Who Are Your Favorite Shredders?

[KnightBrolaire]

The drummer. Any other drummer I would argue does not shred. But Hannes is my favorite drummer.

yeah my bad I meant to put Florian and Danny. I kind of forgot who was who besides christian

 

[Konfyouzd]

Mattias Eklundh might be my favorite to listen to. You can tell he’s having a good time. Jarzombek is always interesting too.

 

[lurgar]

Buckethead and Buckethead-related projects.

 

[Mboogie7]

Angel Vivaldi is far and away my number 1.

 

[sirbuh]

EVH
Jason Becker
Al DiMeola
Marty
Joe Satriani
Vai
Yvette Young
Rusty Cooley

 

[StevenC]

I'd throw in Steve Hackett and Robert Fripp as some earlier shredders. There's no Van Halen without Dancing with the Moonlit Night, and Fripp has done G3 spots.

 

[B.M.F.]

I found the Rusty Cooley video I had mentioned earlier which blew me away almost 20 years ago. For me at the time this was released just made me want to start from scratch in my playing all over again, it was that decimating.


Here are some more faves:




This is for the dudes who mentioned Paco De Lucia, Al Di Meola and McLaughlin earlier. Al was an early favorite of mine; however it was McLaughlin that grabbed me - he is one of my heroes. Birds Of Fire, etc.. His instructional vid is super-heavy on music language vs "guitar"; Al's is the most conventional-style guitar vid and always cool to watch IMO as he is coming from a totally foreign musical landscape rhythmically than what I would guess most of us are rooted in.

 

[sirbuh]

Rusty Cooley! "Shred Guitar Manifesto" was jaw-dropping. Anyone remember those late 90s/early 2000s Chops From Hell days?

Took lessons from RC for a while. When I mentioned those tapes he just rolled his eyes and then melted my face with some riffs he never released.
Somewhat unrelated but listening to RoS guitarist respond to the faking "call out"...regarding non picked legato that was big part of RC's style.
Oh well.

 

[Spicypickles]

Modern: Jason Richardson, by and far. honorable mention to miles baker, interloper guitarist. Dude is super good.

love the trucc, Gilbert, govan and dimebag. Those were always my favs

 

[Isurez]

Jimmy Herring
John McLaughlin
Shawn Lane
Allan Holdsworth

 

[gnoll]

I've never been super into shred stuff, but I always thought Alex Skolnick did really good solos. Much more musical and interesting than other stuff I heard. Testament solos were pretty much the only ones that made me go "wow, I want to play that!!".

 

[lurè]

Michael Romeo
Shawn Lane
Allan Holdsworth
Yngwie Malmsteen
Guthrie Govan
Paul Gilbert
Frank Gambale
Al Di Meola
Ron Jarzombek
John Petrucci
Steve Vai

More recent ones:

Tosin Abasi
Tim Miller

 

[Stemp Fester]

Sithu Aye

Have a very low tolerance for shred these days though.

 

[efiltsohg]

Larry Lalonde

Have a very low tolerance for shred these days though.

 

[Joan Maal]

Not my first place favorite, but I found Rusty Cooley videos ( shred guitar manifesto and the art of speed picking ) the most useful and pleasant to practice, almost you are looking for speed improvement.

 

[tedtan]

Wow, I'm surprised that so many listed old school shredders. I also found a few people I need to check out (and got a reminder to check out post-Watchtower Ron Jarzombek).

If we include fusion, jazz and blues, then my list explodes.

I was originally thinking shredders, but I say let's expand the discussion to include jazz, fusion, flamenco, classical, et. al. because there are a lot of great players in those genres, too.

 

[Kenneth Gurholt]

Andy james for sure

I am trying hard to shred like Andy

 

[bostjan]

Mattias Eklundh might be my favorite to listen to. You can tell he’s having a good time. Jarzombek is always interesting too.

IA is maybe the most easily identified by his sound, no matter what he's doing.

Ron Jarzombek is just crazy good, as is Buckethead. I enjoy a lot of shred, but usually in smaller doses.

Also, no one mentioned Dave Martone. He had some interesting ideas back when he was touring around doing clinics and such.

 

[Snarpaasi]

Guthrie, Jakub Zytecki, Plini, Periphery bois, Matias Kupiainen (Stratovarius) and older Petrucci stuff. Interesting, melodic & memorable solos.

Feeling Andy James, IA Eklund, Rusty and these guys have top notch technique but you've heard it all in one minute.

 

[AndiKravljaca]

I've always really liked Reb Beach's playing. The way he strings together two-handed tapping licks like a saxophone really inspires me. Since it's two-handed playing it's not strictly speaking 'shredding' but I think it counts.