and others.
Guitar Overhaul
Jimmy Page is a Les Paul legend. He’s played them for arenas for decades relying on volume and aggressiveness to get distortion out of a wall of Marshall stacks. He did that with mighty humbucker pickups, exactly the ones you need on your guitar.
Keith Richards
Any respectable list of the best guitar players of all time needs to have the biggest rhythm player rock has given us in it. Keith Richards not only wrote timeless songs, but he also is still the pulse of the biggest touring rock band of all time, The Rolling Stones. Indeed, the Stones’ long-time bass player, Bill Wyman, said, “Our band does not follow the drummer. Our band follows the rhythm guitarist, who is Keith Richards,”
So, in a way, Keith is responsible for decades of love stories born on the dance floor
Guitar Overhaul
Keith Richards is famous for playing a 5-string blackguard Telecaster from the early fifties. He plays it in open G without the low D from the 6th string, but among other things, what gives him the spanking Stones sound are the brass saddles on the bridge.
David Gilmour
If there was a category apart from the best guitar players of all times countdown for melody and sensitivity, David Gilmour would top that chart. He was one of the masterminds behind Pink Floyd, a unique and highly influencing art-rock act that rocked generations touring the world for decades.
He’s another case of players that only need one note to let you know it’s them who are playing the instrument.
Guitar Overhaul
David Gilmour’s butter-smooth tone with thick distortion is the mix of a Big Muff and a Stratocaster. So, what you need to play using Gilmour’s sounds is a threesome of single-coil pickups and a fuzz pedal.
Jeff Beck
The person who's considered the best guitar player of all time will surely quote Jeff Beck as an inspiration. He’s what you’d call a guitarist’s guitarist, one of the most influential guitar players of all time. But don’t just take our word for it, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame not once, but twice.
He was a member of the Yardbirds and released two masterclasses in the shape of guitar albums, Blow by Blow (1975), and Wired (1976). I highly recommend checking those out.
Guitar Overhaul
Jeff Beck’s signature Fender Stratocaster has two main appointments: a roller nut, and locking tuners. This is because of Jeff’s use of the vibrato arm. You won’t hear any other player in history do what he does and play the way he did. With those two accessories, you can start trying to break the code and play like him.
Slash
If you asked around Sunset Boulevard for the world's greatest guitar player of all time in the late ‘80s, and early ‘90s, Slash’s name would have come up more than once. He’s what players know as a Guitar God making history wielding the Les Paul like an almighty sword with Guns N’ Roses, Velvet Revolver, and his outstanding solo career.
Ask anyone who’s ever worked at a guitar store anywhere in the world, and they’ll tell you that “Sweet Chile o’ Mine” is the riff they hear the most by people trying a new guitar.
Guitar Overhaul
Just like Jimmy Page, Slash is a Les Paul guy. He made an entire career playing that model vertically, parallel to his body, and rocking a wall of Marshall stacks. Well, to get that much gain and power, you need Alnico humbucker pickups and could also benefit from microtuners for the bridge to nail those high notes perfectly.
The Bottom End
Deciding who are considered the best guitar players of all time is a very tough endeavor. We worked very hard (and discussed a lot) to bring you this selection of the 9 most important, influential, and unique guitar players of all time.
Nevertheless, I’m sure you can add a few of your own in the comments.
Remember, playing the instrument for hours and accessorizing it properly are two steps closer to sounding like your heroes.
Who knows, we might see your name on this list in the future!
Happy playing!
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