Top 5 Guitarists Who Have Influenced You? :O

[behemoth91]

1. Nergal, Seth
2. Pat O'Brien
3. Corey Beaulieu
4. Dino Cazares
5. Chuck Schuldiner

Ill just go ahead and do top 10

6. Ihsahn
7. Orion, one beast guitarist and bassist
8. Mick Thompson.
9. Roope Latvala
10. My guitar teacher Chris

 

[the red rocket]

1. Mark Morton & Willie Adler- first metal songs i learned to play were lamb of god songs

2. Mikael Akerfeldt - Opeth is by far my favorite band and mikael is pure genius

3. Brian Eschbach, Ryan Knight, & John Kempainen - Black Dahlia Murder guitarists

4. Joe Satriani - The guy that made me first want to learn guitar

5. Chuck Schuldiner - RIP

 

[-One-]

1 - James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett of Metallica - The guys that inspired me to pick up a guitar for the first time, James' powerful rhythm style and tone, to this day, have influenced me. I've mainly kept in standard tuning, thanks to these guys, and I've still been heavy, and my soloing style borrows heavily from Kirk's, especially in my earlier songs.
2 - John Petrucci of Dream Theater - The guy that inspired all of my weird time signatures (except, I've gone more Dillenger than Dream Theater, so I'm more math metal than prog metal now ), and also influenced my soloing greatly. I incorporate a lot of weird shapes into my runs and sweeps because of this guy.
3 - Kris Norris, formerly of Darkest Hour - This guy right here. He has a great sense of rhythm and melody at the same time, something that some day I hope to have, at a level like the one he's on. His playing is just phenomenal, and I have nothing bad to say about it.
4 - Chris Broderick of Megadeth and Nevermore - Chris was definitely my main influence in picking up a seven-string guitar, that's for sure. He also added greatly to my soloing, in that I now incorporate wider vibrato that he's been known to use, and interesting string skipping techniques and arpeggios.
5 - I'll get to this later

 

[AllNitemareLong]

1. Kirk Hammett
2. Jimi Hendrix
3. Jimmy Page
4. Mark Morton
5. My Brother

Each influenced me in style and in passion. My brother was probably the biggest influence though, when I was only 8 yrs old I used to just sit and watch him shred, and seeing how natural he was with it and how passionate he was was inspiring. He gave me his first guitar when i began to learn when I was 15. And it is still the guitar I use today.

 

[Voodoo Turkey]

The top 5 guitarists who influenced me are:

1. Kiko Loureiro (Angra)
2. Michael Romeo (Symphony X)
3. Stephan Forte (Adagio)
4. Jorge Salan (Mägo de Oz / Solo)
5. John Petrucci (Dream Theater)

Other favourites are Tony Hernando from Saratoga, Charly Sahona from Venturia and Elias Viljanen from Sonata Arctica..

 

[vhmetalx]

alright ill throw in some info about me..
1. Alexi Laiho. This is a constant, him and bodom got me into metal and playing guitar. He introduced me to my LIFE. Noone will be able to take the number 1 spot from him.
2. Chris Storey. I mean.. cmon, any 15 year old that will listen to awaken the dreamers will wet his pants from excitement. ive dreamt about playing like chris until i found out he gives lessons. and now i get them and he is a super amazing cool guy. makes him that more awesome to shred and teach and be nice.
3. Michael Keene. this guy is whats been pushing me to get into the tech death mindset. fast solos fast playing and fast riffs. exactly how i like it nowadays.
4. Eddie Van Halen. i know he doesnt really fit in with these guys but he is another man that inspired me to pick up the guitar (before i knew of bodom. i had taken a longgggg break from guitar before the bodom madness started)
5. Brendan Small. This guy, he got me into the schweeps and the low tunings at a young age (other than what i was already playing). He also made me want to get an explorer.. which i did! but then i sold it (finally) because i now play 7's.. almost exclusively too.

Theres tons of more players that influence me though, like muhammed from necrophagist, the whitechapel boys, suicide silence boys (when i used to crave "deathcore") Willie Adler and Mark Morton deffinently, their songs taught me alot. The Amott Brothers, end of the line was the first song i learned to play fully. and basically anything amazing i hear, i wanna somehow incorperate it into my style.. so yeah..

 

[Varcolac]

Hmm. It's more difficult than I'd have thought to come up with guitar players who've influenced me. If it'd been bass players it'd have been easy (Pastorius, Lee, Clarke, Wooten, Manring). I guess I'm not particularly influenced by the guitar parts to songs, rather by the songs themselves and in that case I'm not influenced by Frank Zappa the guitarist but rather by Zappa the composer. Anyway, after a cursory analysis of my playing style, here's what's influenced me, in no particular order because arbitrary ranking is pointless.

David Gilmour, for making me truly appreciate guitar solos as an art form, for coming up with some of the most interesting chord progressions in rock, and general awesomeness. He also takes partial credit for my purchase of a double bass: I saw his live DVD on a big home cinema system drunk out of my mind on a New Years' Eve in about 2005, and decreed that I must have one of those things. I now have one of those things, and I still fucking love that DVD.

Johnny Ramone. Downstrokes downstrokes downstrokes downstrokes downstrokes downstrokes downstrokes. Weaponised barre chords, three of them, used to create some sublimely simple and yet punishingly intense and ridiculously catchy music. My abuse of the humble downstroke, and possibly my overuse of the leather jacket as an item of clothing, can be traced to this man.

Eddie Van Halen has really influenced my lead playing. Well, tapping and random blues licks at least. Then there's his tone, which is pretty awesome. Considering the amount of relatively simple tap licks that I try to shoehorn in to any solo that I write, the influence of Van Halen runs pretty deep.

Ihsahn for uh, seven string guitars. "The Prophet" by Emperor was the first song I learned for the seven string. The man's approach to riffs has been a major influence in getting me to think well outside the limitations of diatonic tonality. Between that and Gilmour's screwy chord progressions (Gm>F#>Bb, anyone?), I'm on a good road to creating either ugly or beautiful music.

Chuck Schuldiner. If I have to explain the influence of Chuck Schuldiner, you clearly need to listen to more Death. Jesus H. Nonexistant Christ the man could riff, write, and shred. There's so many times that I think I've written an awesome riff, only to realise a few days later that I just ripped off "Flattening of Emotions" again. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery they say...

 

[ittoa666]

3. Brian Eschbach, Ryan Knight, & John Kempainen - Black Dahlia Murder guitarists

The original lineup is amazing. Also an influence to me. Johns playing inspired my legato a lot.

 

[clintsal]

1. Tosin Abasi - A friend of mine gave me the best compliment I've ever received as a guitarist when I played a new song for him and he said "I wish I had written that." I apply that statement to the entire AAL album, in all terms, including tone, playing styles (shred, tapping, hybrid, etc), phrasing, and the uncanny ability to make something so beautifully heavy.

2. Pin/Weller of Sikth - I love odd time signatures and dissonant / atonal chords/progressions. These two destroy those categories with ridiculous rhythmic feel.

3. The Meshuggah Duo - See above.

4. John Petrucci - My intro to Prog. I envy / aspire to his stupidly perfect technique.

5. Kurt Cobain - The singular reason I purchased my first Squier guitar / amp combo was the Nevermind album. I was in 7th grade when I heard it, and it couldn't have been better timing. I rarely listen to it now, but I still remember spending hours learning that album and the fretboard like it was yesterday.

 

[KillerKay]

-Zakk Wylde
-Dimebag Darrell
-Mick Thompson
-Pat O'brien
-Kerry King
-Mark Heylmun
-Chris Garza
-Munky

I layed down......(counting)...... 8!

 

[Faded Grey]

Wow, this is gonna be hard. Oh well, here goes.

1. Michael Romeo-A beast of a player, writer and one with some awesome tone. Impliments the Neoclassical style and shredding in very interesting ways. Kills in every technique, and keeps it musical. Got me heavy into the Neoclassical style, was essentially the reason I started to dig Legato and Tapping, also a huge influence on my approach to writine. MJR!

2.Paul Gibert-Great guy, and a killer technician. He's the reason I started taking guitar seriously. His solos are epic, melodic and memorable, but still rip your face off with shredding awesomeness. He has a great approach to teaching, and is innovative with his methods of teaching. I've learned tons from him.

3. John Petrucci- A great player. A master of writing memorable guitar parts. His riffs and solos are amazing. Really like his use of phrasing in his solos, he has his own sound going for him. Big influence on my approach to solos.

4. Jeff Loomis- I first found out about him right when I started practicing Shred. He's the archetypical Metal guitarist. Plus, the designer of one of the most badass sevens on the market .

5. Guthrie Govan- A great player. If there's a guitar trick, he can do it. A multi stylistic, versatile and amazing guitarist, Guthrie is just out of this world. His sense of melody is unparalled imo, and his technique is otherworldly. He's put out some of the most interesting and well written instrumental guitar in ages. GG, simply rules.

 

[Matt-Hatchett]

Christopher Bradley|Beneath The Massacre
Andy Mckee|Andy Mckee
Tosin Abasi|Animals As Leaders
Dave Davison|Maps And Atlases
Alex Wade|Whitechapel

 

[gstacey1]

Mark Morton (Lamb of God)- I had heard about him because of his Jackson signature but 2 years ago my friend showed me the redneck music video and cause of Mark's playing my perspective on music changed. I had never liked metal before that buy his groove was just insane and after checking out other LoG stuff I was in love and they became my favorite band and still are. I'd say %90 of my metal playing his based off of just droped tunedand very groove based riffs.

Eric Clapton- After being introduced to LoG I had become a metalhead. Before that I never really had a genre I loved in itself. Then I started listening to a greatest hits of Eric Clapton and I fell in love with how simple but great his stuff was. He wasn't just playing blues though it was pop and rock all based around blues. That's when I decided I wanted to try playing mire blues myself and I was quite astonished on how well I developed by nor actualy learning songs but just by purely listening to blues. If you ask me now why is a genre that I can put on a radio station and enjoy without every wanting to change the song it's blues and metal has taken a side to it.

Chris Letchford (Scale the Summit)- I only started listening to Chris' music recetnly but wow the only person I can think of that makes ther guitar tell the story instead of lyrics as well as Chris does is Andy McKee. This man has an insane sense of phrasing and him combined with Travis, Pat, and Jordan just create some of the best sounding music ever. Plus he's a really nice guy who takes alot of his free time to respond to everysingle comment anyone leaves him. Even if it's as simple as "I love your music" he'll respond with a thanks.

Thomas Erak (ex The Fall of Troy)- Honestly I've never thought of him as much of an influence until just now. His work has aspired me to create my own project which will be like the math rock post hardcoreness of tFoT but heavier. His playing also to me syncs perfetly in a band enviroment although it constisys of alot of wierd time signatures and all that other math rock/metal stuff. It's complicated but still offers room for the bass and drums to keep there own complicated parts without inducing a head ache.

Misha Mansoor (This needs not to be filled in)- I know most of you are thinking "oh cliche he likes misha and I bet he wants to copy him and create another generic periphery Djent ripoff." Well that's true and not true. I'd love to be in a band that sound like periphery but that's not why he's here. The reason Misha is here because in my opinion he's doing everything write. He's got his band signed to labels all around the world all while still ownin the masters to the tracks himself. He's found a way to best the music buisness much like Tom DeLonge has with his whole midlife site. He's also extremely dedicated and the reason most of us here love Periphery is cause Misha took time and went out of the way to get his stuff out to the world, thus making SS.org on of the places the Periphery cult following started at. He's also an extremely talented producer who works in between a amazingly busy scedule to record. Overall he's whole deication to music makes him deserving of being a great influence to me. If I could compare him to anyone it would be the guys from Anvil except Misha has met more sucesess. Plus his music is awesome.

 

[chucknorrishred]

yea pretty much..

i started playing cuz of kurt codain...... yep...and i learned the style too...deftones...the first 3 albums.....yep....learned them and wrote my own shit.....THEN....started learning metal,...all by ear by the way till i heard my first shred solo that was done by monstrosity....i asked a music teacher "HOW DA FUC" and he said "I hear a malmsteen influence in their solos and ever since then...bought malmsteen books....then from there i got into strict shred....by the time i was done with the malmsteen books i knew how to read music.......THEN got vai and classical books.......all this was yrs back by now u know .....its been yrs (prod 2or3 max) since i played the way i use too...(job related) now i got the time to mess around again but....if i wanted to play shred shit from the get go id have it down to the bone....even now i got it but its just playing an undisturberbered shred 4 bout 6 mounths max to sound grand master

 

[metulkult]

1. Paul Waggoner - Between the Buried and Me
The jazz interludes, with the huge, grindy breakdowns, (he plays quite original breakdowns IMO), and of course, the epic melodic soloing from him. One of the best writers in music right now IMO

2. Stu Ross & Ryan Morgan - Misery Signals
Same reason as Paul Waggoner. Really making a huge impact on metalcore I think. Original riffs & breakdowns. They're re-defining the genre. Which is great, because it REALLY needs to be shaken up right now.

3. Mark Okubo - Veil of Maya
I like to call him a riff shredder. He's quite underrated as a guitar player I think. HOw he manages to pull of playing both parts live, while looping, is insane I think.

4. John Petrucci - Dream Theater
Obvious reasons.

5. Mark Lambert - Painted in Exile
The next big band. I think these guys are gonna burst out onto the scene soon enough. It's impossible not to, they can shred their asses off, while combining lovely jazzy interludes, with epic guitar melodies.

 

[guitareben]

1) Steve Vai - The master . He is such a great inspiration, and the dedication he puts into his music is incredible. This is the only defined spot, the rest can be in any order.

2) Joe Pass. For when I need some chilled out jazz

3) Marty Friedman - I have passed my phase of listening to him all the ime, but in that i picked up a phew guitar licks and stuff, and these still remain with me .

4) Andy Timmons - He is just sick!

5) Allan Holdsworth - Legato! And obv all the other skills he has.

 

[Hosenbugler]

Well, for famous guitar players, it would have to be:

1) David Gilmour - The man is a as close as it gets to a deity for me. He's just incredible; his feeling, his soaring sound, his touch, his chord sequences, his tone....the list goes on. Pure distilled genius.

2) Steve Vai - His technical prowess, teamed with his knowledge, his obvious love for the guitar, the cool songs he writes and just his inherent natural ability. You'll find this guy in the dictionary under "awesome".

3) Jimi Hendrix - I love the passion he put into his playing, as well as his oft-underrated technical ability.

4) Eric Clapton - Mainly from his days in Cream. Back in the day, he was the man, until Hendrix came along.

5) Joe Satriani - This one was difficult, there were a few contenders (Petrucci, Blackmore, Page). I could have picked Blackmore or Satriani, but I plumped for Satch because, as far as I can tell, he seems to have had more of an influence on my playing, at least for the last year or so.

 

[Emperoff]

IN METAL CONTEXT:

James Hetfield - Metallica's first five albums are just a showcase of incredible riffs. Heavy music wouldn't be what it is now if it wasn't for him.

Buz McGrath/Ken Susi - Unearth's "Oncoming Storm" Is the reason that got me into 7-string guitars. Pure ferocity and raw brutality oozed from that album. Shame later albums couldn't top it.

Jeff Loomis My main influence when it comes to over the top shredding on a metal context. His melodic sense when sweeping and menancing sounding diminished licks always have a place for me, as well as his brutal riffs.

Keith Merrow: Discovering Keith merrow was like the answer to worn out metalcore and meshuggah wannabes. Absolutely tasteful writing without abusing of any cliché. Just fresh brutal music with a futuristic flavour (and I fucking love futuristic sounding music).

Bulb: Opposite to the infamous "D" word kidstream, my love for Bulb comes from those mystical sounding clean passages, with progressive chords and epic choruses that makes me polish my technique on weird fingering chords. And of course that Nobuo Uematsu touch in his playing, which is totally awesome.


IN A NON-METAL CONTEXT:


Gary Moore - The first time I listened to a song from him (It was a friend of mine playing "The Loner") is a moment that i can never forget. That day my approach to guitar playing changed forever, and ditched the mindless shredding in favor of tasteful soloing power.

David Gilmour - I remember when I first heard the "Animals" album. I didn't know what the fuck was listening to, but thought: "holy hell, what is this that is so awesome?". Since then, Gilmour simplistic but touching style is always a reference for me when playing blues and hard rock, kinda mixed with Gary Moore.

Mikael Akerfeldt - A pure musical genius. His jazzy soloing style in metal context and his unorthodox way of writing striked me like a hammer when I started to get into them, and still it does now.

Juan Valdivia - Even though not a technically great guitar player, his writing and melodic sense when writing clean parts with just simple chords are awesome.

Andy Timmons - My most recent influence. The guy is one of the bests guitarists I've ever had the chance to see live (He smoked Satch and Vai easily). He just has it all: Tone, feeling, grove, phrasing, technique... Everything in his playing is perfect.

 

[AChRush1349]

I'm gonna try and limit myself as much as I can, but i'm already sure it'll go over 5.

1. Randy Rhoads: My first guitar idol, he has never stopped amazing me.
2. Yngwie Malmsteen: He changed my entire view on the electric guitar.
3. Jeff Loomis/Chris Broderick: Some of the best players i've ever heard technically, while still keeping things unique and original.
4. Ihsahn: Some of the darkest, ugliest, most dissonant and confusing, but beautiful music i've ever heard. Extremely unique style.
5. Marty Friedman/Jason Becker: Expressive, technical, exotic, beautiful, emotional and hard hitting. Both of these players made me want to explore different techniques and approaches to music
6. Mikael Åkerfeldtr: Can't say enough about Opeth. Some of the most interesting music i've ever heard. Beautiful melodies starkly contrasted with brutal death metal, but never anything stereotypical or boring.
7. Chuck Schuldiner: The undisputed god of death metal. One of the few death metal guitarists I could listen to all day without getting bored.
8. Paul Gilbert: The crazy king of shred. Interesting and quirky techniques that make you think. Blazing speed, and a great sense of control, and able to convey emotion.
9. John Petrucci: The man who got me into progressive music. Must have listened to pull me under 1,000,000 times when I first discovered dream theater. Even now, the images and words, and Metropolis albums never cease to amaze me.
10. Jari Mäenpää: Very melodic and beautiful, with crazy amounts of chops. Probably one of the most technically proficient guitarists i've heard, yet he knows how to craft a song.
11. Jani Liimatainen: Great technique, amazing melodies, and a perfect balance of soul and speed.

EDIT: Micheal romeo belongs somewhere on there, because he completely blew my mind when I heard the tapping from "sea of lies", And at that time I KNEW what tapping was, and what it sounded like. I still wasn't ready for something as revolutionary sounding as his tapping style.

 

[Sang-Drax]

In no particular order:

Mikael Åkerfeldt (Opeth)
Alexi Laiho (Children of Bodom)
The Edge (U2)
Billy Howerdel (A Perfect Circle)
Gelotte/Strömblad (In Flames)

Those keep changing though. I recently came to the conclusion that the only shredder I really enjoy listening to is Alexi. Whenever a listen to CoB I feel like practicing to be a guitar hero again .

edit: I had cited Dave Gimour, but I'm a lot more influenced by In Flames, even when not playing metal.