Your most influential guitar players

Gahr

Gahr

Ambassador of Blues & Brews
Country flag
A small comment from @syscokid in a different thread got me thinking. We tend to talk a lot about who our favorite guitar players are. However, we do not necessarily talk that much about who has been the most influential when it comes to developing our style, or "voice" if you will, on the guitar.

If I have to pick a single favorite, I would have to say Eddie van Halen, after all he was the one who got me interested in the guitar in the first place. But he certainly hasn't been that important in me finding my own style of playing. Now, like Taj Mahal once said, "I got more heros than Wild Bill Hickok had notches on his belt", but there are a few that stand out as particularly influential. My top five (not necessarily in any order of importance) are probably these:

Peter Green
Eric Clapton
BB King
Freddie King
J. Geils

What are yours? And remember: Not just your favorites, but the guys that have influenced your playing the most!
 
I think mine would be

Peter Green
Jeff Beck
John Williams
Mark Knopfler

Not in any particular order

Ask me again tomorrow and you will probably get a different list
 
Could one of you nice moderators please fix the spelling error in the thread title?:oops:
 
Robby Krieger
John Cippolina
Bob Weir
Stacey Sutherland
Gary Duncan
Jerry Garcia
Mike Bloomfield
Steve Lukather
Jorma Kaukonnen
 
Last edited:
My family of musicians injected music into me.

Angus made me pick up guitar, and my style most reflects.

Then inspired by...

Dave Murry
Glen Tipton
Randy Rhoads
Joe Satriani
 
Can't really say that any particular guitar player has influenced my style..... can't say I really have a style. Pretty much a bedroom player/strummer. However, I can offer ups a few that prompted me to pick up the guitar. That would be CSN and mostly Y. Also the reason that my first guitar purchase way back in 1974 was an acoustic.
 
My list continued.

I second the inclusion of David Gilmour, Jimmy Page, Neil Young, etc. All have shaped the music I hear and attempt to create myself.

In addition, I surely have Eddie VH, Keef, Bob Marley, Mark Farner, Carlos, Leslie West, my buddy Ron Zebron, Michael Schenker,
Uli Roth, All the Iron Maiden axe men, Iommi, Frusciante, Gary Moore, Rory, Terry Kath, Steve Howe, Robert Johnson, Muddy, Duane Allman and the list goes on.

I hear them all as if guitar courses through my veins. If I could, I would listen to and absorb rock n roll guitar music 24/7 365.
 
John Cippolina, Jorma Kaukonen, some guy from
Brooklyn named Larry Stone who is not famous
and a girl named Theresa, from who I learned
how to play pretty stuff.
Especially John though, He convinced me to buy my first SG.
 
Genuinely influenced and guided my playing from the beginning.

Duane Eddy (smoothness and vibe)
Ted Nugent (jamed with him enough to absorb more than can ever be described )
B.B. King (phrasing, bends, vibrato, and style )
Albert King (huge bends, monster licks, and bold pickless attack)
Leo Kotke (refined finger picking and melodic slide work)

And if I misspelled stuff, oh well....
 
6 strings???
Joe Perry
Ace Frehley
Clapton
Frank Marino
BB King
Les Paul
Jimmy Page
 
C'mon people. Nobody else was influenced by a non famous player?
I'm not buyin' that for a minute. What about the other guitar player
in any of the bands you've been in? What about that guy in that
wedding band? What about the guy in the subway station?
The only guitar players you listen to are the famous ones?
No way, no how. Not buyin' it. Not for a New York minute.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top