Guitar World Readers Poll: The Greatest Guitarist of All Time

[Axewielder]

Is it really even possible to be 100 times better than Shawn Lane?? :think:

[atomic charvel guy]

that's why i posted that Yngwie van halen tribute tune on the last page, cuz i'd rather hear him play old VH than his tunes haa haa!!
and for you Yngwie disciples that may be offended, the guy is balls out sick on a guitar, and i love hearing him play hendrix tunes too.
and Rising Force was el magico when it first came out, it almost blew my head right off.
Spanish castle magic with Joe Lynn Turner on vocals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQWyNr0pKvk

[atomic charvel guy]

From Endrik-
"Yngwie is a very talented guitarist with excellent pitch, he has amazing vibrato and plays with plenty of fire but his music is just terrible, philistine garbage with Guitar 101 for Beginner scale exercises played over and over again over that garbage."


endy,
that's dead on balls accurate, i feel the same way. he's so fuckin' great , but the tunes are a chore to get through for me.
i mean, i can take 1 yngwie tune at a time, but that's it, i could never listen to a whole CD, or even half, it's alot of repetition.

[Endrik]

i think Paul Gilbert is 100times better than Shawn Lane. the guy can play anything, can shred, play tasty stuff, and makes everything look effortless.

Never heard him play over moving harmony. Never.
Never heard him playing something a bit more complex than ascending/descending small interval form at fast pace.

Doubt that he can play everything.

[Endrik]

I am curious, why do you think he annoys them so much? Do they feel he is butchering their style?

I don't think they feel he's butchering their style as he doesn't play classical music in the first place. Yngwie plays pop music. His music has a very simple, rigid and conservative form just like all pop music no matter if you call pop music rhythm'n'blues, disco or heavy metal.

He annoys the hell out of some people because he plays the most cliché pseudo baroque licks with very banal rhythm, little dynamic variation and within laughably bad harmonic context. If Yngwie seriously wanted to show some serious baroque skills he'd focus on more creative form, compose complex counterpoint bass lines etc. But you never hear it from him.

And of course the term neo-classical used within that context is also ridiculous. Neo-Classical is modern classical music which uses a lot of Classical era (Haydn, Mozart, early Beethoven etc.) elements. Something which Igor Stravinsky did in his mid period (his most boring period).

There's even a good comparison point. I remember when Yngwie composed for an orchestra. It was performed by Czech Philharmonic (a very good orchestra) and conducted by Yoel Levi (a good conductor). It's amazing how such a good orchestra could sound so bad. The reason was simple though. The music was terrible. It should have been called "Shitphony for Drunken Bolsheviks". And the guitar didn't go together with the orchestra at all.
Compared it to how Yoel Levi conducted Atlanta Symphony Orchestra when they played Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring". Jaw-dropping. Stravinsky's music is adventurous, rhythmically and harmonically very complex, well orchestrated, good textures, a lot of dynamic etc. The Rite of Spring is the best example of Stravinsky's early era genius and Yoel Levi did an amazing job conducting it.

Yngwie is a very talented guitarist with excellent pitch, he has amazing vibrato and plays with plenty of fire but his music is just terrible, philistine garbage with Guitar 101 for Beginner scale exercises played over and over again over that garbage.

[Richard W]

In no particular order: Jason Becker, Shawn Lane, Guthrie Govan, and Steve Vai are the best imo.

[VanHoosen]

Everyone knows Allan Holdsworth is the best.

[jgcable]

Uli is my overall favorite and always will be. He just strikes a chord with me. I can really "feel" his playing and his intent.
With that said.... the winner of this contest should be Guthrie Govan. He is literally the most amazing guitar player I have ever heard. He can play any genre and style of music to absolute perfection and he does it without the slightest bit of effort.
You also can't count out Paul Gilbert who is superhuman, Steve Vai who can play anything on the guitar and of course the maestro...
Yngwie J Malmsteen.

[atomic charvel guy]

GFPM had that one issue with Warren De Martini and Jake E. Lee on the cover,
it was a cool old roomates article if i remember correctly.

[vector]

Don't forget their quarterly cover/interviews with Mark Morton and Willie Adler, and whatever band happens to be the flavor of that particular month. I really miss Guitar For The Practicing Musician.

+1. Still have 3 years worth of their issues from '88 on... granted, GFPM was 50% ads, 20% tabs and 30% columns/features but at least it wasn't a shill for every manufacturer that was advertising in it.

[atomic charvel guy]

i think Paul Gilbert is 100times better than Shawn Lane. the guy can play anything, can shred, play tasty stuff, and makes everything look effortless. & i think i saw Jimmy Page beat Chet Atkins, SORRY, jimmy wrote stairway GREAT (sarcasm), Chet could play circles around Page.

every single guitarist in your post is in their own right at the apex of music one way or another, and i agree that paul gilbert does make things effortless,
i love listening to some of the many cover tunes he's done live all over youtube. check out his version of "El Becko", it's a lightning infused version Jeff's masterpiece. but all of those guitar players as great as they are, would love to have Page's songwriting ability and level of success. i know jimmy is sloppy live, but he's god damn untouchable.

[atomic charvel guy]

speaking of yngwie, here's a cool tribute to van halen, what a lineup, yngwie, doug from kings x, billy sheehan, and fuckin' vinnie colaiuta for godsakes.
light up the sky

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KUCk6bsQA4

you can't go off of lists, be it any publication. there's just too many greats, everyone will always have their own favorites, leave it at that.

[j2379]

i think Paul Gilbert is 100times better than Shawn Lane. the guy can play anything, can shred, play tasty stuff, and makes everything look effortless. & i think i saw Jimmy Page beat Chet Atkins, SORRY, jimmy wrote stairway GREAT (sarcasm), Chet could play circles around Page.

[METAL MANIAC]

There's always this...

I've been following Yngwie since before he briefly joined Steeler. I actually became a Steve Vai fan when I heard him playing in Alcatraz because he could actually play the stuff Yngwie had written. That's when I knew Vai was legit and not just some weird fusion dude that played with Zappa.

I think Yngwie lost a lot of his fire after his car accident. I think he spent a lot of time regurgitating the same stuff thinking thats what the fans wanted. He's turned it around recently and is learning to embrace the rock and roll fire once again. I had copies of the demo's for the first Rising Force album before it came out on cassette and I wore that thing out. It makes me sad because a lot of it was material that appeared in fragments in songs all the way past Odyssey and it was really cool to hear them when they were raw.

He was and is one of the greats but I think a guy like Jeff Loomis has all the chops to hang with Yngwie and probably and a little better writing skills. Where Yngwie beats a lot of other contemporaries is stage show/presence. Jason Becker was probably a little better than Yngwie on that front, but thats because he was a little more whimsical and made it look like he didn't need to even think about playing his guitar for it to happen, where Yngwie is doing all the behind back, teeth, tossovers stuff.

I think what Yngwie really needs to do in his career right now is hook up with a producer that will deconstruct him a little, like an early Rick Rubin type guy. Someone that will make him go to an unfamiliar studio, sit him in a big room with a band and try to capture a raw hard rocking album with one cut takes and minimal overdubs.

Yeah I know but I would like to have seen them do some original material....Look I know Yngwie's biggest problem is his ego and he does re-hash material but the thing is what I am trying to get across is he has the talent he just refuses to change! I am sure you know the band he could have been in if he wanted too...Ozzy, Queensryche, Dio, possibly even Kiss etc...I tell you Facing the Animal was good IMHO and so was Alchemy for that matter so was Eclipse....Inspirations was a killer cover album....The albums with Ripper kill me...he has a killer singer but the production does not allow for Ripper to shine.....Ripper was killer with Priest!!!! And should be with Yngwie.....I think production was good on the first three albums and I know I may take shit but it was good on Odyssey...Eclipse was ok.....Alchemy was not good Mark Boals did not come through right but that album is fucking heavy!!!!!! The heaviest since Marching Out IMO...Inspirations had decent production and Facing the Animal had good production IMO. Fire and Ice was too pop.....Seventh Sign, Magnum Opus, War to End all Wars(but I do like Tarot), Unleash the Fury and Attack had poor production... Perpetual Flame, Relentless and High Impact have better production but Ripper is not being Utilized!!!!!!!! MM

[Hellbat]

I just wish Ronnie and Yngwie would have teamed up like there was talk about happening years ago.

There's always this...

I've been following Yngwie since before he briefly joined Steeler. I actually became a Steve Vai fan when I heard him playing in Alcatraz because he could actually play the stuff Yngwie had written. That's when I knew Vai was legit and not just some weird fusion dude that played with Zappa.

I think Yngwie lost a lot of his fire after his car accident. I think he spent a lot of time regurgitating the same stuff thinking thats what the fans wanted. He's turned it around recently and is learning to embrace the rock and roll fire once again. I had copies of the demo's for the first Rising Force album before it came out on cassette and I wore that thing out. It makes me sad because a lot of it was material that appeared in fragments in songs all the way past Odyssey and it was really cool to hear them when they were raw.

He was and is one of the greats but I think a guy like Jeff Loomis has all the chops to hang with Yngwie and probably and a little better writing skills. Where Yngwie beats a lot of other contemporaries is stage show/presence. Jason Becker was probably a little better than Yngwie on that front, but thats because he was a little more whimsical and made it look like he didn't need to even think about playing his guitar for it to happen, where Yngwie is doing all the behind back, teeth, tossovers stuff.

I think what Yngwie really needs to do in his career right now is hook up with a producer that will deconstruct him a little, like an early Rick Rubin type guy. Someone that will make him go to an unfamiliar studio, sit him in a big room with a band and try to capture a raw hard rocking album with one cut takes and minimal overdubs.