Top 100 Guitarists Of All Time:
 

12/17 - List Of Chop Shop's "Top 100 Most Complete Guitar Players of All Time" Unveiled

MelodicRock.com reports that Envision Radio Networks®' "Chop Shop Guitar Show" is pleased to announce The Chop Shop's "Top 100 Most Complete Guitar Players of All Time", a newly published list of the all-time greatest guitar players. Program host Steve Black (WRIF-FM) assembled a panel of music industry experts to help choose the list featuring 100 of the most revered guitar players crossing multiple genres. Rock legend Eric Clapton, English rock guitarist Jeff Beck, blues legend Muddy Waters, Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready, and Dave Murray and Adrian Smith of Iron Maiden are a few of the highlights on The Chop Shop's "Top 100 Most Complete Guitar Players of All Time". Each guitarist was graded in nine areas including technical ability, influence on the music industry, songwriting, signature sound, longevity, and four other categories. The complete list with video and judging criteria is available now at Chop Shop Guitar Show.

Chop Shop host Steve Black comments, "I love the complete angle we took with this list, and the depth of the details we used during the grading process." Black continues, "This is the best top 100 list I've ever seen."

The Chop Shop "Top 100 Most Complete Guitarists of All Time" was tabulated by a panel featuring Chop Shop host Steve Black (WRIF-FM/ Detroit, MI) joined by Paul Kramer (Korg, Vox, Toneworks), Chris A. (author of "A Vulgar Display of Power: Courage and Carnage at the Alrosa Villa" and concert photographer), Sean Baker (The Sean Baker Orchestra), and Jake Smith (Engineer and music aficionado.)

Each guitar player was graded in 9 categories:
* Technical: A player's technical ability. This also included things like recording, producing, building guitars and amps, etc…
* Soul/Emotion: A player's ability to make you feel their music.
* Influence on the Music Industry: A player's impact on the entire industry. This included things like a band's influence on other bands, live performances that led the way for others, marketing, starting your own label, etc…
* Influence on the Guitar Industry: Did the player inspire other guitar players, have there own guitar model, did kids key in on learning their songs from guitar teachers. Signature Amps, etc…
* Song Writing: the quality and quantity of songs that a player had a hand in writing
* Live: How a player pulled off his songs live, stage presentation, quality and quantity of shows.
* Sales: This included album sales, as well as guitar sales and concert ticket sales.
* Signature Sound: How unique was the guitar player. Could you name him in just a couple of seconds based solely on his sound?
* Longevity: How long did they last as a relevant musician. Are they still touring and selling tickets, if dead are their songs still being broadcast each day?
* Personal: This was just a fraction category used only as a tie breaker. We graded based on how important each player was to us personally.
9 categories, plus the fractional tie breaker for a possible high score of 90.99 (t) = tie



How the hell is James Hetfield so high? he sucks. Also, Ace is ranked #58, not bad for a guy who "cant play" & no Neal Schon,WTF?



http://www.melodicrock.com/CS100%20-%20The%20List.pdf

Neal Schon is on the list... #37

Really awful list, there's guitarists on there that aren't that good AND have next to no influence, like Adam Jones and Dan Donegan.

Not looked at the list but I'm guessing RockGuitar101 should be about 5th, yes?

Lol.

This is one of the worst lists I've ever seen.

So Jonny Greenwood isn't no 1 then.

Lol yes!

No but seriously it's a boring list that sucks off classic rock. Eddie Van Halen has no business being near the top of any list, same goes for Angus Young. Talented as they may be, they were two of the most unoriginal jokes of all time. I like how Buckethead is listed as being with GNR even though he recorded like 3 songs and left. Way to give some credit to his solo stuff... There's a couple more big time blemishes as well. Satriani, Mick Mars, Slash, etc... I could go on and on.

unoriginal jokes? find me anyone who played like EVH prior to 1978. anyone at all. i think he's a cheeseball who hasn't done anything of note in the last 20+ years but to claim he's one of the most unoriginal jokes of all time just shows how narrow of a scope you have in regards to guitar playing.

i don't think sales should have been a criteria in compiling the list but whatever, EVH would have high marks on pretty all the others. having said that i really don't like his guitars, his style, or even his face, but i'm not going to let my personal bias cloud my critical judgement. the guy 'can' play, he was unique and original in his day, and he had a massive influence on a generation of guitarists.

and yes.... i know technically top spots should have gone to charlie christian or django reinhardt but that list wasn't made up by a bunch of elitists snobs who just want to one up themselves with their extensive knowledge gleaned from wikipedia and allmusic.com. it was a list compiled for a rock show and website, it stands to reason that it would be a bunch rock guys from the last 4 decades.

WTF?? Where's the love for:

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l9...WWilliams2.jpg

Hetfield was popular/influental I suppose/sells were high/and longevity.

Based soley on skill, he isn't very high.

Well he wasn't the first to play really fast, and he wasn't the first to use tapping...

His question was, who else sounded like Eddie Van Halen in 1978? No one <_<

Thank christ for that.

Eddie Van Halen took what little emotion was left in guitar playing at the time and destroyed every last bit of it. He is the master of guitar wankery IMO. Satriani and Malmsteen look like Gilmour in his presence.

Eddie Van Halen is one of the best rhythm guitar players of his era, so please gtfo. He writes a very good rock riff.

right... but who else combined it the way he did? who else incorporated those elements of speed and virtuosity into contemporary pop rock tunes?

who else was tapping like him before he started? i know he got the idea from seeing led zeppelin in concert after watching page fake harmonics by tapping 12 frets higher on the neck. i've seen footage of hendrix in the studio while recording 'electric ladyland' doing the same. yet neither tapped like 'eruption' or made it a standard part of their musical vocabulary.

so just who was it that innovated two hand tapping beyond the point of faking a harmonic?

it's a list about guitarists not musicians.

Where's the love for Omar? D:

1. Eruption is the most boring piece of sh*t ever, so don't bring that up.

2. Just because he brought wankery to the mainstream doesn't make him one of the best ever.

Don't guitarists qualify as musicians?

Endlessley wanking on a fretboard denotes technical prowess. However it doesnt make it more palatable. EVH is a technically brilliant guitarist but that seems to me the antithesis of what the guitar brings to a musical venture. For all EVH's 'brilliance' they are still rarely classed as a groundbreaking rock act and regularly recieve praise through DLR's persona instead of the guitar work. If he was that good then why are Van Halen so average?

way to avoid my questions.

notice the way i've already claimed to not like EVHs guitar, his style, and even his face in my first post in this thread. i ABHOR eddie van halen. cheeseball to the max.

but i'm not up my own ego's anus so far as to deny his ability with the instrument or the influence he had on a generation.... so tell me WHO was tapping like EVH before him? his style of two hand tapping is so distant from the examples i listed to be its own technique. so who did the innovation if EVH is just a copycat?

i guess my musician / guitarist comment can be misinterpreted. the list is focused on the instrument, not the emotional quotient of the music created by the instrument. it's the difference between picking up a guitar and thinking 'i'm gonna play guitar' and 'i'm gonna make music'. it's like the difference between effing and making love.

sammy hagar :D

How about you read the original post... soul/emotion is one of the factors.

Maybe he was the first to do two handed tapping, but so what? The sound of his solos were so unoriginal. He played the same god damn scales that people had been playing for decades. He just figured out how to play them faster. Congratufuckinglations, he figured out how to jack of his guitar faster.

That only accounts for roughly 20% of their output and is a weak answer.

The same reason AC/DC are average... because they are just about making good, recycled rock and roll.

I'm going have to side with Mr. Dave here. Eddie Van Halen hasn't done anything worthwhile in several decades but I have to admit I actually like the first few Van Halen albums. I also think it is true that he was pretty unique when he started out and has been extremely influential. Unfortunately 99.9% of the bands he influenced completely suck ass and at this point the overwhelming majority of his own band's output also sucks ass so his legacy certainly leaves a lot to be desired.

AC/DC have never ever professed to be anything that they are not. Not one of them are outstanding musicians. However I am constantly told that I should like Van Halens music because he is technically proficient.

I've been told plenty of times that Angus Young is the greatest guitarist ever, that doesn't mean AC/DC are professing to be guitar gods either. The only person in Van Halen who gives off an image of egotism in Van Halen is DLR.

Oh, I don't know about that. I would say the only member of Van Halen that didn't give off an image of egotism was Michael Anthony.

You've obviously never seen an interview of EVH.

I've always said the ultimate irony with Van Halen was that despite people worshipping the ground EVH walks on with regards to his guitar playing as soon as the frontman who couldn't sing a note fucked off they were nothing.

That should tell people something about EVH's contribution to music.

AC/DC can do the ego thing too!
But really, I could care less what Van Halen THINK they're doing, I know what they're doing, and it's good rock and roll.

Simple equation. The greatest Van Halen Track:



Versus the greatest AC/DC track:

You did not just say Jump is Van Halen's best song. I thought you had better taste than that.

I think I would've picked "Hot For Teacher" as the best Van Halen track. But either way Van Halen wins hands down for me.

Most famous may have been more apt. I can remember a multitude of AC/DC trax. Van halen -i can't remember any.

i'm still curious to know who was doing two hand tapping first. :p:

Just to get off the EVH vs ACDC track

Jimmy Page was a horribly sloppy guitarist who wrote a couple of good riffs and couldn't keep his **** together live. Jeff Beck and Brian May far outclass him in all categories barring bull**** ones such as sales et al.

I really don't see how sales is an intrinsically valid criterion for evaluating guitarists. Anyway, while this list is generic and one dimensional, it's also nothing I didn't expect. Well ok, I'll admit I wasn't expecting to see the Disturbed guitarist in any top 100 list. :laughing:

Hetfield doesn't suck... Hammett's the one you should be complaining about.

Actually, yes he does, in fact, he's too low.

What you think of him or the guitarists he influenced means absolutely nothing, because it's undeniable that EVH was one of the most original and influencial guitar players of all time.

The fact that you go as far as to call him unoriginal clarifies that you don't know what you're talking about, 1978 he was the only guitarist of his kind. You can wiki some ridiculously obscure examples of other guitarists playing as fast as he did or doing two hand tapping, but he was the first to combine the two and spawn a whole generation of guitarists, as loathesome as they may be, his impact is unrivaled by no one but Hendrix.

The only other guitarist I can think of who used two handed tapping before EVH btw, is Steve Hackett, though he used it in a completely different way.

Bad reasoning is bad, you're stating the obvious, and do you think anyone honestly cares?

Page wasn't a great guitarist despite the fact that he was sloppy. It was a big part of his appeal, same with Hendrix, he played like he just didn't give a f*ck, isn't this what all the music snobs say rock n roll "should" be when they write off progressive rock or any band with a great amount of technical know how?

Page sucks because he's sloppy, EVH sucks because he's technical, make up your damn mind.

Thats a horrible example.

Thats like saying, well Paul McCartney must not be talented or influencial in anyway because you know, he sucks without the other guys.

With any band, chemestry is important, if you think DLR is the only reason Van Halen found success, then you're obviously crazy.

DLR's vocals did give Van Halen a distinct sound though which was lost when they got Sammy. But it goes without saying that what made Van Halen get peoples attention was the way EVH played, in 1978 every rock band had bluesy guitarists that were indistinguishable from another. EVH did something entirely different and thus inspired tons of musicians as a result, and yet, he's unoriginal and had no impact, based of course, on absolutely nothing.

Hilarious.

And no, I don't care about what you think about most of the guitarists he influenced, since I already know, and in fact, I dislike 90% of all the guitarists in the world who owe their existance to Eddie. But it dosen't change the fact that he inspired people, which as a music lover I have to respect.

If I were to go by an objective criteria I'd have to say that EVH is at least in the top 3 great guitarists of all time.

That is stupid.
Have you even heard heartbreaker? That's enough to put him down at about 200 at least.

Have you heard punk rock music as a whole?

Isn't that Syd Barrett in your avatar? Because he was WAY WAY WAAAAAAAAAY sloppier than Page. I mean Jesus Christ, just listen Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk, don't bullsh*t me about sloppy guitarists, this is a man you and your cronnies are calling the greatest f*cking genius in music history, and at the same time you want to call one of the most influencial guitarists of all time mediocre because he was sloppy on some performances?

Does any Led Zeppelin fan ever acknowledge Heartbreaker as one of Page's best works? NO.

Don't come back to me until you can play Since I've Been Loving You flawlessly.