Biggest Influence

[B36arin]

Dave Murray
Fredrik Thordendal
Jeff Loomis
Mike Amott
Mikael Åkerfeldt

...are the ones that spring to mind first!

 

[scottro202]

Joe Satriani

 

[Triple-J]

It can only be Kurt Cobain for me as Nirvana was the first band I fell in love with and their influence led me toward a lot of Hardcore/old school punk/thrash metal and without that gateway they gave me I'd probably still be living a miserable life pretending to like pop music and I'd never have picked up a guitar either so I definitely wouldn't be typing this.

 

[Warchest1]

Jeffrey Loomis for sure

 

[getaway_fromme]

Stephen Carpenter for certain....Love his guitars...

 

[Voodoo Turkey]

Kiko Loureiro from Angra by a mile.. If I only had a quarter of his skills I'd be happy!!

 

[Xiphos68]

Derek Corzine, Aaron Macemore, Dad (told me to find my own sound), Satch, Vai, Petrucci, Tosin Abasi, Bulb, Keith. M, Kiko.L, Skolnick, Chris Caffery and God.

 

[ROAR]

Synyster Gates, Misha Mansoor, Chris Letchford, Claudio Sanchez, Matt Heafy, Corey Beaulieu, Zacky Vengeance, Guthrie Govan, Mark Morton, Herman Li, David Gilmour, there's too many. But those first few are the biggest.

 

[BrandonARC]

Tosin Abasi, Charlie Hunter, Jason Becker, Marty Friedman, Paul Waggoner, Vai.

 

[synrgy]

I can't choose just one. There's no way. I had too many 'phases' where I obsessed over one who was only to be directly replaced by another a short time later.

Not to be confused with 'favorites' or 'inspirations', these are the ones who were the most 'influential', which is to say I think one could probably hear a touch of each in my own style..

These aren't in chronological order -- just the order I remember them and type them:

Dime
Dave Navarro
Adam Jones
Tim Mahoney
Kirk/James (Metallica)
Stephen Carpenter
Fletcher Dragge

Plenty I'm probably forgetting at the moment. I must be getting old.

 

[Acatalepsy]

Luc Lemay
Terrance Hobbs

 

[AbstractAsylum]

Chimp Spanner

 

[Hosenbugler]

I've always tried not to sound like anyone else but me, of course, but it's inevitable that your guitar-playing/musical influences will become evident now and again.

My biggest influence is, without a doubt, David Gilmour. As far as I'm concerned, he is the greatest guitar player who ever walked the Earth. The powerful feeling in his playing, the chord progressions, the voice, the supreme tone, the sheer scale of his solos.....no-one has even come close to Gilmour at his peak, as a guitar player and a musician, and with the way that a lot guitar music seems to be going these days it looks like no-one will.

I know I sound like a gushing fanboy, but....well, I am a gushing fanboy. And I really don't care.

Honourable mentions on my 'biggest influences' list go to Steve Vai, Jimi Hendrix, and my old college mates Ben and Ash.

 

[Steve08]

Ron Jarzombek, Yngwie, Andy LaRocque, Shawn Lane and Thordendal

 

[Vicissitude27]

The Mars Volta
Mucc

 

[Stealthdjentstic]

Not quite sure it depends what I'm currently into at the time, right now its the guys from Gorguts.

 

[Joeywilson]

Abasi, Howe, Mansoor, Nilsson.

 

[shreddyknight]

2 guys with same initials RB... Ritchie Blackmore and Reb Beach mainly... there are dozens more ...

 

[heineken_fretwalker]

Chuck Schuldiner
Jason Becker

 

[Variant]

Some questions of these sort are very difficult to answer and must be thought about hard for hours. This one was cake.