Most impactful guitarist on you

[MFB]

Gary Moore: was always a big blues fan and a metal fan and didn’t think I could “do both” when I started playing guitar then my dad put on Blues Alive and I was floored

Shit to the yeah for Blues Alive, that album is top notch all around, let alone as a live album.

My dad used to play that shit ALL the time in his SUV, I mean I came to know it front and back, at the time thinking "what's the deal with this?" But as I listened to it more, it made it's way into my own catalog.

But now I only spin it in honor of him whenever I'm down, and its like some sort of fucking divining rod that mentally focuses me into not going too far into grief. But I'll champion that album for as long as I live, even if I it's "lost" to me.

 

[Necky379]

Eschbach, Eddie, Carpenter, Haynes and Hendrix.

 

[John]

Tough to limit it to a single guitarist, but here's a few who have been very influential to me over the years in one way or another:

-Santana and his Supernatural album sparked my interest in the electric guitar, to begin with. Even if I've deviated quite a bit into the likes of melodic death metal among a variety of other things.

-Michael Romeo of Symphony X. Listening to the Divine Wings of Tragedy really inspired me to try stepping up my game.

-Kris Norris and Mike Schleibaum of Darkest Hour. Deliver Us and Undoing Ruin were among the albums for me when I was getting into metal.

-Adam Dutkiewicz and Joel Stroetzel. As Daylight Dies and the Times of Grace Album (Hymn of a Broken Man) are still a couple of my favorite albums to this day.

-Augustin Barrios Mangore

-Randy Rhoads, despite having one of the worst guitar tones I've heard on a recorded album

-Emanuel Aguilar on account of the shredded abrazos, despite any amount of negativity hurled at him. It's pretty messed up to hear others hurling slurs at him, and in a few cases aspirations for his death- all for doing stuff he enjoys that has never harmed anyone else physically, emotionally, much less spiritually. Nonetheless, he remains one of the few truly positive musicians out there in this day and age. Many other guitarists can learn from his example.

 

[Yul Brynner]

Steve, Righ?

 

[onefingersweep]

Metallica and Ironmaiden for getting me to start playing the guitar.

Yngwie Malmsteen, Al Di Meola, Michael Angelo Batio and Paul Gilbert for making me practice like a maniac.

Jeff Loomis and Mikael Åkerfeldt for getting me more in to riffing.

Shawn Lane, Allan Holdsworth, Brett Garsed for expanding my understanding of guitar playing and making me practice even more.

 

[High Plains Drifter]

I understand that everyone wants to see famous names but to be honest... the three most impactful influences for my decades of love for the guitar...

My mother- Allowing me to pluck and strum her acoustical guitar when I was a little kid, probably planted the seed. The sounds, the vibrations, the resonance... it fascinated me.

My sister's boyfriend, GoGo- Approaching my teens, I already had my favorite guitarists that I'd heard on albums and on the radio. But GoGo was the first [electric] guitarist that I actually knew... that I could talk to face to face. I would listen to him play just as long as he'd let me. It sparked a flame inside me that just couldn't be extinguished. And as he showed me some basics and allowed me to play sometimes, he was definitely one of my most direct influences. Hell... he gave me my first guitar.

Carl Edwards- I think that was his name. It's been many decades ago. But once I had acquired my first guitar, all of a sudden I wanted to hit up the local music store. It was there that it all started to take hold. I remember meeting Carl... just seemingly slaying all kinds of genres. He was a guitar teacher and after hearing him, I begged my mom to let me take lessons from him. She obliged and although I did struggle at times, he was a great motivator for me and made me feel as if I could play anything if I practiced enough. He and GoGo were just the coolest cats that I'd met at that point in my life. And my mom... gotta give her all the love for allowing and encouraging me to follow my passion.

 

[thebeesknees22]

good point.

non famous most impactful guitarist for me would be my uncle. I begged my mom and real dad to get me a guitar for 3 years straight and they wouldn't do it. So I saved up until I had $100 and my uncle took me to a pawn shop to buy one lol

I still have it to this day, but if it weren't for him taking me to get one I probably never would have started playing.

He loaned me a bunch of old records that I used to listen to all the time. Jeff beck, santana, albert king etc... It was a good collection that still influences me some to this day.

Unfortunately he passed away a few years back and his daughter took the records....and sold them...... without asking me or anyone if they wanted them. Fun times.

He was an awesome dude though.

 

[nightlight]

Hanneman and Schuldiner. Probably others, but these are the names that shot into my head.

 

[Gnarcade]

This thread has been fun to follow and had me thinking about this on and off for a few days. I think one of the most influential guitarists to me has to be Dan Yemin. Kid Dynamite, Lifetime, and Paint it Black hit me at different points in my youth in different ways. His contribution to each of those bands had a huge influence on how I play and write. His ability to combine intensity, raw emotion, and melody in different ways is fantastic. Plus I don't think there has ever been a better record opener than "Pause"

 

[MartinMoyan0]

Impossible to name only one... I belive that Hetfield on rhythms/muting, Malmsteen on Vibrato/bending and Vai on the rest... quite a mix

 

[Boofchuck]

If I had a narrow it down to one person it would be John Petrucci. I don't listen to much Dream Theater any more. But I played a TON of it on guitar as a kid and he's the person I think most of my riffs (subconsciously) harken back to. I have an entire song that started off as a Jaws of Life rip off.

And it's not just in my playing, but it's in my tone as well. His tones on Train of Thought and Scenes from a Memory are what I aspire to.

The guy is a fucking king.

 

[fantom]

Non famous: my middle school friend taking lessons that showed me how to play a barre chord. After that, any guitar teacher or band mate I ever had to motivate me to get better.

Famous: I probably learned more from learning Hetfield parts than anyone else.

Less famous: I really like Stefan Weinerhall's riffs and melodies. He is super consistent. I learned many Mithotyn and Falconer tracks while I was in high school and college and had a blast reverse engineering his writing.

And Ihsahn. If you try to play any of his stuff, you will quickly realize that he is unconventional. For me, learning many Emperor and later Ihsahn parts forced me to play guitar in a way that no teacher would ever show me.

And I guess I need to throw in Dimebag. So many amazing riffs to learn. I still think The Sleep is one of the most underrated Pantera tracks. And that opening riff to Regular People is super fun.

 

[Dan_Vacant]

Devin Townsend.

 

[Dan_Vacant]

I forgot the reason part of the post and I'm messing up quotes. When I was 16 maybe 15 a friend showed me Love by Strapping Young Lad. I really dug it so I checked out the rest of the album, and but then other albums. I then learned that the band called it quits so I looked into Devin Townsend Band and the dude writes stuff that seems all over the place. I kept branching into stuff that was connected to him. He helped me branch out and look at weird tunings.

 

[Marked Man]

Hetfield introduced me to the concept of palm muting, which I initially had to do on my POS Global acoustic with 4 strings, but at least they were the 4 lower strings.

As soon as I got my first electric guitar in '89, I was excited to learn everything I could from Metallica, Murray/Smith, Crosby/DeMartini, Rhoads, Jake E. Lee, and a year a two later, Hanneman/King, Vai and Yngwie and Nuno and Al Di Meola. And a few years after that, Mr. Petrucci, who basically perfected all the things I heard in my head and dreamed of writing as original songs with the first several DT albums. I'd say elements of all these can be heard directly in my playing. It was a great time to be a kid with an electric guitar!

Petrucci may have been the last major "new" guitarist to influence me in a big way, although in the mid to late '90s, I started mining the past and discovered King Crimson, Van der Graaf Generator, Yes, etc, which could have hardly been more obscure at that time, although I immediately realized that some of what I thought was "new" from Dream Theater in the '90s had already been 20 years earlier by such bands. I was more influenced by the overall songs than the guitarists in those '70s prog bands, although Trevor Rabin did influence me directly as a guitarist as well with Yes and Solo. He is an underrated hero in my book.

Today I listen more to the overall songwriting and production of a new artist for inspiration, and Steven Wilson and Porcupine Tree are way up there. Also underrated heroes.

 

[WarMachine]

King Edward
He was the reason I was drawn to the guitar.
After him, I'd go with
Marty Friedman - phrasing that is so melodic it sounds like his solos are singing to you

Zakk Wylde - riff monster, pentatonic monster

Dimebag Darrell - another riff and lead monster. The man put the groove back in heavy

Dave Mustaine - intelligent songwriting, not off the cuff bs. Undisputed King of Thrash

Randy Rhoads - another that let melody make them stand apart from everyone else. Metal's Mozart lol

Tony Iommi - the Godfather of Heavy Metal.

Paul Gilbert - amazing phrasing, arpeggios that DONT cop the feels like Yngwie all day long

Jason Becker - Covered all the bases. If anyone argues that he was just a virtuoso, tell them to listen to DLR A Lil' Aint Enough

Jerry Cantrell - AiC has always been a corner stone to my playing guitar. The moment Man in the Box came out I was hooked and still am today.

Clint Lowery - fucking drop tuned riff machine, same sentiment as AiC. As soon as 7D came around I was hooked. To me they were like the hard and heavy version of AiC.

Warren DeMartini - RATT fuckers! Need I say more?

George Lynch - Mr.-Fucking-Scary!

Jake E. Lee - amazing AF guitarist all the way round.

 

[oldbulllee]

my first guitar teacher.
guthrie govan. for quite a while a couldn't believe hat i was hearing and seeing, watching guthrie play. his control of the instrument is on another level.