Beck,Page or Clapton?

This must of been done before I'm sure,but I couldn't find anything in search.

Three great guitarists with familiar backgrounds,who's your favourite and why?

I think Beck is probably the better guitarist though he's never had as much commercial success as the others but my favourite would have to Page,Zeppelin influence me hugely more so then anything Clapton has done.

A hard one I reckon.

Let's see.
Page's live playing was an absolute horrid slop fest at times. Being strung out on heroin while (trying) to play doesn't seem to go good for playing in tune or in time.
Consistency was never a strength of his either.
On his side is innovation in the studio and of course on the instrument itself.
Even though I don't really listen to his stuff anymore, I recognize the fact that legions of guys that use blues rock licks in their soloing (I'm no exception, I take plenty of cues from Page, Clapton, Beck and Hendrix when I play blues rock).

When it came to chops, Clapton was way ahead of Page.
He may not have been the fasted player on the block, but he worked his butt off on bending and vibrato, and at the time (mid/late 60s), few guys had such great command of those techniques like Clapton. Even today, he is still extremely well versed in those techniques.
His playing was almost robotic in precision compared to Page, but good phrasing and his command over bending and vibrato and his note choice mean his playing was anything but cold.
He was just consistent all the time which in itself was both a good and bad thing.
Good because it meant he didn't really take risks when improvising so his playing was never a slop fest.
Bad in that it could be rather predictable.
His rhythm guitar though, is quite weak, and in that aspect, Hendrix made him look like an absolute hack (I'm firmly in the camp of people that believes Hendrix was a better rhythm guitarist than a lead player).
Also a weakness, is that pretty much after Cream and a few things after that, he lost his inspiration and quite frankly, any balls he had back in The Bluesbreakers, The Yardbirds and Cream.
Anything past the stuff he did with Derek and The Dominoes with the Layla track, I don't find anything else he did worth listening to. At least Jimmy Page was still burning, when Clapton just burnt out.

Jeff Beck, is easily the most expressive guitarist of the three, and the one I believe stuck to his ideals the best.
Sure, it resulted in him never having the sort of commercial success the other 2 did, but it meant he was gonna take risks, taking left turns all the time and then out of nowhere, just a right turn you didn't see coming and you're thinking 'damn, this guy is on the edge'.
Consistent, he wasn't, but at least he had enough balls to try something different and not going commercial for the sake of it, but it's clear unlike Page and Clapton, he truly grew as a musician over the years when the other two just totally peaked.
Without him, instrumental guitar music might not really exist, he truly paved the way for it I believe.
Because of Beck to an extent, guys like Steve Vai and Joe Satriani (my two favorite virtuosos instrumentalists) had a real chance of getting there stuff out there.


I'll vote for Beck because I believe he was the best of the 3.



Edited by HughesJB4 - March 29 2009 at 07:41

Beck for me.  I find his playing and music to be more interesting than that of the others, overall.

Edited by Peter - March 29 2009 at 09:07

http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=51117&KW=guitar+god&PID=2940505#2940505


I tried this last year.  Let's see how these results compare at the end of the poll. 

I went with Clapton for his body of work. 

Jimmy Page is a great writer, Beck is the most techincally skilled guitarist, and Clapton is my favourite.  Clapton has the best feel, all due to his early days as I can't even listen to the hundred albums he's put out since.

Jeff Beck for me an not even close. I love the fact he never traded commercial success over artistic exploration even though he certainly could have.  I do love early Zep and Cream though.

Since there's no way I can put any of these three masters above the other two I'll have to go with Clapton simply because of what he's had to overcome in his personal life (addictions, death of his son, etc.)  If you're interested, read his autobiography.  It's a terrific read.

I used to really like Jeff Beck but over theyears I've come to really like Eric Clapton's playing.  The times I've seen Page live he's never been able to reproduce his studio stuff very well and he always seems to be out of tune.  That has always raised a red flag for me.

Jeff Beck for his technical abilities, Clapton for his subtleness and Page for his brash blues, rock. I love all three and am fortunate to own the LP "Clapton,Beck and Page". I will go this time with Jimmy.