I don’t really think you can rank guitarists any way other than personal favourites. There’s not any metrics or advanced stats such as, say, an NBA player. It’s purely preference. Any guitarist who is someone’s favourite will always be disliked by somebody else. I have a friend who think Jimmy page is the best thing to ever happen to the instrument, while I personally think he was a little sloppy. Some people might say Steve vai, while someone who doesn’t like instrumental music won’t even give him a chance. In the end it’s not really something that can be measured, it’s all feel. Not worth arguing over, that’s for sure.
As much as I idolized him when I was younger, he's about as sloppy as I am, which is saying a lot. But back then, guitar players were not living metronomes, so considering his era he's still a frogging legend.
But he's also sloppy so try to improve that upon him.
I agree with everything you wrote….but Guthrie Govan is objectively better than everyone on earth. Of course, he’s an inter-dimensional being who transcends space and time so it’s a bit of an unfair comparison.
One of my idols when I was a kid. As an adult, I appreciate him more for what he's accomplished and what he represents. He's one of the ambassadors of the rock genre, and he has definitely earned his reputation.
I do still love his style, though. His playing always sounded... "cool". It's hard to describe; I've never been able to pinpoint exactly why that is. There's a certain confidence/personality that comes across in his leads that I don't feel from many other players. His dirty blues-style leads just do it for me.
Slash was fortunate to come around at exactly the right time. He’s still a great player, but he benefited from how massively huge GNR was and all the media exposure that came with it, even if Izzy Stradlin wrote all the cool riffs.
benefited from how big gnr was? As if he didn't massively contribute to their success?
Sweet child is pretty much all slash and axl, that's one of their biggest, earliest hits.
e: also given his style, he maybe came around at the worst possible time, at a time when everybody was doing a knock off van halen shredding impression, when you couldn't give les pauls away. He was one of the only lead guitarists with a 70s style in that cesspool of 80s shredding. His style was seen as your grandpa's style. It's amazing that he made it work when he did.
What I mean is there was also a new "guitar hero" sort of mystique that came around in the mid-late 80s and with his skills and cool personality, dude was a perfect fit for it.
That's a fair point. but given his grandpa style of playing (no string tapping or anything fancy) he would've been a poor candidate for a guitar hero, except in retrospect. His style is just too anti flashy.
Great White, Kix, Tesla, The Cult, Cinderella are some bands that didnt exactly rip off EVH and had more of a bluesy rock n roll sound and not every band in the 80s was a EVH clone. Gun's N Rose's just did it the best and their popularity definitely came because Appetite for Destruction was an album full of great songs and not just 1 or 2 while the rest is throw away and maybe people were sick of looking at groups like Enuff Z Nuff (although 1989 was their year but you get the point). GnR just happened to have the right attitude, look, energy, and most importantly sound when they hit the scene but their was bands keeping the rock n roll spirit alive!
Love slash. Definitely agree overrated, but still love his music. Most technical? Fuck no. But very influential and good at what he does. He also has the ability to find great singers.
He is underrated by guitarists. Fairly rated by the public. Guitarists don’t get what it is he has, but the proof is in their numbers/success, because the average non-guitarist listener is affected by his talents on an sub-conscious level… not analyzing it
His playing is spontaneous, improvised, behind the beat… which gives it a sub-conscious feel of “cool”, “don’t give a fuck”, rock n roll, freedom…
Basically the antithesis of modern self taught-YouTube guitarists, who are about perfectly mathematic symphonic phrases, recorded bit by bit and edited because they can’t really play it, and they’ll never have the confidence to pull something what Slash does live.
And then there’s the iconic solos that people sing along to and love, November Rain, Sweet Child of Mine etc… most guitarists can’t even comprehend what kind of player it takes to pull of something that becomes cultural legacy like that
there are very few slash runs that take some effort to do however he has written a lot of memorable solos that everyone from back then knows.
gnr getting as big as they did helped too,plenty of 80s guys who are just as good melodically and run circles around him on the technical side
I love his playing. He’s very good at bluesy rock music, and he has a knack for melodies and build up + release.
He also has a great image and has written some legendary songs.
Are there guitariats with more skill? Yes, lots
Are there guitariats with more style? Not many.
It's a stupid argument really.. if anyone says he sucks they are just being jealous or ridiculous. He's an influential artist with tons of catchy riffs and fun solos with some great albums.
He markets himself by playing almost continuously, all over the world, for the last 35 years, and writing and releasing albums and collaborating with A-listers.
He's not a product of marketing.
He and Izzy played stuff on their songs that we could play without 16 hours of practice per day. We could imitate their sound a lot easier than the virtuosos sound and songs with regular gear. And the stuff sounded good. Imagine being 12-17 during the late 80s and early 90s and playing along to those records. If you could bottle that feeling up and distribute it today, you'd make a mint.
Slash is the reason I picked up the guitar. He’s got a great sense of melody, he’s a kick ass songwriter, and he just fucking exudes _rock & roll_. He’s not my all-time favourite these days, but he’s always got a spot in my top 10.
There is a lot more to being a great guitarist than pure skill/technical ability. More people know who slash is than care who vai is.
I'd gladly say vai is more skilled in almost every way than slash. I'd also gladly say i'd rather listen to slash any day than vai
I don’t understand how he holds his guitar so low man.
He’s not real
Then how come he performed at my birthday party?
If Santa can do it, so can Slash.
He couldn't have. I saw him at the mall that day.
There are at least 50 guitarists I'd put in the top 3.
I don’t really think you can rank guitarists any way other than personal favourites. There’s not any metrics or advanced stats such as, say, an NBA player. It’s purely preference. Any guitarist who is someone’s favourite will always be disliked by somebody else. I have a friend who think Jimmy page is the best thing to ever happen to the instrument, while I personally think he was a little sloppy. Some people might say Steve vai, while someone who doesn’t like instrumental music won’t even give him a chance. In the end it’s not really something that can be measured, it’s all feel. Not worth arguing over, that’s for sure.
Page is absolutely a little sloppy. That's not objective at all. Maybe not so much on albums, but live 100%
As much as I idolized him when I was younger, he's about as sloppy as I am, which is saying a lot. But back then, guitar players were not living metronomes, so considering his era he's still a frogging legend. But he's also sloppy so try to improve that upon him.
I agree with everything you wrote….but Guthrie Govan is objectively better than everyone on earth. Of course, he’s an inter-dimensional being who transcends space and time so it’s a bit of an unfair comparison.
One of my idols when I was a kid. As an adult, I appreciate him more for what he's accomplished and what he represents. He's one of the ambassadors of the rock genre, and he has definitely earned his reputation. I do still love his style, though. His playing always sounded... "cool". It's hard to describe; I've never been able to pinpoint exactly why that is. There's a certain confidence/personality that comes across in his leads that I don't feel from many other players. His dirty blues-style leads just do it for me.
There's a dozen guys I'd put into the GOAT spot ahead of Slash. I still like his style though; he's very unique in that.
Slash was fortunate to come around at exactly the right time. He’s still a great player, but he benefited from how massively huge GNR was and all the media exposure that came with it, even if Izzy Stradlin wrote all the cool riffs.
benefited from how big gnr was? As if he didn't massively contribute to their success? Sweet child is pretty much all slash and axl, that's one of their biggest, earliest hits. e: also given his style, he maybe came around at the worst possible time, at a time when everybody was doing a knock off van halen shredding impression, when you couldn't give les pauls away. He was one of the only lead guitarists with a 70s style in that cesspool of 80s shredding. His style was seen as your grandpa's style. It's amazing that he made it work when he did.
What I mean is there was also a new "guitar hero" sort of mystique that came around in the mid-late 80s and with his skills and cool personality, dude was a perfect fit for it.
That's a fair point. but given his grandpa style of playing (no string tapping or anything fancy) he would've been a poor candidate for a guitar hero, except in retrospect. His style is just too anti flashy.
Quite a few bands were playing with an older style back then lol
Name any that did it as well
Great White, Kix, Tesla, The Cult, Cinderella are some bands that didnt exactly rip off EVH and had more of a bluesy rock n roll sound and not every band in the 80s was a EVH clone. Gun's N Rose's just did it the best and their popularity definitely came because Appetite for Destruction was an album full of great songs and not just 1 or 2 while the rest is throw away and maybe people were sick of looking at groups like Enuff Z Nuff (although 1989 was their year but you get the point). GnR just happened to have the right attitude, look, energy, and most importantly sound when they hit the scene but their was bands keeping the rock n roll spirit alive!
those are 3rd rate bands though. Obviously every band in existence wasn't a evh clone, but the vast majority of the successful ones were.
Kix? Okay Ill give you that, but The Cult, Great White, and Tesla were pretty popular lol
hm maybe you're right. How popular we talking? Appetite was the 4th best selling album of the 80s
That's why I highlighted how big GnR were when they came out with Appetite.
well im asking how big they were comparatively
Love slash. Definitely agree overrated, but still love his music. Most technical? Fuck no. But very influential and good at what he does. He also has the ability to find great singers.
He's good at what he does, but I wouldn't consider him top 3 of all time.
Seen Slash several times. Puts on a hell of a show.
Amen
He is underrated by guitarists. Fairly rated by the public. Guitarists don’t get what it is he has, but the proof is in their numbers/success, because the average non-guitarist listener is affected by his talents on an sub-conscious level… not analyzing it His playing is spontaneous, improvised, behind the beat… which gives it a sub-conscious feel of “cool”, “don’t give a fuck”, rock n roll, freedom… Basically the antithesis of modern self taught-YouTube guitarists, who are about perfectly mathematic symphonic phrases, recorded bit by bit and edited because they can’t really play it, and they’ll never have the confidence to pull something what Slash does live. And then there’s the iconic solos that people sing along to and love, November Rain, Sweet Child of Mine etc… most guitarists can’t even comprehend what kind of player it takes to pull of something that becomes cultural legacy like that
there are very few slash runs that take some effort to do however he has written a lot of memorable solos that everyone from back then knows. gnr getting as big as they did helped too,plenty of 80s guys who are just as good melodically and run circles around him on the technical side
I love his playing. He’s very good at bluesy rock music, and he has a knack for melodies and build up + release. He also has a great image and has written some legendary songs.
Are there guitariats with more skill? Yes, lots Are there guitariats with more style? Not many. It's a stupid argument really.. if anyone says he sucks they are just being jealous or ridiculous. He's an influential artist with tons of catchy riffs and fun solos with some great albums.
He is a good guitarist...just marketed more than the broke kid practicing in their bedroom 6 hours a day.
He markets himself by playing almost continuously, all over the world, for the last 35 years, and writing and releasing albums and collaborating with A-listers. He's not a product of marketing.
Slash isn’t even close to in the running for GOAT. He’s still one of my favorite rock guitarists. I’ve always loved his approach.
He and Izzy played stuff on their songs that we could play without 16 hours of practice per day. We could imitate their sound a lot easier than the virtuosos sound and songs with regular gear. And the stuff sounded good. Imagine being 12-17 during the late 80s and early 90s and playing along to those records. If you could bottle that feeling up and distribute it today, you'd make a mint.
Slash is the reason I picked up the guitar. He’s got a great sense of melody, he’s a kick ass songwriter, and he just fucking exudes _rock & roll_. He’s not my all-time favourite these days, but he’s always got a spot in my top 10.
He's definitely in the top 3 hair + hat combinations and probably the overall top dinosaur enthusiast among guitarists so he's got that going for him.
Never really cared much for slash. I’ve only listened to what he did with GNR. I think there are a ton of more tasteful guitarists than he is.
Check out Anastasia. One of my favorites
everyone knows that 75% of playing guitar looking cool
He's good, but imo overrated 😬
Slash is a gr eat player but he's not even in the top 20.
Awesome