My cyber friend Amy emailed me to tell me she thought Neil Young was a great guitar player. She had been listening to him on the way to work. This is not only blasphemous but so imcomprehensible that it made me choke on my water. He did make Rolling Stones top 100 list of guitarists at # 83 but go figure. I don't put a lot of credence in these things. I do like Neil Young as an artist and songwriter but guitarist? NO WAY.
So after some dialog she asks " who is your guitar hero" and I couldn't answer the question. I had to give it some thought. It's kind of like asking who your favorite painter is because there are so many different styles. You have classically trained portrait artists that paint with great detail and then you have impressionists and abstract artists with unique perspectives. Likewise, you have classically trained guitar players like Brian May, Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson and you have what I would consider abstract players like Dick Dale and Jeff Beck. Impressionists, well I would put Clapton, Hendrix, Carlos Santana in this category... something like that.
There's a lot more to playing a guitar than picking and strumming. Artists develope their own styles by using the components of a guitar to get a particular tone. Different styles of picks create different sounds. Different woods create different resonation as do electric guitar pickups. Gibsons sound different than Fenders. A tube amp gives warm vintage sound ... whammy bars, effects pedals..... it goes on and on. I have a Line 6 amp that has a knob you can turn and get about 20 different amp modulations. But instead of hauling around a 50lb amp, I just bought a Digitech box for $99 with 72 different modulations, with wah pedal built in, a tuner and effects settings. Its about the size of a shoe box and I can plug it into the PA system. That rocks!
Ok, here is my top ten list:
1. Chet Atkins - He had to have three hands to play like he did. Deceased.
2. Eric Clapton - I was at a loss for words when I met him. No need to say anything here.
3. David Gilmore - Amazing stylist. He can bend a note further than anyone I know.
4. Dickie Betts - Plays alot in the major pentatonic scale. Love his style.
5. Jeff Skunk Baxter - My favorite lick of all time = My Old School, Steely Dan.
6. Jimmy Hendrix - He was actually a really good blues player.
7. BB King - Great solos only using one or two of his strings.
8. Mark Knoplfer - Dire Straits, brilliant.
9. Ted Nugent - Gotta love uncle Ted for a lot of reasons. Stranglehold baby.
10. Stevie Ray Vaughan - Probably should be higher on my list.
Special mention goes to: Duane Allman, Warren Haynes, Bonnie Rait, Van Halen, Johnny Winter, Jerry Garcia, Mo Keb, Derek Trucks, Gary Collingsworth, Eric Johnson, Carlos Santana.
