Greatest Guitarists Ever
From blues pioneers to shred virtuosos, these six-string legends redefined the instrument. Vote for who you think truly deserves the title of greatest guitarist ever.
What counts: Ranking reflects technical skill, innovation, influence on other musicians, and cultural impact. Years active and other figures are approximate and sourced from general public knowledge.
He set his Stratocaster on fire at Monterey and rewired the electric guitar's entire vocabulary in the same breath, turning feedback, wah, and studio trickery into a new language of expression. 'Voodoo Child' and 'Machine Gun' still sound like transmissions from the future; every guitarist since has been chasing a ghost that never left. Simply the alpha and omega of this list — the standard against which everyone else is measured and found wanting.
Years Active: 1963-1970Primary Genre: Rock/PsychedelicTechnical Skill: 9.5/10Influence: 10/10Signature Song: Purple Haze
added by IJRin 4 rankingsJimi Hendrix
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From the Yardbirds to Cream to 'Layla,' Clapton dragged Chicago blues into rock's mainstream and made the guitar solo a religious event — literally, given the 'Clapton is God' graffiti. His phrasing on 'Crossroads' taught a generation of British and American players how to bend a note until it wept. He's the bridge between the blues masters and the arena-rock gods, indispensable even when his later output got safe.
Years Active: 1963-presentPrimary Genre: Blues RockTechnical Skill: 9/10Influence: 9.5/10Signature Song: Layla
added by IJREric Clapton
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Jimmy Page
As architect of Led Zeppelin, Page treated the studio itself as an instrument, layering acoustic filigree, orchestral riffing, and violin-bow shrieks into songs like 'Stairway to Heaven' and 'Kashmir.' He invented heavy rock's riff-as-hook grammar, the DNA of everything from Sabbath to grunge. A producer's ear paired with a plunderer's instinct for the perfect riff makes him rock's most influential architect.
Years Active: 1957-presentPrimary Genre: Hard RockTechnical Skill: 9/10Influence: 9.5/10Signature Song: Stairway to Heaven
added by IJR
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B.B. King
One note from Lucille, bent and vibrato-shaken on 'The Thrill Is Gone,' says more than most guitarists manage in a sixty-second solo. King distilled the entire blues tradition into an economy of phrasing that Clapton, Hendrix, and SRV all studied like scripture. He didn't need speed — he had feel, and feel is the thing every technician on this list is secretly chasing.
Years Active: 1949-2014Primary Genre: BluesTechnical Skill: 8.5/10Influence: 9.5/10Signature Song: The Thrill Is Gone
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Chuck Berry
The double-stop riff that opens 'Johnny B. Goode' is rock and roll's founding document, and Berry wrote it, played it, and duck-walked across the stage while doing it. He turned the guitar from a rhythm-section footnote into the instrument every kid wanted to pick up, directly seeding Keith Richards, Angus Young, and basically the entire British Invasion. Without Berry's riff-based songwriting, there's no rock guitar hero archetype to build a list like this around.
Years Active: 1953-2014Primary Genre: Rock and RollTechnical Skill: 8/10Influence: 10/10Signature Song: Johnny B. Goode
added by IJRin 2 rankings
0Jimmy Hendrix's contemporary Eddie Van Halen
'Eruption' dropped in 1978 like a grenade in the middle of rock guitar, introducing two-handed tapping, dive bombs, and a tone so bright and violent it sounded like it was inventing a new instrument. Van Halen turned technical wizardry into pure joy — no brooding, just a grinning virtuoso making impossible things look easy. He single-handedly launched the '80s shred era and remains the most copied right hand in guitar history.
Years Active: 1972-2020Primary Genre: Hard RockTechnical Skill: 10/10Influence: 9.5/10Signature Song: Eruption
added by IJR
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He took Hendrix's fire and B.B. King's ache and welded them into a Texas blues-rock attack so ferocious it sounded like he was trying to physically destroy his Strat on 'Texas Flood.' SRV single-handedly resurrected blues guitar for a generation raised on synthesizers, proving raw tone and touch still mattered in the MTV era. Gone at 35, he left behind a body of work that still makes seasoned players quit practicing for the day.
Years Active: 1971-1990Primary Genre: Blues RockTechnical Skill: 9.5/10Influence: 9/10Signature Song: Texas Flood
added by IJRStevie Ray Vaughan
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David Gilmour
Gilmour proved that restraint could be as devastating as speed — the slow-burning solo on 'Comfortably Numb' is a masterclass in melodic patience, every bend placed like a held breath. He built Pink Floyd's atmospheric universe out of sustain, delay, and an almost vocal sense of phrasing rather than flash. The guitarist's guitarist for anyone who believes fewer, better notes beat a thousand fast ones.
Years Active: 1965-presentPrimary Genre: Progressive RockTechnical Skill: 8.5/10Influence: 8.5/10Signature Song: Comfortably Numb
added by IJR
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Richards didn't invent the riff, but he perfected the dirty, open-G, five-string swagger that makes 'Jumpin' Jack Flash' and 'Start Me Up' sound like they're about to fall apart in the best possible way. He's rhythm guitar elevated to an art form, the human groove machine at the center of the Rolling Stones' six-decade party. No one has ever made simplicity sound more dangerous.
Years Active: 1962-presentPrimary Genre: RockTechnical Skill: 7.5/10Influence: 9/10Signature Song: (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
added by IJRKeith Richards
0Jimmy Buffett's opposite, Slash
Top hat, cigarette, and a Les Paul scream that kicks off 'Sweet Child O' Mine' like a thunderclap — Slash became the last great guitar-hero silhouette before grunge tried to kill the archetype. His bluesy, melodic leads on 'November Rain' and the Appetite for Destruction album kept classic-rock guitar theatrics alive well into the '90s. He's proof the image and the riff can still move units when both are this good.
Years Active: 1985-presentPrimary Genre: Hard RockTechnical Skill: 8.5/10Influence: 8/10Signature Song: Sweet Child O' Mine
added by IJR
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Carlos Santana
At Woodstock, Santana fused blues-rock with Latin rhythm and psychedelic sustain, and 'Black Magic Woman' became the sound of a whole new hybrid genre. His tone — warm, singing, unmistakably his own — turned him into one of the few guitarists recognizable within two notes. Decades later 'Smooth' proved that voice never lost its commercial or emotional pull.
Years Active: 1966-presentPrimary Genre: Latin RockTechnical Skill: 8.5/10Influence: 8.5/10Signature Song: Black Magic Woman
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In a schoolboy uniform, duck-walking across stages worldwide, Angus Young turned the simple three-chord riff into a blunt instrument on 'Back in Black' and 'Highway to Hell.' He's proof that AC/DC's whole philosophy — no solos for solos' sake, just maximum riff efficiency — is its own form of genius. Nobody swings harder with less clutter.
Years Active: 1973-presentPrimary Genre: Hard RockTechnical Skill: 7.5/10Influence: 8/10Signature Song: Back in Black
added by IJRAngus Young
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After a factory accident took the tips of his fingers, Iommi detuned his guitar and, out of necessity, invented the doom-laden, down-tuned riff that became heavy metal's blueprint on 'Black Sabbath' and 'Paranoid.' That dark, sludgy sound directly birthed metal as a genre, from Metallica to Sabbath's countless disciples. Few guitarists can claim to have accidentally created an entire musical movement out of physical limitation.
Years Active: 1968-presentPrimary Genre: Heavy MetalTechnical Skill: 8/10Influence: 9/10Signature Song: Iron Man
added by IJRTony Iommi
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Mayer spent the 2000s proving a pop star could also shred like a blues-rock lifer, and his live improvisations — especially post-Trio era with Pino Palladino and Steve Jordan — earned respect from purists who initially rolled their eyes at his radio hits. 'Wildfire' and his Dead & Company tenure showed genuine command of Clapton- and SRV-indebted phrasing, not just technique for its own sake. He's the rare modern guitarist who translated blues chops into mainstream stardom without diluting either.
Years Active: 1998-presentPrimary Genre: Blues/PopTechnical Skill: 8.5/10Influence: 7/10Signature Song: Gravity
added by IJRJohn Mayer
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Satriani made instrumental rock guitar commercially viable, turning 'Surfing with the Alien' into proof that a wordless album built entirely on melodic shred could go platinum. As a teacher, he mentored Steve Vai, Kirk Hammett, and half of modern shred guitar before becoming a virtuoso icon himself. He's the professor of the fretboard, technically dazzling but always in service of an actual tune.
Years Active: 1980-presentPrimary Genre: Instrumental RockTechnical Skill: 9.5/10Influence: 7.5/10Signature Song: Surfing with the Alien
added by IJRJoe Satriani
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Knopfler ditched the pick for fingerstyle precision and gave 'Sultans of Swing' a liquid, jazz-inflected tone that sounded like nothing else on rock radio in 1978. His clean, articulate leads on 'Money for Nothing' proved virtuosity didn't require distortion or theatrics — just impeccable touch. The thinking person's guitar hero, quietly influential on players who value taste over volume.
Years Active: 1977-presentPrimary Genre: RockTechnical Skill: 8.5/10Influence: 7.5/10Signature Song: Sultans of Swing
added by IJRMark Knopfler
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Prince
Watch the 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' tribute solo at the 2004 Rock Hall induction — Prince stole the show from legends with a performance so ferocious it briefly overshadowed his own catalog of guitar heroics on 'Purple Rain' and 'Let's Go Crazy.' He was a virtuoso hiding in plain sight behind pop stardom, funk basslines, and purple suits. Most people forget he could out-shred half this list until he reminded them, once, unforgettably.
Years Active: 1976-2016Primary Genre: Funk/RockTechnical Skill: 9/10Influence: 8.5/10Signature Song: Purple Rain
added by IJRin 8 rankings
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George Harrison
The quiet Beatle whose tasteful licks shaped pop guitar forever.
Years Active: 1960-2001Primary Genre: Rock/PopTechnical Skill: 7/10Influence: 9/10Signature Song: While My Guitar Gently Weeps
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Robert Johnson
Twenty-nine songs recorded in 1936 and '37, and 'Cross Road Blues' became the foundational myth of guitar-as-devil's-bargain, the delta blues DNA later transplanted wholesale into Cream, the Stones, and Led Zeppelin. His fingerpicked turnarounds and slide work invented moves that Clapton and Page would spend careers reinterpreting. Without this ghost at the crossroads, there is no blues-rock lineage for anyone else on this list to descend from.
Years Active: 1936-1938Primary Genre: Delta BluesTechnical Skill: 8/10Influence: 9.5/10Signature Song: Cross Road Blues
added by IJR
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Malmsteen took Paganini's violin runs and dropped them onto a Fender Strat, unleashing neoclassical shred at speeds that made 1984's 'Rising Force' sound like a dare to every guitarist alive. He turned arpeggios and sweep-picking into a genre unto themselves, directly fathering the entire shred-guitar movement of the '80s and '90s. Divisive for prioritizing velocity over soul, but nobody argues he couldn't play — the debate is only ever about whether he should have played that fast.
Years Active: 1978-presentPrimary Genre: Neoclassical MetalTechnical Skill: 9.5/10Influence: 7/10Signature Song: Far Beyond the Sun
added by IJRYngwie Malmsteen
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