Top 5 Guitarists Who Have Influenced You? :O

[Scar Symmetry]

Tasteful:
1 - Mark Knopfler
2 - Per Nilsson
3 - Mikael Akerfeldt
4 - Steve Vai
5 - Guthrie Govan

Shred:
1 - Vogg
2 - Jeff Loomis
3 - Muhammed Suicmez
4 - Michael Romeo
5 - Vinnie Moore

What? It's still 5

 

[Path]

In order of when i discovered them..

Hendrix - Its clicha but thats what got me into rock music in the 1st place, which soon led to me buying my 1st electric and my 1st song i learnt was Purple Haze
Mike Einziger - Love Incubus, love his use of Metal + Funk/Jazz, could also drop in Larry Lalonde (Primus)
Tom Morrello - I used to listen to rage non stop, i could play every album all the way through (apart from some of the shredding riffs), ahh Digitech Whammy, how i miss you.
Adam jones - Started getting into riffing more and learnt more about song structure and such from listening to Tool
Bulb - ....

 

[jkspawn]

I would say these are my top 5 as of late. Check out my recordings and let me know what you think my influences are (no particular order). Just curious of what fellow musicians think. Thanks!

1. John Petrucci
2. Jeff Waters
3. Dave Mustaine
4. Chuck Shuldiner
5. Dimebag

Slanderus's sounds on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

 

[SenorDingDong]

This is VERY hard, but my RECENT list is
(in no order)

1. Paco De Lucia
2. Jeff Loomis
3. John Petrucci
4. Jim Matheos
5. William Ackerman

 

[great_kthulu]

ya, its really hard for me to! anyway, Ill give it a shot.

1.Chuck Schuldiner
2.Mike McKenzie
3.Jason Becker
4.Paul Masvidal
5.Mike Akerfeldt

 

[jalmetalman]

Can't do top 5 but here's my top 7
In no particular order:

1. Jim Root - Slipknot/Stone Sour
2. Mark Morton & Willie Adler - Lamb of God
3. Alexi Laiho & Roope Latvala - Children of Bodom
4. Ola Englund - Feared/Scarpoint
5. James Hetfield - Metallica
6. Dimebag Darrell - Pantera/Damageplan
7. Gus G - Firewind/Ozzy

 

[ChrisOfTheSky]

In terms of influences

1. John Petrucci
2. Luke Hoskin/Tim Millar
3. Bulb
4. Fredrik Thordendal
5. Tosin Abasi

And the obligatory Kirk Hammett/James Hetfield for making me pick up the guitar to begin with.

 

[Addison90]

1. Paul Gilbert (Racer-X, Mr.Big)
2. James Hetfield (Metallica)
3. Marc Okubo (Veil of Maya)
4. John Petrucci (Dream Theater, LTE)
5. Ryan Morgan (Misery Signals, 7 Angels 7 Plagues)

 

[Adam Of Angels]

Its likely that I've posted in this thread two or three time, but I can't remember any of that, so, in no particular order:

1. Eric Johnson
2. Bjorn Gelotte and Jesper Stromblad (In Flames)
3. Mikael Akferfeldt (Opeth)
4. Jani Liimatainen (ex-Sonata Arctica)
5. Michael Romeo (Symphony X)
6. Peter Wichers and Ola Frenning (Soilwork)
7. Steve Vai
8. John Petrucci

 

[CrownofWorms]

This is for Rhythm and Lead

Dave Mustaine
Chuck Schuldiner
Marty Friedman
Erik Rutan
Paul Masdival
Shawn Lane
John Petrucci
Allan Holdsworth
Fredrick Thordendal
Jeff Loomis
Steve Vai
Mohamed Suicimez
Devin Townsend
Chris Poland
Trey Azagtoth
Pat O brien
Rob Barret
Terrance Hobbs
Doug Cerrito
Ralph Santolla
Hoffman brothers
Alexi Laiho
Randy Rhoads
Tom Morello
Kerry King
Jeff Hanemen
Joe Duplantier
Christian Muenzner
and more

wait thats more than 5

 

[BucketheadRules]

Probably this lot:

Gary Moore - first person I ever heard really making a guitar scream, have been in pursuit of that kind of feel in my bending and vibrato ever since (with mixed but gradually improving results). He really knew how to make a guitar sing, and Still Got the Blues was the first solo that ever really grabbed my attention, way back when. Still love his playing... and he could really fucking shred when he wanted to as well.

Vogg - from Decapitated, responsible for some amazing screaming bends that sound way more dramatic than the half-tone changes in pitch they often are. And he's ridiculously fast and clean, only really using fairly common scales but just completely owning them every time. I really love his soloing style.

Guthrie Govan - wary of stating him as an influence, because there's no way I'll ever reach his kind of level, but in my recent explorations of his stuff I've been very much inspired to start checking out some new scales and modes, and adding in or taking away notes from ones I already use to get some new mileage out of my tired old licks.

John Petrucci, particularly around 1992-4 - again, wary of citing him here because my playing sounds nothing like Him, and probably never will (sadly) but He's a constant reminder that no matter how good I think I am, I will never be as good as Him. Gives me the constant desire to improve and perhaps is a constant influence subconsciously telling me not get too full of myself... and yes, I did capitalise the Hs on "He" and "Him", for obvious reasons.

Ben Tovey - from Rise To Remain - he's my guitar teacher, so his influence on me is less abstract than with the ones above, but since starting lessons with him I've found that my playing has come on in leaps and bounds - not to mention that he's a superb guitarist (superb is probably an understatement, come to think of it)... needs to be heard to be believed.


Also - people I would have fitted in if I'd had the chance:

Michael Keene
Dimebag
Steve Lynch (from Autograph, fucking look them up, you need to hear this dude)
Nuno Bettencourt
Devin Townsend

And my dad, who got me started and showed me the first steps!

 

[bhakan]

In order oldest to most recent:

James Hetfield- Metallica was the band that really got me into metal, so without Hetfield, none of the others would even be relevant for me. I also learned a lot from his picking style, and I learned how to control dynamics and palm muting in my picking hand from him.

John Petrucci- Dream Theater was the first really technical band I listened to. Petrucci's playing really opened me up to a lot of things, from technical riffs, to seven strings, to long songs with weird arrangements.

Adam Jones- Tool made me look at music and compositions differently. They really made me think about odd time signatures and weird effects and song structures. Whenever I'm trying to write a riff with a weird time to it, I think back to Tool.

Acle Kahney- Tesseract was the first band i heard using the expansive clean layers over metal. I use layering now all the time.

Mark Holcomb- I watched some lesson he did a year ago or so, and he showed all the chords he uses. I have consistently ripped off and used variations of those chords in the majority of stuff I write.

There are a whole bunch of players who I love, but I think these come through in my playing the most.

 

[isispelican]

Mark Holcomb
Misha Mansoor
Guthrie Govan
Allan Holdsworth
Brent Hinds

 

[Ninetyfour]

For leads:

John Petrucci
Michael Keene

For rhythm:

Marc Okubo
Mark Holcomb
Thomas Erak (I think)

 

[Ralyks]

John Petrucci
Frank Aresti
Allan Holdsworth
John McLaughlin
Josh Christian (Toxik)

While I've been a huge fan of his for a good chunk of my life, I've only recently finally realized that Petrucci is my biggest influence, and embodies everything I want to know and understand about guitar, namely his 90s work when he still had a more Fusion influence.

Edit: Honorable mention goes to Eric Clapton.

 

[flexkill]

#1)Does not anyone have any love for Ty Tabor??? Ever??? Guy is incredibly God like on guitar!!!

Paul Gilbert
SRV
George Lynch
Jimi
Alex Skolnick (The guy who really turned me on to heavier style guitar and changed my lead approach to a more technical style than just blues riffing all the time)
Marty Friedman
Vai(When I heard PAW for the first time I had to see this played live to believe it was real! No mere mortal should be able to control anything like that!)
Blues Saraceno

And many more......

 

[JayFraser]

1) Shawn Lane- the dude was just insane. The phrasing, the melody, the originality, the speed, the technique, the vibrato, the note choice- everything was just taken to 100% with that guy. The only guy (IMO) to ever truly 'know' the guitar. If I could have even 1% of his skill, I'd be better than nearly every other guitarist alive, I think.
2) Guthrie Govan- versatile, a fantastic teacher, a beautiful tone, and so well versed in almost every style I can think of as well as having incredible improv skills.
3) Tom Quayle- dat legato. Seriously. Dat legato.
4) Buckethead- possibly the only guitarist more versatile than Guthrie. He can play every style, and play it well. He's quirky and fun, but beyond that, Electric Tears is one of the most emotional albums ever produced, and a quick listen to Witches On The Heath just shows some of the most incredible note choice, phrasing, tone and vibrato.
5) Rick Graham- fantastic technique, true, but just listen to 'Just A Dream' and tell me that that isn't some absolutely fan-fucking-tastic playing. He's got everything, not to the same extent as Lane (obviously) but one of the best all-rounders, and just incredible good in every measure.

 

[Rypac]

Though I get ideas from lots of different guitarists, these ones have really influenced my playing and how I think about music (in no particular order):

Dave Mustaine
Marty Friedman
Joe Satriani
Tommy Emmanuel
Frank Gambale


Recently I've been listening to lots of Jeff Loomis, John Petrucci and Paul Gilbert, so these guys are the ones I'm learning lots from currently.

 

[GhostsofAcid]

I'm sure I've posted here before, but oh well.

1. Muhammed Suiçmez - My all time favorite lead player, which is why I'm slowly learning all the solos on Epitaph and Onset
2. Christian Muenzner - Rediculous lead player, amazing songwriter.
3. Jesper Stromblad - Unparalleled rhythm player IMO.
4. Jerry Cantrell - AiC is one of the first bands I got into, and of them the only one I still regularly listen to. His playing is a big reason why.
5. Paul Waggoner - Not technically brilliant but a great songwriter.
6. Daron Malakian - Made me pick up a guitar in the first place.
7. Jeff Loomis - The only shredder whose work I can really get into.

 

[Rain]

The biggest influences on my playing style have to come from:

1. Buckethead: He was my first really big guitar playing influence and he inspired me to keep going. He's weird and bizarre but I like that about him. His playing is amazing and people greatly underestimate him.

2. Signar Peterson/Martin Buus(Mercenary): I put these two together because their lead guitar playing in Mercenary's albums were my first taste of melodic death metal and they ultimately sent me down the path that has led me to develop the style of lead guitar that I currently play as well as the way I compose music.

3. Per Nilsson(Scar Symmetry): Alongside Mercenary, Per Nilsson's guitar playing in Scar Symmetry was also a big early influence on my playing and his sometimes abstract songwriting and lead playing has showed me that not everything has to be in the same scale throughout the entire song to sound good.

4. John Petrucci(Dream Theater): The demi-god Petrucci has had a big influence on me, not just for his guitar playing, but for his instruction video xD The Rock Discipline instruction video has helped me to greatly improve my speed and accuracy as well as my warm up exercises. I never play guitar without going through his warm up routine. John has been the best teacher I've had, even if he did it through an instructional video.

5. Jeff Waters(Annihilator): I'm not actually a big fan of Annihilator but I do love a lot of their songs and Jeff's one of my favorite guitar players. I love his riffs and despite the fact that he mostly only uses blues scales on his lead guitar style, he gets really creative with it and he's really brought the thrash metal solo sound into my style.