Top 5 Guitarists Who Have Influenced You? :O

[Stengah_2012]

1. David Gilmore - His phrasing, touch and sense of melody are impeccable.
2. Jimi Hendrix - "Machine Gun." 'Nuff said.
3. Jerry Cantrell - Great song writer with an excellent sense of melody.
4. Dino Cazares - Awesome, awesome rhythm player. Extremely tight.
5. Frederik Thordendal - Jaw dropping leads with a beautiful tone and insane touch.

 

[Guitarast]

1. Steve Vai
2. Joe Satriani
3. John Petrucci
4. Richie Blackmore
5. Greg Howe

 

[Sindwulf]

These are really in no order:

1. John Petrucci
2. Alexi Laiho
3. Fredrick Thordendal (Now starting to influence)
4. Gus G. He's my current hero, his vibrato is awesome and also pretty clean
5. Also, Jeff Loomis is starting to get me going.

 

[Nick1]

This list keeps changing for me. But heres what I got at the moment....


1.Guthrie Govan- His playing is amazing! Just hearing him play makes me wanna pick my guitar up and practice till my fingers fall off.

2. George Bellas- Ive been learning from him the past 3 years now so needless to say Ive picked up a few things

3. Paul Gilbert- For picking and pentatonics

4. John Petrucci for melody and tone and riffs that stick in my head for weeks

5. Yngwie for his vibrato and phrasing.

6. Is a tie between Stevie Ray Vaughan, Steve Vai, Zakk Wylde, Eddie Van Halen and Dimebag

#6 is more past tense but I listened to all of their stuff for so long some of it rubbed off on me. Like Pride & Glory for Zakk and Passion and Warfare for Vai and anything by SRV or Dime but as for EVH pretty much anything except the Van Halen III album. What the hell was he thinking?

 

[TaronKeim]

1. David Torn - In musical approach, wang bar usage and textural playing. Also - his film scoring and drum programming are ingrained in my compositional membranes.

2. Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - At the Drive-In riffage/chord voicings and the overal cinematic appeal of The Mars Volta. Omar is a true "punk" and his riffing style is permanently blueprinted into my right hand mechanics.

3. Kurt Rosenwinkel - His unique voice and overal tonal themes. He is very complex in his melodies and counterpoint while still remaining quite listenable. I strive for his fluidity, compositional chops and sense of wholeness as an artist; he is a voice unto himself.

4. Paul Masvidal - His alternate picking as riffage and Holdsworth-ian solo style are hugely influential to my overal skill set. Cynic first opened my eyes as to what truly is possible on the instrument; his dedication to creating a unified and personal theme through his compositions and playing is amazing.

5. Kurt Ballou - Everything I love about heavy music mixed into one player; heavy doomy riffs, ridiculously aggressive tone, punk aesthetic to leads and bending, thrash and grind influenced riffage and above all a tendency to the progressive and furthering ones musical reach/intention. He is the Hardcore version of Jimmy Page - production chops to spare, custom/alternate tunings and from the gut playing.

There are others that have influenced me but these are the players whose ideals complimented my vision and technique on the instrument. I am more influenced by my comprehension of these player's artistic intent than anything else; they are beyond reproach when it comes to innovation.

_TJK*

 

[oompa]

cant really pick five a total, so ill pick five from the each of the three main eras in my life/development:

Page, Di Meola, Gilmour, Lifeson and Bourge: growing up my Dad fed me their music and they got me interrested and inspired enough to push through the first obstacles and keep going as a beginner guitarist.

Hetfield, Petrucci, Björler, Åkerfeldt and Thordendal: as a young teenager they all made me into a metal guitarist in their own ways and eventually pushed me into technical and progressive music.

Tiso, Suiçmez, Masvidal, Mongrain and Bryssling: towards the end of my teens and the ~10 years up to now i mainly get inspired by guys like those, as i very quickly get bored with anything that lacks personality and complexity, and i think that if i made a song on demand now, it'd sound like a mix of the five above or something like that.

 

[heineken_fretwalker]

Chuck Schuldiner
Marty Friedman
Dimebag Darrell
Jeff Loomis
Adrian Smith

 

[Harry]

At number one, is Joe Satriani.
No one's lead guitar playing has ever affected me so much as his playing.
Every ounce of his soul and personality shines through his lead playing and his phrasing is always perfect IMO.

The rest in no particular order but numbered anyway

2. Steve Vai (for being the second guy after Satriani to grab my heart with his playing)
3. Marty Friedman (some of the best phrasing ever, and vibrato that gives me goosebumps)
4. Yngwie Malmsteen (I don't like the bulk of his music, but his absolute control and command of all aspects of his playing is mind boggling)
5. Dave Mustaine (rhythm guitar)

 

[JouniK86]

1 - Shawn Lane
Pretty much self-explanatory, this late great guitar artist showed that it is possible to shred like a madman and still maintain a dynamic, musical touch to lead guitar playing. "Powers of Ten" still remains as one of my favorite solo albums.

2 - Jeff Loomis
Elite of metal guitarists. He can add so much harmonics to an already pumped-up sound that it's almost incredible. It's not his Nevermore stuff which got me to appreciate this guitarist, but his excellent solo album "Zero Order Phase".

3 - Fredrik Thordendal
He is partially responsible for the sound and feel of a modern, technical thrash metal (and somewhat also metal-/deathcore ) . The earlier works displayed brutalized Holdsworth-esque lead/solo guitar work which has developed quite nicely throughout his career, yet it is his rhythm guitar playing that has forced me to bow down before my new god.

4 - Steve Vai
Ok, there's no denial that he is (one of) the most technical, most versatile and most musical guitar player in rock scene up-to-date. Placing him on the viewpoint of this ranking would be exaggerated since I don't like all his composition that much. However, there is no denial that including him is pretty obvious, regardless of whether you prefer rock over metal or either way.

5 - Nuno Bettencourt
A cocky rock guitarist with both attitude and style. Excellent guitar solos on the Extreme albums as well as ballsy riffing. Nuff said.

Other guitar players I look up to:
Dimebag Darrell, Kristian Niemann, Chuck Schuldiner, Christoffer Malmström, John Petrucci, Michael Romeo and probably a bunch of others I forgot to mention.

 

[Triple7]

Adam Jones
Jeff Loomis
David Gilmour
Justin Longshore (only the stuff from "Bloodlust")
Fredrick Thordendal

 

[liamh]

5) Steve Morse
4)Allan Holdsworth
3)Guthrie Govan
2)John Petrucci
1)Steve Vai (one of the most talented people to ever live imo)

 

[Chelseadevil21]

My Top 5 are....
1. Chris Amott (Arch Enemy) - Love his lead work. To me he is a God
2. Joel Stroetzel (Killswitch Engage) - Love his thrashy rhythm/tasty leads
3. Peter Wichers (Soilwork) - Incredible..that's about it
4. Buz McGrath (Unearth) - Love his all around playing
5. John Petrucci (His solo work) - He is just an amazing player all around also

 

[punisher911]

No order here.
SRV-how can you not like the blues?
Steve Vai-speed, skill, and feeling. "The audience is listening" is in my iPod.
TOM MORELLO-made me actually want to learn guitar. I love his riffs and the outside the box thinking for solos and sounds.
Dimebag Darrell-Again, I love a good riff.
EVH-every kid I knew learned "air guitar" to 1984, including me

I couldn't honestly put Satch, although he's great. I just never heard him until I bought a G3 dvd while in Iraq. Yes, I was sheltered.

 

[EliNoPants]

though i started on bass and am only recently giving guitar a sincere effort beyond "i just wanna be able to throw down the rhythm parts without having to spend 9 hours explaining 2 riffs to a halfwit"

David Gilmour - Pink Floyd is WHY i like music, and even 29 years later, no solo has touched me more than Comfortably Numb still does, even in shitty halfassed cover versions
James Hetfield - Metallica is the first metal band i ever heard, and i still remember FREAKING out during the video for One when it was on Beavis and Butthead
Chuck Schuldiner - dude managed to pull off the same degree of free and pure expression that Hendrix did, only he had discipline and technique
Glenn Tipton/KK Downing - a little while ago Hellion/Electric Eye came on the radio, and for like 3 minutes i couldn't figure out what the hell it was, but i knew it was the greatest use of dual guitar i'd ever heard, and that i'd heard it before despite not having my finger on it exactly...then Rob Halford came in, and i felt like a retard and went "wow, even after all this time, their dual guitar work still sounds unique and ahead of everyone elses use of it"
Adam Jones - Tool rules, and despite his general avoidance of lead or solo work, those riffs, even tuned down to just D are so much heavier than most other bands could ever hope to be

 

[canuck brian]

Petrucci - made me want to start learning more than rhythm playing.

Gilbert - his vids broke everything down for me. I improved my playing a thousand fold just by his teachings alone. I've focused heavily on cleaning up high speed alternate picking and the Intense Rock DVD just completely cleaned up my playing.

Loomis - this guy is insane. He's one of the few newer guitar players who sounds like he has a voice of his own. Easily one of my favorite players for being able to incorporate such heavy melody in his most extreme runs. As said by Desi - this man is what I aspire to.

Kirk Hammett - Metallica was one of the first bands I checked out for metal, the other was Slayer and I'm sure as hell not giving Kerry King the credit. I heard Metallica and wanted to play metal. Simple as that.

Recently!

Doug Steele! - I love your vids man. Anything to make myself a better player is something I'll check out and your videos definitely cleaned up some of my playing.

 

[E Lucevan Le Stelle]

I'd say...
Paul Masvidal
Fredrik Thordendal
Allan Holdsworth
Jason Becker
Chuck Schuldiner

 

[Scar Symmetry]

Steve Vai
Per Nilsson
Jeff Loomis
John Petrucci
Muhammed Suicmez

 

[synrgy]

Dimebag
Dave Navarro
Adam Jones
Tim Mahoney
Steve Vai
(not necessarily in that order.)

Basically, anyway. Kirk Hammet should probably be in there too, although technically I think James wrote all the riffs I give Kirk credit for playing...

 

[demontamer]

Good question...Hard to answer to...I like this challenge ^_^

1 - Kai Hansen(Helloween/Gamma Ray): when I was a teenager,the Helloween albums makes me play a guitar...he's not a shreddy guy,but he has some feeling on his playing.

2 - Adrian Smith(Iron Maiden/Bruce Dickinson): some of his chops has make it from the 80's till know,and are still som of the best riffs you ever listen.

3 - Jason Becker(Cacophony/Solo): He is the best guitar player and composer I've ever listened to...Hope that in the future someone would find a cure for his disease...his also a great example of a great human being...

4 - Micheal Ammott & Christopher Ammott(Arch Enemy/Spiritual Beggars/Carcass/Armageddon): I love their riffing and solos!!!Especially Chris guitaring,that I consider one of the absolutely best in Europe!!!

5 - Jeff Loomis(Nevermore): he is the best shredder actually on the music business...he has feeling,and great chops and riffs...and I love how he sweeps on that 7 strings!!!!

Okay I have forgotten other great guys(like Chris Broderick,Micheal Romeo,Jesper Stromblad and Bjorn Gelotte,Roy Z,Bill Steer,John Norum,Brian May and so on so on....)but you've limited this to 5 guys...eheheheh

 

[HorseCalledWar]

Ron Thal
Mattias Eklundh
John Petrucci
SRV
EVH