Is technical ability everything?
 

I'm mainly talking about guitar playing. I tend to think it's not everything. I value creativity more than technical ability. I think a technical guitar player is a lot easier to come by than a really creative and innovative one. You can find young kids on youtube who are pretty technical, but you won't find one who is as creative and innovative as Hendrix. Technical ability is something you can learn. Creative ability is something that you can't learn from a book or music theory.

What do you think?

Hendrix was also technically good
 

Both are obviously helpful. Hendrix is usually considered the greatest of all time (he just won another such designation from rolling stone magazine), because he has both components. Joe Satriani is obviously technically amazing, but perhaps beyond the average listener's ability to comprehend, plus I don't find him that satisfying emotionally. Johnny Ramone could barely play, but The Ramones's fans totally got it.

Hendrix was also technically good? I think so too. I've heard a lot of people who know a lot about the technical side of music say that Hendrix was terrible, but I've also heard some knowledgable people say that he was great.

I agree, Satriani is definitely a very technical player, but I don't find his music very enjoyable. Some people just can't see anything good about a guitarist if they aren't extremely technical. I find that to be a little irritating.

musiclistsareus was probably right about Johnny Ramone. He wasn't technical, but he played in a way that people could relate to. And remember Richie Sambora from Bon Jovi? People absolutely loved them, but when you think about the actual guitar work, it's pretty easy stuff. "You Give Love A Bad Name" sounds incredible, but all it was was him using a double octave and a few power chords.

Most people are usually going to prefer the more simple playing. Ever since I started playing guitar I realized that some songs aren't as difficult as they seemed before I learned to play. But that doesn't mean that I lost respect for those songs, because they still sound great. And playing the song isn't nearly as hard as doing the actual creating.

Certainly not. There are more important elements that make music great than technical ability.

To quote Dickie Peterson of Blue Cheer - "Rock 'n' Roll is 10 percent technique and 90 percent attitude. If you can deliver one note with the right attitude it will do more than 60 notes with no attitude".

i can appreciate technicality but not when it's just mere wanking

cough cough hack Malmsteen

Satriani can obviously write a good tune, but. he. just. can't. sing

Short answer = No.

Tbh I would rather hear a great song than just a technical exercise played at warp speed for 3 minutes.

If I can hold John McLaughlin and Link Wray in the same class of guitarists... no.

they're both great in their own way

McLaughlin has some great melodic contours and tonal pallettes, if you can catch his notes - he's not just wanking

Link Wray basically invented punk and heavy metal