Top 59 Guitarists of All Time

Every list of the greatest guitarists is somebody's argument. This one is settled by whoever shows up: two players at a time, one pick each, and the order belongs to the people voting.

1. 1
   Jimi Hendrix

   Recorded three studio albums in four years and rewrote what an electric guitar could sound like.
   1000pts
2. 2
   Angus Young

   AC/DC's schoolboy-uniformed lead guitarist whose riffs on Highway to Hell and Back in Black power one of rock's best-selling catalogues.
   858pts
3. 3
   Carlos Santana

   Fused blues phrasing with Latin rhythm and has kept the same singing tone for six decades.
   774pts
4. 4
   Stevie Ray Vaughan

   Brought Texas blues back to the charts in the 1980s with a tone nobody has copied cleanly.
   735pts
5. 5
   Ry Cooder

   Slide guitar master whose session work with the Rolling Stones and Buena Vista Social Club record spans roots music worldwide.
   695pts
6. 6
   Brian May

   Queen's guitarist who built his Red Special with his father and created the layered guitar orchestrations of "Bohemian Rhapsody".
   674pts
7. 7
   Ritchie Blackmore

   Deep Purple and Rainbow guitarist whose "Smoke on the Water" riff and classical-tinged solos shaped hard rock and metal.
   633pts
8. 8
   Steve Vai

   Virtuoso who played with Frank Zappa, David Lee Roth and Whitesnake and won three Grammys for his instrumental albums.
   633pts
9. 9
   Duane Allman

   The Allman Brothers' slide player, gone at twenty-four, and on Layla before that.
   633pts
10. 10
    Peter Green

    Founder of Fleetwood Mac whose tone on "Albatross" and "Black Magic Woman" B.B. King praised as giving him the cold sweats.
    633pts
11. 11
    Django Reinhardt

    Played with two working fingers on his fretting hand and founded gypsy jazz guitar.
    633pts
12. 12
    Jack White

    The White Stripes frontman whose raw garage-blues riffs, including "Seven Nation Army", made him the defining rock guitarist of the 2000s.
    633pts
13. 13
    Yngwie Malmsteen

    Swedish neoclassical shredder whose 1984 debut Rising Force brought Paganini-style speed to heavy metal guitar.
    588pts
14. 14
    Wes Montgomery

    Jazz guitarist famed for playing with his thumb and in octaves on albums like The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery.
    538pts
15. 15
    Buddy Guy

    Chicago blues firebrand and multiple Grammy winner whose wild live playing inspired Hendrix, Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
    538pts
16. 16
    Tom Morello

    Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave guitarist who used toggle switches and DJ-style effects to make the guitar sound like a turntable.
    538pts
17. 17
    Chet Atkins

    Mister Guitar, whose fingerpicking and production work at RCA Nashville created the Nashville sound and earned 14 Grammys.
    538pts
18. 18
    Paco de Lucía

    Flamenco revolutionary whose speed and harmonic daring on records like Entre dos aguas carried flamenco guitar to world stages.
    538pts
19. 19
    Johnny Marr

    The Smiths' guitarist whose jangling, arpeggiated parts on "This Charming Man" became the blueprint for British indie guitar.
    538pts
20. 20
    Robert Fripp

    King Crimson founder whose precise, angular playing and Frippertronics loops pushed progressive rock into new territory.
    538pts
21. 21
    Sister Rosetta Tharpe

    The Godmother of Rock and Roll, whose distorted electric gospel playing in the 1940s inspired Chuck Berry, Elvis and Little Richard.
    538pts
22. 22
    John Frusciante

    Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist whose melodic, understated playing on Californication and By the Way influenced a generation.
    538pts
23. 23
    Prince

    A guitarist first, whose solo on While My Guitar Gently Weeps at the Hall of Fame became its own legend.
    538pts
24. 24
    Freddie King

    Texas blues guitarist behind the instrumental "Hide Away" whose aggressive style influenced Eric Clapton and Peter Green.
    481pts
25. 25
    Pete Townshend

    The Who's guitarist and songwriter whose windmill power chords and guitar-smashing shows defined rock's aggression.
    481pts
26. 26
    Eric Clapton

    The only three-time inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with the Yardbirds, Cream and solo.
    481pts
27. 27
    Jerry Garcia

    Grateful Dead guitarist whose long, exploratory improvisations over three decades defined the jam-band tradition.
    481pts
28. 28
    Randy Rhoads

    Ozzy Osbourne's guitarist on Blizzard of Ozz whose classical-influenced solos made him a metal icon before his death at 25.
    481pts
29. 29
    Charlie Christian

    Benny Goodman's guitarist who turned the electric guitar into a solo jazz voice before his death at 25 in 1942.
    481pts
30. 30
    Jimmy Page

    Led Zeppelin's guitarist and producer, and a session player on hundreds of records before that.
    481pts
31. 31
    Tony Iommi

    Lost two fingertips in a factory accident, retuned down, and invented the sound of heavy metal.
    417pts
32. 32
    John McLaughlin

    Mahavishnu Orchestra leader and Miles Davis collaborator who fused jazz, rock and Indian music at blistering speed.
    417pts
33. 33
    Robert Johnson

    Delta blues master whose 29 recordings from 1936 and 1937 shaped the playing of Clapton, Richards and generations of rock guitarists.
    417pts
34. 34
    Dimebag Darrell

    Pantera guitarist whose crushing groove-metal riffs on Cowboys from Hell and Vulgar Display of Power redefined 1990s metal.
    417pts
35. 35
    Muddy Waters

    Father of Chicago blues who electrified the Delta sound with slide guitar on classics like "Hoochie Coochie Man".
    417pts
36. 36
    John Mayer

    Seven-time Grammy winner and Dead & Company guitarist whose blues playing on Continuum earned him comparisons to Stevie Ray Vaughan.
    344pts
37. 37
    Pat Metheny

    Jazz guitarist with 20 Grammy Awards across a record number of categories, known for melodic lyricism and the guitar synthesizer.
    344pts
38. 38
    Nile Rodgers

    Chic co-founder whose chicken-scratch rhythm guitar drove "Le Freak" and hits for David Bowie, Madonna and Daft Punk.
    344pts
39. 39
    Chuck Berry

    Wrote the vocabulary of rock guitar riffs that nearly everyone after him borrowed.
    344pts
40. 40
    Scotty Moore

    Elvis Presley's original guitarist whose licks on "That's All Right" and "Hound Dog" helped define rockabilly.
    344pts
41. 41
    Albert King

    One of the Three Kings of blues, whose upside-down Flying V bends on Born Under a Bad Sign shaped Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
    344pts
42. 42
    George Harrison

    The Beatles' lead guitarist, who wrote "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun" and brought the sitar and slide guitar into pop.
    344pts
43. 43
    Slash

    Guns N' Roses' lead guitarist, whose intro to Sweet Child O' Mine started as a warm-up exercise.
    344pts
44. 44
    The Edge

    U2 guitarist whose delay-drenched, chiming sound on "Where the Streets Have No Name" built stadium rock's most recognisable textures.
    344pts
45. 45
    Derek Trucks

    Slide guitar virtuoso of the Allman Brothers Band and Tedeschi Trucks Band, often called the heir to Duane Allman.
    344pts
46. 46
    Joe Satriani

    Instrumental rock virtuoso behind Surfing with the Alien who also taught Steve Vai, Kirk Hammett and Alex Skolnick.
    259pts
47. 47
    Jonny Greenwood

    Radiohead's lead guitarist whose violent bursts on "Paranoid Android" and "Creep" matched his later work as a film composer.
    259pts
48. 48
    Les Paul

    Pioneer of the solid-body electric guitar and multitrack recording whose name lives on in Gibson's most famous model.
    259pts
49. 49
    Mark Knopfler

    Dire Straits' fingerpicked electric style made him instantly recognisable without a plectrum.
    259pts
50. 50
    Bo Diddley

    Rock and roll pioneer whose square guitar and hypnotic Bo Diddley beat became one of popular music's most copied rhythms.
    259pts
51. 51
    Joni Mitchell

    Singer-songwriter who invented dozens of open tunings, giving albums like Blue and Hejira a guitar sound no one else could copy.
    259pts
52. 52
    Eddie Van Halen

    His two-handed tapping on Eruption sent a generation of players back to the practice room.
    259pts
53. 53
    Andrés Segovia

    Spanish virtuoso who established the classical guitar as a concert instrument and inspired composers to write for it.
    259pts
54. 54
    Neil Young

    Singer-songwriter whose raw, feedback-drenched solos with Crazy Horse made him the godfather of grunge.
    259pts
55. 55
    Keith Richards

    The Rolling Stones' rhythm guitarist and the author of riffs that carry whole songs.
    160pts
56. 56
    B.B. King

    Built a career on vibrato and space, playing one note where others played ten.
    160pts
57. 57
    Jeff Beck

    Left the Yardbirds and spent fifty years refusing to repeat himself, mostly without a pick.
    160pts
58. 58
    Kirk Hammett

    Metallica's lead guitarist since 1983 whose wah-soaked solos are heard on Master of Puppets and the Black Album.
    160pts
59. 59
    David Gilmour

    Pink Floyd's guitarist, known for bending a single note further than most players bend a phrase.
    0pts

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