I'll toss a few out there... Jimi Hendrix (don't care - he's amazingly great and he revolutionized the guitar), Frank Zappa, Django Reinhardt, Wes Montgomery, Tom Verlaine, Robert Johnson (depending on which of the qualities are weighted), Bert Jansch, etc. Really, I think we should come up with a list of qualities that each should have (like I previously stated) and then give each a number. Like... Technical Ability could be up to 50 points or sales around 10 points. Those are just examples though.

getting upset at a Rolling Stone list of anything is like getting pissed off that your dog is licking its balls.

really though, when is the last time this magazine was honestly relevant to any of your lives in even the slightest (as in you would regularly flip through each issue every month and sometimes even buy it)? it's a who's who of rock guitarists for most members' dads.

this list in particular gets posted so much it's not even funny anymore. it's been floating for at least a few years now too, which explains some rather 'obvious' omissions at this point.

I don't understand what you're getting at. What's wrong with Clapton?

Be that as it may, I feel we could create a top 20 list of guitarists. That's kind of the purpose of this thread. I would like for a bunch of people to get together on this thread so we could create a list.

My main gripes with the guy are:

- Boring solos.
- Really poor blues imitation (are we really going to accuse Eminem of ripping off black people when Clapton exists?).
- Those annoying "Look at me I'm pouring out my soul!" facial expressions when soloing. It's not so much that he does it; it's more that he does it when he's playing these really lazy one-note phrases during his solos, which, by the way, are boring.
- If you ask me, his music's dated terribly, aside from his work with Cream. "Layla" takes effort for me to get through.

You've never heard of Al Stewart?
That's almost an achievement on itself.
I don't know what it's like in the US, but he's pretty well known.
His later work is not as good as the old stuff, but you must know either of these songs:
YouTube - Al Stewart - Year Of The Cat

YouTube - Al Stewart - On the Border (with lyrics)

I rarely listen to the white stripes, I like the raconteurs, I rarely listen to the Dead Weather, but I do recognise the utter brilliance of the musician that Jack White is.
And you'll see, in fourty years, people will still talk about him like they now talk about people like Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young or Tom Waits.
Mark my words. The guy is a genius.
And to prove I'm not biased, have a look at the link beneath my postings to see I've only got one Raconteurs album and that's it ;D.

I couldn't agree more. I've never understood the brilliance of Clapton.
It might just be me (us ;D), that could be true.
There's some songs of his I like. I like Let it Grow, I like the reasonably new song "Autumn Leaves" and I like some of his work with John Mayall. But I never felt like he deserved the status he has.

I've got a similar thing with Solo beatles. Apart from a few nice songs and probably the first two McCartney Solo Albums, I never quite liked the Beatles, Solo. I loved them together, btw.

Agreed 100%
Anybody who has criticism of Jack White I urge to watch either It Might Get Loud, Under Great White Northern Lights or Under The Blackpool Lights.

I've got the first two docs on my PC. Still have to watch them.
So I haven't seen them yet, but when I listen to that brilliant break in "Broken Boy Soldiers", to the arrangement of Dylan's "one more cup of coffee", to the incredibly beautiful "Carolina Drama" or to 'little room', which is a joke, which is simple but which still is a real piece of music, I can't deny that White is a genius. And so versatile. I recently ran into his instrumental B-side". The Bane Rendition. Really funky.

I'm not really into White, I'm not really into White Stripes or The Dead weather. But you don't need to hear an awful lot of his music to be able hear the awesome musical inventions this man makes.

I like Metallica but Kirk Hammett should not be 11th. Kurt Cobain should be around the
90's if you must insist he be included in the top 100 for his "creativity". Jeff Beck should be a little higher than that. Johnny Ramone's guitar work is so painfully repetitive, he should not be on this list. John Frusciante should be around the 50's. I would put Robert Johnson and Jimmy Page ahead of Duane Allman. Eric Clapton did some amazing guitar work in Cream. He deserves top 10 status just for that, even if his solo stuff did get boring.