Favorite Guitarist You Forgot You Loved

[AwakenTheSkies]

But if I forgot, how am I supposed to remember?

 

[wheresthefbomb]

Kevin Cadogan. His ability to weave his leads in with Jenkins' vocals is downright perfection. Not to mention he's great at the whole "tasteful shredding guitar noise" thing and dude has riffs for daaaaays. It's too bad the magic formula of their first album got destroyed by ego bullshit. You can totally tell what songs he had a hand in on Blue before parting ways with Jenkins, the hooks are unmistakable. One of the most underappreciated guitarists in pop music, period.



The Edge. U2 hasn't made anything good in close to 30 years, but their older stuff is absolutely fire. Everyone talks shit about his playing but it always complements their compositions perfectly and it's one of the most recognizable and widely-copied styles in pop rock. The very essence of simple-yet-effective.

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This guy was always fucking fire.

I'd pass on the inlays but that guitar is rad as hell otherwise.

 

[Emperoff]

Neal Schon. His solo stuff is fantastic but his covers album is really something else. I mean check this shit out:



And my favourite:

 

[Marked Man]

I never forget such things.

But sometimes I put them on a shelf for a while.

 

[raoulduke]

Recently it’s Jeff Loomis. He’d been with Arch Enemy so long I got used to him putting out incredibly boring music. After hearing the wonderful news that he’d left Arch Enemy, I thought to turn on his first solo album and remembered that, no, Jeff Loomis is not boring at all. I’ve been binging his solo stuff, Nevermore, and Conquering Dystopia since. Also listening to a ton of Arch Enemy’s first few albums with Johan Liiva and remembering that Arch Enemy wasn’t always insanely boring.

 

[rokket2005]

Seconding Kevin Cadogan, those first 2 and a half 3eb albums have some of the best written songs of all time and he played a huge part in them, as is evident by how bad 90% of the stuff after Out of the Vein is.

Jani Liimatainen from Sonata Arctica. Those first 4 SA albums are fucking amazing all the way through and I don't care if people say his guitar might as well have been another keyboard, they're the best power metal of all time imo.

Wes Borland. I was never a huge fan of limpbizkit really, but he always seemed to be doing cool stuff and when he put out Black Light Burns I really liked it. Every 6 months or so I throw on Boiler and remember how much I like his playing.

 

[Slide187]

I’d have to put up Rik Emmett from Triumph. I listened to them a ton in the 80’s, yet I do tend to forget how great he was.

 

[RandomPolishGuy]

Steve Stevens, guy works with Billy Idol but the stuff he writes is absolutely killer. He knows when to go 100% and when to pull it back to suit the song. Him and Lee Malia are my all time favorites

 

[Alex Mortar]

Chris Impelliteri. Mind blowing heavy metal shredder of 80-90 but i could found only one album with him in net

 

[NexusMT]

for me it's Richie Sambora. I love his solos with Bon Jovi, but unfortunately in the last few years i haven't heard anything from him except drunk interviews that got deleted after a few hours.

 

[Romeo Knight]

Dave Kushner.
He was in Funk Metal band called Electric Love Hogs, I recently popped in their album from 1992, and man, there some crazy leads on it!

 

[Manurack]

John5. His vids will occasionally show up on my Instagram newsfeed and I always enjoy his playing. In this one, he's ripping a catchy fun solo, gets a phone call and doesn't miss a beat and just keeps tastefully shredding

 

[Manurack]

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This guy was always fucking fire.

Agreed, when my kid was a toddler, she'd fucking rage and start a moshpit with her toddler friends when fruit salad came on

 

[Rosal76]

Slash and Randy Rhoads.

 

[B.M.F.]

Alex Lifeson. Rush was my favorite band during middle school and at that time was more interested in trying to drum like Neil, but I've spent a little time trying to learn some of Alex's parts then and now.

They're fun to play and beautifully fill out the sound of each song. Plus he's got one of the best tones ever, even as Rush's sound and gear changed throughout time.

This is a cool video to hear Alex's parts straight up and a great insight on how to play his stuff as well.

Yeah, this one hits home. Rush is one of those bands that’s in my DNA like Pink Floyd, having spent so much time learning, studying and listening to their music for years on end.
One of my closest coworkers and friends was a Rush nut. We would listen to them at the office and have constant discussions on them. Sadly, he passed away almost 1 year after Neil did, from cancer in 2021. (RIP old friend.) I wasn’t able to listen to any Rush music, until just recently. (After watching some Rush album ranking videos.) I’m rediscovering all the albums I wasn’t that familiar with, from ‘87 onwards and it’s like a new band. For all the things you said @BenjaminW Lifeson is the man!

Brian May from Queen would be my main entry for this topic, however. I’ve always had a reverence for him, but haven’t listened to any Queen for 20+ years. I’ve been on a huge Queen kick lately after watching some album ranking videos. From tone, production skills, technique, innovation & cleverness, note choice, songwriting, heaviness, phrasing, vibrato.. May’s got it all. For that “100 greatest solos” reader contest Guitar World had in the late 90s, I gave them Bohemian Rhapsody solo as my pick of best solo of all time. Still might be my #1.

 

[Ikaruga]

Michael Keene

 

[teqnick]

Michael Keene

This is an unpopular opinion due to reasons that need not be mentioned, but I came here to post this exact thing. Keene was my first favorite. His writing gave me a new level of appreciation for solos and music in general. I still hope for a redemption arc, or at least one more The Faceless album.

p.s

my profile signature comment is from when Autotheism came out some 10 odd years ago haha


As far as a guitarist that i FORGOT i loved.. Uh let's go with Dave Davidson. I don't go out of my way to listen to Revocation very often, but damn the dude rips like none other

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Masayoshi Takanaka

 

[OmegaSlayer]

Richie Kotzen when he uses the pick

 

[Louis Cypher]

Steve Stevens, guy works with Billy Idol but the stuff he writes is absolutely killer. He knows when to go 100% and when to pull it back to suit the song. Him and Lee Malia are my all time favorites

I always forget how great Steve Stevens is, the album he did with Vince Neil has some great guitar playing on it from Steve, its a great album

Awesome Frankenstein guitar graphic too