# Who is the greatest guitarist 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.

*By YPB Team · Published September 16, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/who-is-the-greatest-guitarist-of-all-time*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Jimi Hendrix**
   Recorded three studio albums in four years and rewrote what an electric guitar could sound like.
2. **Eric Clapton**
   The only three-time inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with the Yardbirds, Cream and solo.
3. **Jimmy Page**
   Led Zeppelin's guitarist and producer, and a session player on hundreds of records before that.
4. **Eddie Van Halen**
   His two-handed tapping on Eruption sent a generation of players back to the practice room.
5. **David Gilmour**
   Pink Floyd's guitarist, known for bending a single note further than most players bend a phrase.
6. **Chuck Berry**
   Wrote the vocabulary of rock guitar riffs that nearly everyone after him borrowed.
7. **B.B. King**
   Built a career on vibrato and space, playing one note where others played ten.
8. **Stevie Ray Vaughan**
   Brought Texas blues back to the charts in the 1980s with a tone nobody has copied cleanly.
9. **Keith Richards**
   The Rolling Stones' rhythm guitarist and the author of riffs that carry whole songs.
10. **Prince**
   A guitarist first, whose solo on While My Guitar Gently Weeps at the Hall of Fame became its own legend.
11. **Carlos Santana**
   Fused blues phrasing with Latin rhythm and has kept the same singing tone for six decades.
12. **Jeff Beck**
   Left the Yardbirds and spent fifty years refusing to repeat himself, mostly without a pick.
13. **Slash**
   Guns N' Roses' lead guitarist, whose intro to Sweet Child O' Mine started as a warm-up exercise.
14. **Tony Iommi**
   Lost two fingertips in a factory accident, retuned down, and invented the sound of heavy metal.
15. **Mark Knopfler**
   Dire Straits' fingerpicked electric style made him instantly recognisable without a plectrum.
16. **Duane Allman**
   The Allman Brothers' slide player, gone at twenty-four, and on Layla before that.
17. **Django Reinhardt**
   Played with two working fingers on his fretting hand and founded gypsy jazz guitar.

Tags: music, rock, guitar, musicians