The 50 BEST Guitarists of ALL TIME!
Published on 13 February 2025
It’s time.
I can hardly believe it but we’ve never actually done a ‘Greatest Guitarists Ever’ type of blog here at guitarguitar!
It’s high time that this egregious oversight was remedied! Now, this is obviously a large undertaking, so instead of brazenly deciding for myself who makes it onto the list and who doesn’t, I opened it up to my colleagues here at guitarguitar. What originally started as a top 20 quickly became 25, then 30 and onwards until the line was definitively drawn at 50.
50 of the greatest guitarists of all time.
What were the criteria? Well, I suppose the level of argument and defence for and against each entrant. Although ‘influence’ isn’t the only metric here (as it was in our Most Influential Guitarists of guitarguitar’s Lifetime blog last year), Angus Young’s popularity and universal love puts him on here in the place of countless technical wizards who haven’t inspired a rock in music the way Angus has for his fans.
Make sense?
I’ll still have plenty of shredders, classic guitar heroes and other stars of the six-string, but I will focus on overall greatness. With only 50 spaces, there’s sure to be many a top player who doesn’t make the cut, but that’s part of it too, isn’t it? Some of my personal favourites have been vetoed by the team already, so it’s not a personal quest here!
Anyway, let’s get to it! Here’s the list, in ascending order of greatness…
The 50 Best Guitarists of All Time
50. John Mayer
49. John Frusciante
48. Allan Holdsworth
47. Tim Henson
46. Lita Ford
45. John Sykes
The late, great John Sykes was underappreciated in his time. A great lead and rhythm player who contributed to some gigantic tracks by Whitesnake and other artists, Sykes (with a very cool black and silver/chrome Les Paul Custom) played the role of the classic 70s/80s lead guitar hero perfectly.
44. Andres Segovia
43. Steve Lukather
42. Joe Bonamassa
41. Marty Friedman
40. Yvette Young
Yvette Young’s jawdropping technique is matched only by her unique musical mind. She manages to make gorgeously melodic music by using some quite extreme playing, but she always manages to keep things accessible to the ear. Also, in a sometimes macho area of the guitar, her sound and approach sidesteps all of that posturing without compromising anything in her playing or intention. Plus, extra props for shredding on an Ibanez Talman, a very cool retro guitar initially from the 90s.
39. Slash
38. Wes Montgomery
37. Jerry Cantrell
36. John 5
John 5 is one of rock’s most spectacular sidemen. Coming to prominence with Marilyn Manson, John 5 then spent a long while with Rob Zombie, and is now the official axe-slinger for Motley Crue! His ability is astonishing, his dedication to the Telecaster complete and his makeup is perfect!
35. Freddy King
34. Jennifer Batten
33. Tony Iommi
Writer of the greatest riffs the instrument has seen. Invented heavy metal. What else do you need?
32. Tommy Emmanuel
31. Lindsay Buckingham
30. Uli Jon Roth
Uli Jon Roth brought exotic scales, string skipping and non linear note choices to rock many years before the shred crowd caught on. A true pioneer, Roth added a seventh string to his Sky guitars before anyone, and developed the voice of true classical music inside rock more than almost anyone else.
29. Les Paul
28. Eric Johnson
27. Django Reinhardt
26. John Petrucci
John Petrucci is a humble, friendly and pleasant man, until you put a guitar in his hands. Then, he becomes an astonishing one-man symphony of prog-shred, with skills that most other humans simply do not possess. Dream Theater may be a niche band, but that’s one enormous - not to mention impressive - niche!
25. Yngwie Malmsteen
24. Prince
To say that Prince’s guitar skills were about 5th or 6th on the list of his talents isn’t to diminish his ability on the instrument at all. On the contrary, it’s simply a fact that Prince was incredible at everything musical, from writing to singing to playing keys to production and even to dancing. Whatever the elusive ‘it’ is, Prince had loads of it, and he made it all so suave and effortless. A genuine superstar.
23. Chet Atkins
22. Eric Clapton
21. James Hetfield
20. Angus Young
19. Randy Rhoads
Ozzy Osbourne was either really wise, really shrewd or really lucky with his guitarists. Jake E Lee, Zakk Wylde, Joe Holmes, Tony ‘Lord of the Riffs’ Iommi and Randy Rhoads: now that is a list that possibly no other rock artist can match for talent! Each is legendary, but there’s a special place in all of our hearts for the unique style, taste and vibe of Randy Rhoads, a wonderful musician cut down far too early.
18. Paco De Lucia
To even be decent at true flamenco playing takes discipline and practice far in advance of most other guitar styles. To master it, become the greatest in the world at it, and then subvert the style entirely and invent more techniques to expand that style’s outlook? That takes a one-in-a-billion combination of talent, discipline, vision and determination. Paco de Lucia was such a person, and you absolutely need to know his playing better than you currently do.
17. Carlos Santana
16. Ritchie Blackmore
15. Tosin Abasi
14. Nuno Bettencourt
Nuno has enjoyed something of a renaissance in recent years, thanks to him largely giving us the calibre of playing that he always did (why didn’t it click for more people sooner?), and his inclusion here is nothing to do with any flavour-of-the-month. He’s a supreme guitarist, an old school hard rock hero, and his playing blends highly developed melody with incredible technique and an unmatched sense for drama and the unpredictable.
13. Joe Satriani
12. Stevie Ray Vaughan
11. Robert Fripp
King Crimson’s Robert Fripp is one of the most unique players in the rock idiom. Over 50 years of playing, Fripp is one of those people who seems to exist entirely ‘outside the box’, and he remains artistically inscrutable and quite unpredictable. Developing his own tuning is a small part of his offerings: Fripp has created his own entire language of guitar playing, which he has formed simultaneously with a whole philosophy/approach to art, outlined in his book, The Guitar Circle.
10. Dimebag Darrell
Pantera’s late axe-grinder was in many ways the true inheritor of Eddie Van Halen’s crown. Monstrously heavy but happy to mix it up style-wise, Dimebag was a classy player who knew when to really lay it on and when to sit into a deep groove. His riffs were mighty (and influential), and his solos were a thing of wonder. Sorely missed.
09. Jimmy Page
Les Zeppelin’s mastermind will be many guitar fans’ number one choice. He’s given us a lot, from stomping riffs to dramatic leads, all the way into pastoral acoustic reflectiveness. A producer and arranger as well as guitar hero, he’s as iconic as it comes.
08. Brian May
One of the most instantly recognisable players ever, Brian May’s sound is the stuff of legends. Using a home made guitar and a sixpence coin for a plectrum, May forged a thick, sustaining tone that proved the perfect foil for Freddie Mercury’s powerhouse vocals. Using every rock trick in the book, Brian May is one of those guitar heroes who actually makes it onto mainstream radio. And at their best, Queen were unstoppable. Go, Bri!
07. Steve Vai
The only player able to step into the shoes of both Eddie Van Halen (with David Lee Roth) and Robert Fripp (BEAT), Steve Vai happens to also have one of the world’s most distinctive and unique voices on the guitar. One of the most capable and technically able players in the world, Vai is also willfully reckless, happily throwing his famous grasp of theory aside in order to create entirely otherworldly sounds. Exotic and mysterious but always emotionally connecting, Vai is a guitar playing colossus.
06. Mark Knopfler
The tone! The touch! Knopfler is the people’s champion: a player more focussed on melody than excess. His own hero was Chet Atkins, and you can hear his influence in Mark’s approach to writing and phrasing. With Money For Nothing, he also wrote the one riff that every other guitarist on this list wish they’d written.
05. Guthrie Govan
Frighteningly accomplished and endlessly inventive, the affable and unassuming Guthrie Govan has nonchalantly become one of the world’s greatest and most intimidating guitarists. From his ‘day job’ in Hans Zimmer’s band to his own work with the Aristocrats and beyond, his is a unique, enthralling and subtly complex voice on the guitar.
04. Eddie Van Halen
Eddie Van Halen pretty much rewrote the rock guitar rulebook, and then continued to throw it out and rewrite it afresh throughout his career. Owner of perhaps the greatest guitar tone in history, the Dutch-born hard rock maestro brought fun and exuberance to every stage and every recording he appeared on. For decades, he was the most imitated player in rock, but nobody could ever quite nail the freedom and joy that can be heard coming from Ed’s battered old Frankenstein guitar.
03. Jeff Beck
Maverick musician Jeff Beck was a restless soul who lived to create and express. He is the guitarist worshipped by other guitar heroes, and he took it all in his stride, always more interested in chasing his muse than drinking up adulation. His fingerstyle technique gave him a touch to die for, and his whammy bar technique allowed his guitar to speak with an incredibly human voice.
02. David Gilmour
Pink Floyd’s lead guitarist and vocalist is perhaps the only player in the world who can come close to competing with Hendrix for sheer popularity. He is a musician for everybody, not just for guitar nerds, and his solos are world-famous compositions that millions of people can recognise and hum. Gilmour has great timing, a wonderful sense of drama and expression, and he never overplays, even when he takes huge solos! Also, his playing elevates the already wonderful music of Pink Floyd into full-on greatness, and for that he is our number two guitarist of all time.
01. Jimi Hendrix
I really tried to find a way to put somebody else in the top spot for once, if only because Jimi is always the one. We all talked it out, disagreed on other candidates, and in the end it always came back to this guy, the single greatest practitioner of the guitar. Jimi Hendrix wasn’t so much an extraordinary guitarist as he was a complete musical force of nature. He changed how everybody interacted with the instrument forever, and opened our eyes to possibilities that still haven’t been fully realised. In his stupidly short career, he covered more ground than other guitarists have in decades, and he did it all first, with unbelievable panache, finesse, and star power. He chased lightning and made it look effortless. For all of those reasons and a hundred more, Jimi Hendrix is the greatest guitarist who ever lived.
What Makes a Great Guitarist?
You wouldn’t believe the great players that were on the longlist here and didn’t make the cut. Voices were raised and eyes were rolled in exasperation. I mean, more than I normally get in the guitarguitar office. Regardless, I think this is as solid a top 50 as any. Do you agree? There are loads of classic players here, but then that’s because they are the ones who mainly wrote the language we all use on the instrument.
Plenty of personal heroes are absent from this list, but hey, maybe I’ll make it a Top 100 next time!
