18 Best Female Guitarists of All Time
Published on 06 March 2025
This weekend is International Women’s Day, and it is time to shine a celebratory light towards some of the most gifted, stunningly talented and musically incredible female guitar players the world has ever seen.
What is ‘best’? That depends on your perspectives and priorities, but what is indisputable is that every player on today’s list is a huge talent. We have shredders, finger-pickers, rock stars and slide legends, so there’s no competition here: everybody is incredible and everybody is unique.
In no particular order, here are the 18 best female guitarists of all time!
The Guitarists at a Glance
Elizabeth Cotten
Pioneering folk artist Elizabeth ‘Libba’ Cotten had actually given up her life as a musician for decades before being rediscovered by the Seeger family, themselves successful folkies. Mike Seeger began recording her, singing and playing in her idiosyncratic left-handed-and-upside-down way (melodies played with thumb, basslines with fingers), leading to not only tours and records, but also a Grammy win in 1984 at the age of 91! Wow!
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Another early game-changer, Sister Rosetta Tharpe has found another lease of life in the internet age, some 50 years after her passing in 1973.
Tharpe’s mixture of devotional gospel songs laced with raw rock licks were a revelation in the 1930s, resulting in her nickname ‘the original soul sister’. She was one of the first players to use heavy distortion, decades before rock music was a thing. Talk about a trailblazer?!
Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Raitt is widely held as not only a fantastic songwriter but one of the great practitioners of slide guitar. Since the early 70s, Raitt’s career has incorporated all of the major Americana elements of folk, country, blues and a good ol’ dose of rock and roll. Nominated for 30 Grammy awards, Bonnie has won 13. As influenced by the Beat poets as by classic songwriters, the only thing she is better at than guitar playing is crafting a great lyric.
Joni Mitchell
Folk legend Joni Mitchell has a fingerpicking style that is all her own. The Canadian folk singer will forever be tied to the 60s hippy movement with songs like Woodstock and Big Yellow Taxi, but her career spanned over 40 years and explored numerous paths. Mitchell also created the majority of her own album covers too, making her a fully rounded artist and creative person.
Into her 80s now, Mitchell is taking it easy, which is fair enough given what she has already contributed!
Nita Strauss
Hurricane Nita is a force of nature indeed. Finding fame as part of Alice Cooper’s band (he has always had a good luck/sense with his guitarists) Strauss was also, bizarrely, the ‘official in-house guitarist’ for an American Football team (LA KISS) owned by Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley!
Strauss has provided her considerable guitar skills for Demi Lovato as well as remaining on-call for Cooper, and in her solo career launched one of the most successful pre-orders in history for her album Controlled Chaos.
A killer guitarist and an ace collaborator, Nita is a leading trailblazer in the new generation of guitarists, and has a number of signature guitars with Ibanez.
Nancy Wilson
In the 70s, Heart’s Nancy Wilson showed all of the rock star boys that a girl could play the game at a high level. The band were (and remain) an arena-sized attraction, with their catalogue of songs both sizable and timeless.
Alongside her lead vocalist sister Ann, Nancy is the heart of Heart, as it were! Think of the riffs to Barracuda and Crazy on You, and you’ll be starting to get a sense for Nancy as a talent.
Orianthi
Australian hotshot Orianthi was selected by the King of Pop himself Michael Jackson to be lead guitarist on his (never to be) This Is It tour. Given the players he has used in the past (Jennifer Batten, Slash, Eddie Van Halen etc), it was a huge affirmation indeed.
Since then, Orianthi has gone on to collaborate with Steve Vai, add vocals to her skillset and front her own band. She’s an incredible player and you never know what she’s going to do next.
Lita Ford
Lita Ford is a trailblazing female guitar hero in the classic mould. From her days as the Runaways’ lead guitarist to her duet with the Prince of Darkness himself Ozzy Osbourne, Ford has lived the authentic hard rock dream.
Ford has rocked a number of axes over the years, but a special shout-out goes to her enduring love for BC Rich Warlock guitars. Ford knows how to blend the flash with the melody, all in the service of a great song.
Samantha Fish
Samantha Fish is fast becoming a modern day blues icon. An awesome player and incredible singer, Fish has single-handedly built an enviable career out of hard work, persistence, great tunes and kinetic live performances.
Samantha is well known for using a cigar box guitar, and is a mean slide player too. She’s also an inspiration in terms of her work ethic, so she’s definitely one to watch. Read our Samantha Fish interview for some generous insights into how to approach career longevity.
Jennifer Batten
The tall hair, the wild solos, the pure attitude…you don’t get much more iconic than Jenifer Batten on Michael Jackson’s world tours. A native New Yorker, Batten was initially a jazzhead, studying at the Musician’s Institute before she joined MJ’s band and took off into the stratosphere.
An unbelievably talented player, Batten’s own music has incorporated avant-garde and World influences, and she also toured for years as part of Jeff Beck’s band. For more, read our exclusive Jennifer Batten Interview blog.
Joan Jett
Joan Jett brought glamour and attitude to The Runaways, before embarking on a successful solo career. It wasn’t easy for Jett to break through in the 70s rock scene, and after being rejected by 23 labels, formed her own Blackheart Records label. History marks this as one of the first times a female recording artist had set up their own label, and the message and influence there is huge.
Jett’s big hits include ‘I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll’ and ‘Crimson and Clover’, and she is seen as a majorly influential figure for all rebels and outsiders to this day. Fun fact: in 2009, Mattel released a Joan Jett Barbie doll!
Susan Tedeschi
Grammy nominee Susan Tedeschi is a musical force both in her own right and with her husband Derek Trucks. The couple’s Tedeschi Trucks Band only became a thing after the pair were married for a decade, a time in which Tedeschi had already more than forged her own career.
In fact, Tedeschi has been performing live since she was 5 years old, and also graduated from Berklee with a degree in composition. A mean slide player with her own signature Tele, Susan is a musician in the mould of Bonnie Raitt and Janis Joplin, but with a style entirely her own.
Yvette Young
Technically impressive and full of colour, Yvette Young’s voice on the guitar is as distinct as it is fun to hear. She puts her advanced knowledge of piano across to the guitar in a way that results in some very ‘out of the box’ playing: she’s an extraordinarily un-cliched musician.
Whether playing solo, teaching or touring with her band Covet, Young and her Ibanez Talmans are a breath of fresh air.
Sophie Lloyd
Hitting the big time as guitarist for Machine Gun Kelly, Sophie Lloyd is fast becoming a rock legend in her own right. Phenomenally talented and utilising a strong work ethos, Lloyd has made herself a very visible presence online, both with collaborations and on social media.
With her latest album Imposter Syndrome dropping in late 2023, the guitaring world awaits her next move.
Lari Basilio
Brazilian instrumentalist Lari Basilio is one of the most exciting voices on contemporary guitar. Starting as an organ player (at 4 years old!) Basilio actually graduated as a lawyer and practised law for a year before switching to her first love, the guitar!
That’s good news for all of us, because the Ibanez signature artist is one of the most tasteful and inspiring virtuosos around.
Anna Calvi
Londoner Anna Calvi isl revered as not only a wonderful guitarist but an incredible vocalist and songwriter. With an exotic, cinematic edge to her music, Calvi and her battered Telecaster explore the more theatrical outer edges of Indie rock.
Initially a classical violinist, Calvi found inspiration in the impressionism of modern classical composers, and actually didn’t begin singing until her mid twenties.
Since her last album - 2018’s Hunter - Calvi has scored the TV show Peaky Blinders.
Poison Ivy
Horror rockers The Cramps are easily one of the coolest bands ever to exist. Lead singer Lux Interior was like an actual vampire (and in fact contributed voiceover screams to Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula movie) and guitarist Poison Ivy (real name Kristy Wallace) was a straight-up badass. Standing root-still and staring out her audience, Ivy brought her psychobilly sound to the world with a Gretsch hollowbody that looked huge on her diminutive frame. It was a sight to behold, and to hear, and she has influenced generations of players who want to cop that attitude.
St Vincent
Mercurial and aloof, St Vincent is the professional persona of Annie Clark, and she is one of today’s most popular musicians. Over a career that has proven impossible to predict, Clark has changed her sound, image and approach to fit with her muse.
She’s a Music Man artist with her own signature guitar, a model that is as defiantly individual as its creator.
International Women’s Day
International Women’s Day will be Saturday 8th March this year. As we at guitarguitar celebrate all of these astounding, hard-rocking women, we salute all women who decide to pick up a guitar and play, for any reason at all. Everyone on today’s list is a trailblazer in their own way, and have had to face situations that male guitarists haven’t had to even think of. Discrimination and sexism belong in the Dark Ages: there is no place for either within the joyful world of music! It's still a heavily male-dominated world and that’s a shame for everybody, but with players like these shining a light for the future, we can hope to see future talent making it through into the mainstream.
