The Hendrix hype machine is a pet peeve of mine. He is so often credited with inventing distortion in rock in roll that it makes me ill. The Beatles used a lot of distortion on "I feel Fine" that was 2 years before Hendrix. Muddy Waters used it 20 years before that. Will Kizart used distortion on the tracks he laid down on Rocket 88 in 1951. Rocket 88 is considered by many as the first Rock n Roll song. Ok, so take away Hendrix inventing distortion, what else did he do? He influenced alot of people, yes. But does that really make him great. He is a good guitar player, but does not hold a candle to SRV, Muddy Waters, B.B. King or Eric Clapton. I would say that Jimmy Pages stuff he laid down with the Yardbirds are better than anything Hendrix ever did. I could be wrong.
I would have to agree with Steve Vai too. Two other more underground guys are Frank Gambale (Jazz player) and Jimmy Herring from a band called the Aquarium Rescue Unit (now defunct). Those guys are amazing.
This guy I know named Steve is phenomenal. He is starting to write his own stuff and will be coming out with an album in the near future.
Man...its hard to pick from a list like this because there are many guitarists missing. From this list I would pick SRV with Hendrix/EVH & Jimmy Page all bunched together after that. SRV was a Phenom....Im always ammused by this Quote from Clapton regarding SRV. ""I don't think anyone has commanded my respect more, to this day. The first time I heard Stevie Ray, I thought, "Whoever this is, he is going to shake the world." I was in my car and I remember thinking, I have to find out, before the day is over, who that guitar player is. That doesn't happen to me very often, that I get that way about listening to music. I mean, about three or four times in my life I've felt that way, in a car, listening to the radio, where I've stopped the car, pulled over, listened, and thought, I've got to find out before the end of the day, not, you know, sooner or later, but I have to know NOW who that is." Those cracking on Hendrix because of the distortion claims are all wrong. The guy could play his a$$ off. Are any of you commenting here even axe players? You ever tried to play some hendrix solos or some of his full mix's? If you did you wouldnt make those comments. A few not on that list that should be considered and in no particular order: 1) Chet Atkins (absolute guitar god) 2) Steve Vai (Incredible technical player) 3) Steve Howe (great inovative player) 4) Joe Satriani ( listen to him make an axe SING) 5) Steve Morse (he can play any style out there incredibly well) 6) Brian Stetzer (rockabilly KING!) 7) Jeff Beck (does more with his left hand than many guitarists do with both) 8) John Petrucci (FABULOUS tone...the guys is a tone MONSTER) Fact of the matter is VERY, VERY difficult to pick the best because there are so many that are excellent and have different styles. I always have fun talking this subject up though with my axe playing friends.
The first time I ever saw Stevie Ray Vaughn was in a small club in the Kenilworth Shopping Center called Chief's back in the 70's before SRV had hit the big time. I had never heard of him but the owner of Chief's had been raving about how great he was for a couple of weeks so I decided to check him out. Needless to say I was blown away. After that SRV played at Cheif's maybe 15 times before he got to big to play at small clubs anymore and I made every show. What a treat.
Carl Perkins is a great picker...but I think Roy Clark is equally as good if not better. Plenty of good pickers out there though..especially in the blue grass circles. Man, I wish I had seen Stevie Ray live...just never had the chance. I have every single album he made and all of his bootlegs. Plus, every DVD I can get my hands on. Live at the El Mocambo is a blistering set of nothing but hard core boogie that will leave you in awe. I highly recommend watching it for SRV fans.
