So who are people's fave guitar players?

[levantin]

Here's me:

Marty Friedman
Dimebag
Steve Vai
Jeff Loomis
James Murphy
Chuck Schuldiner
John Petrucci (before 1994, most of his stuff nowadays sounds like warm up exercises)
Satch
Micheal Schenker
The Edge
Paul Gilbert
Eric Johnson
Patrick Rondat
Steve Wilson
Mark Tremonti
Slash
Andy LaRocque
Alex Skolnick
Criss Oliva
Frank Zappa

[triplehold]

This is a really good question, I tend to like all guitar players as long as it sounds good and makes sense. I've seen a lot of the greats in jazz, blues and rock because I was fortunate enough to grow up in a town rich in music. There is something really cool about a good player who is also the frontman in a band, a person who is the whole package. There are lots of musicians out there that handle the vocals, the leads, the onstage banter, the arranging and song writing. Countless names come to mind and I know there are many I am not even aware of. Hendrix, Prince, Gary Moore, Rory Gallagher and Stevie Ray fit that bill.

[jgcable]

Uli Jon Roth is my favorite.

[Jayster]

Grant Estes

[horns666]

Grant Estes

Wow, that actually threw me off. I had to youtube it. I always connected Rocky George to ST.

[Shawn Lutz]

Randy Rhoads and Yngwie Malmsteen are my biggest influences.

After that I like a lot of players but nothing did more for me as a player than those two cats...(other than classical music)

[wilkinsi]

Chris Holmes
Blackie Lawless
Dave Murray
Adrian Smith
Ihsahn

[TreeFitty]

-Mustaine, Hetfield, Dime, Scott Ian, and Mark Morton
-Eric Johnson, (old) Satriani and Vai, Chris Poland (solo & early Megadeth)
-Billy Gibbons, Steve Miller, the guys from Steely Dan and the Doobies
Of course, I've said "oh, shit yeah" while reading quite a few of the names listed in this thread.

[Hellbat]

Hmmm. My earliest influences for guitar would be probably Angus Young and Brian May. This would be back in 1979 or so. My older brother had a bunch of Beatles, Frank Zappa, and Jimi Hendrix albums so I was probably subconciously influenced by them as well because I listened to them from time to time (except the Beatles White album which I pretty much wore out, but haven't listened to in over 20 years).

Then when I started getting into the heavier stuff and discovered Sabbath right about the time Ozzy got sacked. So then it was Iommi. Then it branched out into related artists. Became a massive fan of Randy with Ozzy. Never liked VH back then because I thought Eddie dissed Randy. I bought my RR1T this year as a present to myself because of Randy. Then I dug Vivian Campbell with Dio, which got me into Gary Moore and Tygers of Pan-Tang.

Now I'm getting lazy so I'll just dump out some artist/band names with comments when appropriate...

Loved Maiden
Dave Chastain
Metallica (was listening to their demo when Mustaine was still in/being booted from the band)
Loudness (Akira's solo album Tusk of the Jaguar was so wierd and AWESOME)
***Yngwie (Started listening to him when a friend in the music biz got ahold of his demo that he had sent Mike Varney. I then followed him all the way through Steeler and Alcatraz and his solo career. Stopped listening to his new stuff after Live in Leningrad. You could tell he was dumbing himself down to try and sell albums and his playing was starting to get repetetive. Everything up to Marching Out was fresh and kicked ass though. He had a lot more fire back then.)
Fast Eddie Clark/Fastway
Tony Macalpine
Racer X
Vinnie Moore (A bit, he was kind of like Yngwie Light to me.)
Dweezil Zappa
John Sykes (More for his work with Tygers than Whitesnake, but his work there was top notch too.)

I can name off lots more too but the top three for me are Randy, Yngwie, and Gary Moore. I don't sound or play like any of them though. I sound like me. (and its bad! ) I realized early how much work it would be to be able to play like any one of these guys, and whenever I wish for something I wish I could play the music I hear in my head rather than what my hands can make. That would be worth more to me than a 500 billion $ lottery win.

[jacksoncsplayer]

Michael Schenker
Uli Roth
Robin Crosby
George Lynch
Dave Meniketti
Jabs

[Ben...]

Hmm...

Jeff Loomis - Biggest influence to my guitar playing. Currently doing a 3 string sweep exercise he gave for some magazine.
Vinnie Moore - I play lots of his songs. They're not that hard and they flow incredibly well.
Jari Maenpaa - His works got me into more extreme metal.
Antti and Pekka Kokko - Kalmah was my first death metal band.
Marty and Jason (Got me into shred)
Petri Lindroos - I like his work in Norther and Ensiferum.
Steve Harris - Biggest influence on my bass playing.
Adrian Smith and Dave Murray - Gotta love Maiden.
Tor Orsby (Spelling?) Dude's great in Conception and other bands.
Thomas Youngblood - I like his style.
K.K. and Glenn from JP - I love that band. Got the whole discography.
Ritchie Blackmore - Just discovered Rainbow. That's good stuff.
PG - He wrote Scarified. He is God.
Dudes from Quo Vadis - I like their style too.
Shawn Lane - Gray Pianos Flying... Oh yeah
Alex Skolnick - Old school Testament is great.

[Top Jimmy B]

EVH
Michael Schenker
George Lynch
Ty Tabor
Alex Lifeson
Tony MacAlpine
Uli Roth(scorpions era)
Yngwie
Tipton/Downing
Murray/Smith
James Hetfield
Eric Peterson
Dave Mustaine

[Trem]

All the guys everyone already posted...+ Hank Sherman in case anyone forgot.

[CrazyTrain]

Here's my select list...

Duane Roland
Rickey Medlocke
Ted Nugent
Steve Gaines
Duane Allman
Billy Gibbons
Steve Morse
Eric Johnson
Tom Scholtz
Gary Rossington
Warren DiMartini
Warren Haynes
Dickie Betts
Steve Vai
Joe Satriani
and
My Grandpa