Top 5 technical guitar players?

Gerinski wrote: I agree that technique is far from being the most important. But there are also guitarists who are technical yet at the same time soulful

Fripp, McLaughlin, Howe, Hackett, Zappa ... so far. This list will probably change if some day I will be willing to dig more into some of the stuff from Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and John Petrucci.

Itd be a bit of a chore to pick the 5 top technical players, But  here  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQZY87PDsnQ . Any Mofo that needs more than one guitar is automaticaly in the top 5 I think.

Ambient Hurricanes wrote: Mirror Image wrote: Atavachron wrote: Pssh, who cares--  this thread is specifically about the top tech players, and no one said feeling and self-expression is unimportant.  Frankly the best players exhibit both; Jeff Beck, McLaughlin, Santana, John Abercrombie. And I do love me some Tech.  For me, no one is more impressive right now than Ron Jarzombek.  And there's Holdsworth of course. Who said that I said that feeling and self-expression was unimportant? Where did you get that from? All I gave was my opinion, which is what you and everyone else on this forum do on daily basis. Get over yourself. I think you're misunderstanding him.  He didn't insinuate that you thought feeling was unimportant, he just made the point that, since we're in a thread about technical players, we might as well appreciate their ability, since this is a venue made specifically for that purpose.

Thanks--  and I'll get over myself if we can talk about tech guitarists in a tech guitarist thread.  But I guess tonight this is the wrong crowd for that, everyone wants to talk about how sensitive and wonderful Dave Gilmour is.  Suck my dick, and start a "Guitarists with Feeling" thread y' bunch of panzies.

Mirror Image wrote: Atavachron wrote: Pssh, who cares--  this thread is specifically about the top tech players, and no one said feeling and self-expression is unimportant.  Frankly the best players exhibit both; Jeff Beck, McLaughlin, Santana, John Abercrombie. And I do love me some Tech.  For me, no one is more impressive right now than Ron Jarzombek.  And there's Holdsworth of course. Who said that I said that feeling and self-expression was unimportant? Where did you get that from? All I gave was my opinion, which is what you and everyone else on this forum do on daily basis. Get over yourself.

I think you're misunderstanding him.  He didn't insinuate that you thought feeling was unimportant, he just made the point that, since we're in a thread about technical players, we might as well appreciate their ability, since this is a venue made specifically for that purpose.

Mirror Image wrote: Ambient Hurricanes wrote: I love the melodic element of his playing; no matter how fast he's going, he always has a clear melody, and it's emotional impact is only increased by his speed and embellishment.  I also don't think he uses very many "shred" techniques (at least I haven't heard it), which makes the things he can play seem all the more impressive.  His acoustic work is great, too. Absolutely agreed. What did you think about his solo album The Protecting Veil? I thought it was fantastic.

You mean Veil Of Gossamer, or does he have a new one out?  It's been a while since I've listened to his solo album but I remember enjoying it a lot; "The Everlasting Hills Part 1" particularly stood out to me (a 5 minute long song made up of one Dave Bainbridge solo?  Bring it on. ).

Atavachron wrote: Pssh, who cares--  this thread is specifically about the top tech players, and no one said feeling and self-expression is unimportant.  Frankly the best players exhibit both; Jeff Beck, McLaughlin, Santana, John Abercrombie. And I do love me some Tech.  For me, no one is more impressive right now than Ron Jarzombek.  And there's Holdsworth of course.

Mirror Image wrote: thellama73 wrote: Mirror Image wrote: As a guitarist for 21 years, I have to say that technique really isn't that important and should never be your primary focus IMHO. My feelings exactly. I admire players like Mark Knopfler and Keith Richards for there creativity and expression, and have never been terrible impressed with "technical" players like John McLaughlin or Yngwie Malmsteen. Exactly. My heroes Bill Frisell, Steve Hackett, Alex Lifeson, and Eric Johnson are all outstanding players, but it's their expression on their instrument and the way they project their emotions that makes them "speak" to me.

Pssh, who cares--  this thread is specifically about the top tech players, and no one said feeling and self-expression is unimportant.  Frankly the best players exhibit both; Jeff Beck, McLaughlin, Santana, John Abercrombie.

And I do love me some Tech.  For me, no one is more impressive right now than Ron Jarzombek.  And there's Holdsworth of course.

In no particular order:

thellama73 wrote: Mirror Image wrote: As a guitarist for 21 years, I have to say that technique really isn't that important and should never be your primary focus IMHO. My feelings exactly. I admire players like Mark Knopfler and Keith Richards for there creativity and expression, and have never been terrible impressed with "technical" players like John McLaughlin or Yngwie Malmsteen.

Horizons wrote: Omar Rodriguez-Lopez is my all time favorite guitarist. Very technical in a on-shredding way.

I saw an interview with him where he said that he didn't consider himself much of a guitarist.  This is somewhat discouraging.  If Omar Rodriguez-Lopez isn't much of a guitarist, then I might as well give up because he sure is better than I am .