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Not sure...
Page
with the lack of info provided in the Op, I'm guessing best ever guitarist? neither, Jimi Hendrix obvs.
Others will shortly argue for Jimmy Page, Mark Knopfler or Eric Clapton. Special mention for Robbie Krieger or Billy Corgan.
It's all subjective. I like my guitar players to be able to actually write a decent song too.
Iommi
Morello
None of those are options 'fraid
Although I do love Red House
Page gets a guitar lesson from Jack White
out of those two specifically?
May; for me
Peter Green
Green inspired B.B. King to say, "He has the sweetest tone I ever heard; he was the only one who gave me the cold sweats."[7][8] Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page have both praised his guitar playing.[9] Green's playing was noted for its idiomatic string bending and vibrato[6] and economy[10] of style.
He was ranked 38th in Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".[11] His tone on the Bluesbreakers instrumental "The Supernatural" was rated as one of the 50 greatest of all time by Guitar Player.[12] In June 1996 Green was voted the third-best guitarist of all time in Mojo magazine.[13][14]
You lot are misunderstanding the concept of 'or'.
He's saying, out of those two, which do you prefer? You can't add your own.
Slash all the way for me
May, Slash, Clapton, Page, Knopfler, Bonamassa, Satriani etc etc all excellent, all unique. No competition to be played, just appreciate the artistry of each!
I like May but i prefer Slash. As for the rest of you it's a big world. Robert Johnson, Julian Bream, Buddy Guy, Paco De Lucia the list is endless and you'd be fool to argue about it so carry on.
Plus
A guitarist is part of a band really. If you start comparing GnR with Queen, well - it's a non starter.
Queen were a unique phenomenon, in the nicest possible way. Never been anything like them before, and never will again. They invented their own genre of music, whilst at the same time being totally accessible, popular, pop-like and singable. Given how much music has been created in the world, and how derivative almost all of it is, that's quite something.
May is unique (although to start with he borrowed a lot from the best of the best, Rory Gallagher) and Slash is marvellous, but really needs Izzy to bounce off in order to get his best sound. On that basis, I'll go with May.
Today, maybe the the way around tomorrow 😀
May annoys me with his homemade guitar. You're worth millions, buy something exotic.
May every time
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(theres an image that going to take a weekends worth of drink to forget)
I love the tone May gets, and the harmonics are something special! That said ya gotta love Slash's swagger...
Brian May for me, he's got his own unique sound and way of playing. Slash is a good guitarist but seems pretty derivative to me.
Neither ...... By the looks of them both they don't tip their barbers
The red special sounds great. If a choice of the two then May, but that's only because I'd rather listen to Queen than G&R. Something to do with my age and background no doubt.
If you like the music you'll probably think more of the guitarist playing it. So in my case that's James Burton, Vince Gill, Brad Paisley, Michael Jones and many others.
I'm not a great fan of guitar hero solos, I like the sound of two or more guitarists working together, especially when the bassist gets onto the D and G strings and joins in:
Aubert and Bertignac in Téléphone
Stuart and Bruce in Big country
Jim, Don and Dave in Slade: the most proficient guitarist on Bass, a good guitarist on rhythm and errr. But put the three parts together in "keep on rockin' on Slade Alive and I love it (but you may not).
Sweet Home. Here's Laura Cox's cover, I'm not claiming she's the best but very competently does her own interpretation of the three guitar parts.
Out of those 2, Slash. But Brian May's great too.
Matt Bellamy from Muse is kind of godly though. He's got his own style but the mad thing is, he can play pretty much anyone else's too- he learned by mimicking but doesn't really seem to realise that most guitarists can't just go "today I shall learn how to be tom morello". Even tom morello can't do that.
(NME said that seeing him pick up a guitar is like seeing Luke Skywalker pick up a lightsaber)
Has to be Slash, at least he looks rock n roll. I'd rather listen to Neil Young or Marc Ford though.
Queen were a unique phenomenon, in the nicest possible way. Never been anything like them before, and never will again. They invented their own genre of music, whilst at the same time being totally accessible, popular, pop-like and singable. Given how much music has been created in the world, and how derivative almost all of it is, that's quite something.
And mostly remarkably dull!
White.
While everyone's just naming their favourite guitarists, I'll go for Mark Tremonti 🙂
Slash every single time. May always seems to be trying to hard like the eager but slightly ugly girl at school.
You have to have respect for May, GnR didn't really bring anything new to the game did they?
Oh, and my actual vote goes 50/50 between David Gilmour and Matt Bellamy (local lad)
Slash since I think he's more cool than May.
Bonnamassa, Lifeson or the Reverend Willy G for me.
It not really fair that we have seen what May is like 40 years on...
+ 1 Tremonti.
Slash and May are great but there are many greats out there.
Jamj1974 said Queen were 'dull' lol
10 - Member
Slash since I think he's more cool than May.
POSTED 1 HOUR AGO # REPORT-POST
Yeah, but is cool really all that?
Slash by a country mile...favourite guitarist of all time (but by no means the best)
I remember when I use to play guitar, I could play all of May's solos (obviously not like he can, but I could play the notes), but no way could I ever play like slash...not even close, as much as I tried.
Hendrix for me is the best, not the best technically, but the best overall...
I really really don't get Hendrix, at all. 2,3 great songs (one of which he didn't write) and the rest is just 'meh' (to me). Each to their own tho'.
I've just watched he guns n roses documentary on Iplayer. So will go with slash over May.
Those GnR boys knew how to live it up back then 😯
Ringo
I could play all of May's solos (obviously not like he can, but I could play the notes)
As if simply playing notes makes a great guitarist...
Of those two Slash but I really like both their work, within queen and gnr respectively at least.
I think a lot of who you admire guitar wise is driven by the music you like. In the golly that's outstanding guitar playing category would have to include
Dimebag Darrel
Kirk Hammett
Steve Perry
Page
Similarly bassists
Cliff Burton
Robert Trujillio in ST days
Steve Harris
Duff McKagan
Anyone spot a theme....
Coming from a family of professional musicians (not that I am one), slash by a country mile.
Scratch that, by the ****ing Atlantic Ocean.
bloodynora - Member
Jamj1974 said Queen were 'dull
Just my opinion. Personally, I think they had a couple of admittedly very high high-points but the rest is just a bit 'meh' for me. Also, I find May far less interesting than Mercury. That's where the unique factor was in Queen. I also think post-Mercury, Brian and Roger have diluted the legacy that Queen could have had.
As if simply playing notes makes a great guitarist..
Did not know you played - what grade are you ?
Neither is a great IMHO However Slash is way cooler so I will go for him.
May, his last two programmes on Cars for the People have been great. Slash was tragically slow in the reasonably priced car....