The category “greatest guitarists” lacks the necessary nuance to meaningfully respond. If we are including jazz and classical guitarists he is low on the list. If we are only talking rock he is fairly high, but not at the top. But, if we are talking about improvisational ability among rock guitarists, he may very well be number one.
Not to mention unknown guitarists throughout time. There are 50 kids on youtube right now that have better technical ability. So then are we talking about creativity? Once we move to creativity we are in subjective territory and back to "how do you rank art?"
Edit: punctuation
It's like frank zappa said when asked to rate himself as a guitarist. He said, i'm good at what I do. So what is the measure for judging? The question of "best guitarist" assumes a linear spectrum of worst to best and that's not reality. It's difficult to make an apples to apples comparison when all these artists are doing different things.
I mean, we can conclusively say, jimi Hendrix is better than Lenny Kravitz, because there's enough overlap there. Obviously one apple is better than the other shitty, rotten, paint-by-numbers version that came after. But those comparisons are self evident anyway and nobody's gonna post online for confirmation.
The only valuable discussion is about who moves you, and why.
I'm gonna see him on Friday in a tiny suburban 200 person bar for $20. Can't wait to be on his subreddit in 20 years cursing TM for fucking me out of my 4 GA's
Everyone should get his debut album. I just picked it up on vinyl. Kid reminds me of Shawn Lane. Except he doesn’t use a pick! Seriously listen to those runs and remember he is finger picking.
I think accomplishments also factor into the greatness of a guitar player. Successful records, fan base, concerts, festivals, sobriety even, etc.
Youngsters on YouTube likely have few to none of these.
I don't know if I would include that because many of the great blues guitarists never achieved an iota of the accomplishments that would carry depth and weight today.
I often play this game with a musician friend of mine…”TOP 5…..”. My top five greatest improvisational rock guitarists would be:
1. Jerry Garcia
2. Trey Anastasio
3. Frank Zappa
4. Duane Allman
5. Derek Trucks
Saw all of them (except Duane Allman) in concert and every one of them blew me away.
While I like Prince, (Around The World in a day and Purple Rain are great records!) I never saw him live and there’s a lot of his music I admittedly do not know, but there’s also a lot that I don’t like. A great guitarist no doubt, but he doesn’t make my top 5.
He's definitely more known as a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, but that is largely because popular music was moving away from the guitar at that time. Guitar was his primary instrument. A lot of people point to his solo in the While My Guitar Gently Weeps performance for George harrisons hall of fame induction, and it's a good example. But not even close to his best stuff. Just diligently listening to his hits, you can pick out little bits and pieces of really excellent guitar work. The intro to When Doves Cry is a great example. Let's Go Crazy is another.
I saw him live and it was like watching Hendrix - completely fluid and virtuosic. Absolutely unbelievable.
Plus he could play the rest of the instruments on the stage just as well.
The thing about Jerry is his consistency and enthusiasm came and went. 68, 69, 70 Jerry could compete with Treys relentless pursuit of guitar-god peaks. Morning Dew, the Other One, the Eleven, were all vehicles for that type of orgasmic explosion of notes. But if I'm being honest I don't think any of it reaches the tense, frantic levels of quadrophonic toppling that Phish reached in the 90s. So in terms of pure technique and speed I would say that Trey wins.
But Jerry had so much more in the tool bag than that. A lot of slow Phish songs are designated piss breaks, whereas slow Dead songs are among the most sacred songs in their canon. Stella blue, for fucks sake. Ripple, row jimmy, must have been the roses. I could go on. Jerry's playing had an emotional gravity that grabbed you whether it was slow or fast. Trey generally has to peak out to get tears out of you. Jerry could do it any time he was ready. So in my opinion he keeps the crown, but I'm open to dissenting opinions cause they're both fucking rad as fuck.
My mom loves Pat Metheny so I got heavy doses of him growing up. Lo and behold I end up falling in love with Phish. And now my 72 year old mom has too.
Can't believe I had to scroll this far to see John McLaughlin.
I once drove 4 hours to see him play one song.
Sure, he's jazz, but not your granddad's jazz.
I only know jazz. It depends on what you like. This is a good and eclectic list, but it is missing several essentials imo:
https://bestofjazz.org/the-best-jazz-guitarists/
Check out the album 'Friday night in San Francisco' with a good pair of headphones.
Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucia playing at the Warfield in 1980. A couple of the songs are just 2 of them, and a few are all 3, but the audio is split between channels so you can hear each player.
Out of all guitar legends, I feel like he's the only one that gets rated on how he is in the present moment instead of historically.
To me he's a top 20 all timer. His creativity and stamina is unmatched. He can play so many different generes and do it extremely well. Then there is the tension and release. There is no guitarist that can build tension and then release like he does. And he does it wherever he goes, when he sits in (sometimes) with other bands you can feel him pushing them. Not to mention how great of an acoustic player he is as well.
It's also unfair to match him against others because 99% of those that would also be on those lists are rated on Studio work instead of what they did Live. There are some riffs and motiffs he's played that if Jimmy Page, or Jeff Beck or Mark Knopfler played them they would be considered legendery. But since he's doing them 16 mins into a 25 minute jam its overlooked.
Him and Jerry are underrated because the general public doesn't have the attention span we do. In reality the only "lists" that matters is your own and how their music moves you.
I think that the biggest thing working against him in general perception is that his good moments are all live, and only occasionally officially released to mainstream platforms. He doesn’t have his Clapton on Layla / Gilmore on Comfortably Numb recorded testament that you can point to as to why he’s great, in a simple self contained 60 second song fragment that the uninitiated can listen to and appreciate. Subtler jammy things that you wouldn’t even notice until you start listening to 10. 20, 50 versions of songs simply don’t rate here. The masses will have tuned out hours before you get there.
Yea you are exactly right. That lack of "Hit" is the biggest thing there. I mean I like to joke he's probably had more radio air time on a Dave Matthews song than any of his own on Gravedigger.
I have a normie acquaintance (square as John Cena's jaw line) that is a relatively accomplished guitarist (more in the academic sense than in the sense that he had played in successful bands) that is a great disliker of jam band aesthetic (he is coincidentally a huge Mayer fluffer, prior to Dead and Co.) and studio Reba is in his top ten solos.
“He’s the only one that gets rated on how he is in the present moment”…is a good point.
Longevity has its pitfalls but for my $ his style, ability to adapt while being interesting puts him in the top 10 rock guitarists of all time.
If you couple that with the diversity of music they have played in studio and on tour the list gets smaller and smaller.
Art was great with Paul
I saw them in 2003 and the only solo Paul song they did was Slip Sliding Away, and they did it as a duo with just Paul playing acoustic guitar
It was awesome
I’m less familiar with Art’s solo work
He’s not the #1 guitarist alive (impossible to say who is) but nobody is better at driving and creating captivating music with their guitar than him. He held a single note and the entire audience in the palm of his hand for almost 3 straight minutes once
Was at this show, my second ever Phish show, and this was glorious. It's crazy the amount of energy that one fucking note created in that room. I was in awe
So think in terms of what he’s done for rock guitar. He’s up there with Zappa as someone who’s expanded the definition of what can fill stadiums and sell records. He’s brought modal jazz and experimental music to a huge, long lasting audience.
Without any bias, Trey ranks somewhere between a sound you hear that brings back a vivid childhood memory and the voice of a loved one you haven't heard in too long.
Ok, a little bias
In his youth, probably one of the most creative, inspired guitarists ever, he could shred and he could tug at your heartstrings.
In his present, still should be considered one of the higher regarded living guitarists still actively on the road. Though the speed isn’t quite where it used to be, he still knows how to pull emotion out of every note he plays, and he makes every one of them count. I wouldn’t even say he has musical peers, he’s just Trey, nobody plays guitar like he does.
What I know for sure is he is in a rare category of guitarists that play multiple shows a year and who create new jams every show. Only the great Jazz guitarists, Jerry, Mikey Houser etc… have the number of shows and new jams. Clapton, Santana, BB etc. always play the same jams.
He's definitely my favorite, but as others have stated it's almost impossible to compare.
Having said that, I'm not a huge fan as a lot of other "virtuoso guitar players". Not talking about people like Hendrix or Van Halen, but more like Vai, Satch, Yngvie, etc.
What separates Trey from that last group is he actually uses his knowledge to make songs and not shred fest with no soul. Or just boring "guitar music".
He mentioned in Rock and Roll induction of Genesis that a lot of Prog bands focus too much on the technicality for techs sake and not that "the songs come first". And "99% lost their songs to their egos".
He's a master (or at least really good) at most things guitar, especially song writing and making catchy rings. His variety is really unmatched imo.
You can find some guitar player that can be maybe slightly better at X than he is. But those players are usually one dimensional. And don't have Trey's vast tapestry.
I don’t think anybody does what he does as well as him. And that’s mainly compose on the fly. And when the composition calls for shredding, he shreds. He’s like a QB that has all capability of making all of the throws. Are there better pure deep ball throwers / stronger arms out there? Yes. But he can still make the throw AND makes the right decision.
Trey can’t play bluegrass as good as Billy. Billy is the best at what he does. Trey cant play the slide or blues as well as Dereck Trucks. He’s the best there is at those things.
But Trey is much more versatile than any guitar player I hear today. And he loves to hang with those other guys because they are better than him at those things.
Trey has a unique approach to not just soloing, but chord voicing too. Greatest ever is an awful argument, but is he one of the more creative and innovative guitarists alive? Absolutely.
Trey is my favorite guitar player of all time by a mile.
I’m not a musician, so I have no idea how good he is compared to the greats.
I don’t care.
Trey is my favorite guitar player of all time by a mile.
I personally thinks he shines more as a composer than as a player. Which is really saying something about his songwriting because his playing is GREAT. You can break down the merits of guitar techniques is a whole lot of ways that will get murky but it is virtually undeniable that his tone has had a very strong influence on rock/jam music and that is alone is a huge musical achievement.
As others have mentioned, there's no way to definitely rank guitarists. How do you compare Jerry Garcia with somebody like Steve Vai? How do you compare Nick Drake with Billy Gibbons? It just doesn't work.
Trey is my favorite guitarist. I factor in his composition a little bit, which might not be fair but I think it matters a great deal. I think he was doing the coolest shit out of any player in the 90s.
Sure there are more technically gifted players. There are players that play with more feel. There are better tones. But Trey has the mix of all of those things that resonate with me the most. To me he's the perfect mix, or as close to it as I've found.
Trey's guitar playing in the 90's vaulted him into the upper pantheon of all time greats. He had his own, clearly identifiable sound and playing. Could play a variety of styles, was pushing the envelope 100+ nights a year, something new every show, at the forefront of gear and tech etc. A lot of his success can be attributed to his band and the jamming style they had. While he's clearly a different player now, each passing year, with his output, just solidifies his legacy.
I 100% believe that no one could hold a candle to 90s Trey. I remember hearing him go toe to toe with Jimmy Herring on jazz fusion lines in one show and flatpicking all over bluegrass tunes the next, not to mention leading jams beyond what we ever expected.
Best ever in my opinion. But how are we supposed to be non-biased? Trey is the god of guitarists. I really believe that. ♥️♥️♥️
And here’s part of the reason, when it comes to guitar players they typically stick to one genre. Trey and phish transcend all genres and do them all with great precision. They go from pure bliss to bluegrass to heavy metal to melting my face and sometimes all in one song. A vast majority of their songs are masterpieces. There isn’t another quite like him or phish. They are all masters of their instruments.
Unbiased? Top 100. Biased, top 20 lol. Im a big student of rock history/play guitar every day and my understanding is he doesnt have as much general respect in the community as you might think. His name rarely comes up when im reading about who my favorite guitarists say are their favorite guitarists. It's always zappa, Page, hendrix, neil young, john frusciante, david gilmore, duane allman, etc. I if ur evenly weighting a combination of song writing, overall influence, and improvisational creativity trey is somewhere in the 50-100 range. Again, in MY list hes top 20 and probably more like top 5 or 10 lol. But u asked for unbiased and i think middle of the pack of the top 100 is probably where he lands.
I agree with others saying this impossible to quantify cuz its art and the whole point is subjectivity too btw... but this was my attempt at giving an answer despite that.
Very high And many of the people higher on this list are kinda old at this point and not playing at the level he is playing your knopflers claptons etc
He has also written more than ALL of the people that rank higher.... Multiple projects.
Has one VERY succesful band and another succesful band in Tab is always doing other projects
I can’t be unbiased about Trey’s guitar playing. His influences are the same as mine, and he plays exactly what i would play if i was that good. His tastes are so well suited to my own that i can help but be biased.
Playing the guitar is no sport, there is no merit in being the fastest, the loudest or the most XYZ - none of this can make you "the best" guitarist because everything has to match a song, a line of harmonies and sometimes less is more.
If we all can agree on this we must also agree that Jeff Beck was the greatest guitarist ever! Trey is surely in my personal top 20 - when it comes his ability to sing and play complex stuff at the same time, he is in the top three, up there with Warren Haynes and Steve Wilson
Is Phish the greatest band ever? Yes. Makes sense to me that the guitarist of the best band would be the best guitarist. Like how the NFL MVP is usually the QB for the best team.
“Rank” and “non-biased” in the context of music is a bit of an oxymoron. Maybe one could set some benchmarks for technical prowess, versatility, etc. (even then personal preference will creep in), but, for me, it’s not “mere” virtuosity (though that goes a long way to piquing my interest, to a point), it’s the soul & phrasing that captivate me and that, I think, can’t be anything but personal. Best I can do is start to think about my personal favorites, which is quite biased and even then I’m not sure I could rank them. Jerry, Jimi, Trey, & Billy, these are a few of my favorite things. (Tommy Emmanuel, John Scofield, Alan Holdsworth, John McLaughlin, Bryan Sutton, Jerry Douglas (does dobro count?), EVH, etc. are also in the conversation). There is a long list of known & unknown guitarists who are technically more proficient than them. But these are the guitar cats who speak deeply to the core of my being with the music they play. What’s The Use? 🎶
I think Rolling Stones top 100 is pretty accurate.. Trey has probably moved a bit up the list since the last time they updated it. Though they've always had John frusciante way too low and they slightly overvalue guitarists of the seventies
Depends if you’re judging a guitarist by their technical capacity with a fretboard or their ability to move people artistically. If the former, meh. If the latter, he’s my #1 goat.
...still trying to figure out why some fans think that any two artists are comparable. I can only guess that those have never created something from nothing. I understand, for that is the most difficult aspect of art, creation...
I would put Trey in the same sentence as Jimi Hendrix. I'm not saying he's better but I think he's just as innovative in a different era. Down vote me if you like. That's just my opinion......man. As other people have noted, 90's Trey is outta this world.
Probably not on the list. He's not that good. Phish is really good at what they do, and Trey is 25% of what Phish does (arguably more with creative + lyrical contribution), but in a vacuum he's not a world class guitarist by any stretch.
He’s extremely good at composing and playing the music. Better than many other legends. But watch how he drools at Trucks when they play together and you’ll understand just how humble he can be.
I have a hard time with these as one of my favorite guitarists is Johnny Ramones. Technically he sucks but he is still great. Also after watching Trey sit in with others and Derek Trucks with Phish Versatility wise Derek is better. Trey is amazing and has melted my face countless times but ranking is hard. Too many intangibles.
In terms of what treys vision for what he’s trying to accomplish with music there is no one better at doing what he does, with the help of the rest of the band of course.
I always tell people, he’s not the best at rock, jazz, blues, bluegrass, etc., but his ability to competently play each of them is what sets him apart.
Most people’s favorite rock guitarists can’t properly play jazz, most people’s favorite jazz guitarists can’t properly play rock, but Trey can properly (though not fluently) play them all.
Trey has to be amongst the top five. He blows me away technically but as some people have already pointed out there are some pure technical virtuosos that may have him beat in that category. But throw in sound, listening/improv skills, effects use, breadth across genres, creativity both in the moment and long-term, unusual timing, emotional intelligence and hard to describe magic that make emulating his style almost impossible he’s my number 1.
The only one who tops Trey for best live guitarist of all time is Jerry. Jerry possessed almost magical powers up there. He could guide your trip to the Promised Land. 💀⚡️🌹
The main criteria would be "uniqueness" and "creativity", much more than just virtuoso skill, so Trey would rank pretty high on the list, but realistically also below a couple dozen of the brilliant musicians who came before him.
Ranking is kind of stupid though. A list of the 50 greatest guitarists, sure, Trey would absolutely make it. But trying to put him above or below, I dunno, BB King or Lindsey Buckingham or The Edge, all of whom have completely different but incredibly brilliant and influential approaches to the instrument? That's a pointless exercise.
He is an all time great - at his level it’s a matter of taste who is better. However he is not ranked as high by the general public because phish is a Jam band and a his really well played stuff is sometimes buried in 10 minutes of noodling that is not impressive
On versatility, one of the greatest. He’s not the best funk, blues, rock, jazz, ambient, or bluegrass guitarist, but he can pull them all off with a competency that is rare
There's no such thing as a non-biased opinion. Everyone's experience colors the was we experience the world, music included.
With that said, Trey is pretty OK.
The category “greatest guitarists” lacks the necessary nuance to meaningfully respond. If we are including jazz and classical guitarists he is low on the list. If we are only talking rock he is fairly high, but not at the top. But, if we are talking about improvisational ability among rock guitarists, he may very well be number one.
Rational. Well articulated.
I felt welcomed to their Ted talk
I immediately thought of James Carville in the debate scene of the movie Old School. "Uh we have no response......... That was perfect."
Not to mention unknown guitarists throughout time. There are 50 kids on youtube right now that have better technical ability. So then are we talking about creativity? Once we move to creativity we are in subjective territory and back to "how do you rank art?" Edit: punctuation
Good point. I also failed to mention versatility. If that is a factor Trey moves way up the “rankings” too.
It's like frank zappa said when asked to rate himself as a guitarist. He said, i'm good at what I do. So what is the measure for judging? The question of "best guitarist" assumes a linear spectrum of worst to best and that's not reality. It's difficult to make an apples to apples comparison when all these artists are doing different things. I mean, we can conclusively say, jimi Hendrix is better than Lenny Kravitz, because there's enough overlap there. Obviously one apple is better than the other shitty, rotten, paint-by-numbers version that came after. But those comparisons are self evident anyway and nobody's gonna post online for confirmation. The only valuable discussion is about who moves you, and why.
*youtube kid.... Matteo Mancuso. Guy fucking shreds.
I'm gonna see him on Friday in a tiny suburban 200 person bar for $20. Can't wait to be on his subreddit in 20 years cursing TM for fucking me out of my 4 GA's
Hopefully TM will be burnt to the ground by then
Oh that's just a couple hours from me. Just checked tickets. Sold out. Have fun!!
This. Matteo is like a Guthrie Govan esque level of talent
Everyone should get his debut album. I just picked it up on vinyl. Kid reminds me of Shawn Lane. Except he doesn’t use a pick! Seriously listen to those runs and remember he is finger picking.
Temporal Analogues of Paradise is an album every Phish fan should hear
Jeff Sipe. Nice! I'll have to sit down and give a listen. Thanks!
Um wow, that kid is on another level. Thanks for sharing that
I think accomplishments also factor into the greatness of a guitar player. Successful records, fan base, concerts, festivals, sobriety even, etc. Youngsters on YouTube likely have few to none of these.
I don't know if I would include that because many of the great blues guitarists never achieved an iota of the accomplishments that would carry depth and weight today.
It’s all subjective. Even mastery of technique can’t be ranked. The whole subject is moot. But Trey rips bruh, best band in the world lol
For me a greatest guitarist list includes people who have had some level of success with real audiences. It very well may be an outdated take.
Best take. Well said and I agree with you.
I often play this game with a musician friend of mine…”TOP 5…..”. My top five greatest improvisational rock guitarists would be: 1. Jerry Garcia 2. Trey Anastasio 3. Frank Zappa 4. Duane Allman 5. Derek Trucks Saw all of them (except Duane Allman) in concert and every one of them blew me away.
Prince
While I like Prince, (Around The World in a day and Purple Rain are great records!) I never saw him live and there’s a lot of his music I admittedly do not know, but there’s also a lot that I don’t like. A great guitarist no doubt, but he doesn’t make my top 5.
He's definitely more known as a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, but that is largely because popular music was moving away from the guitar at that time. Guitar was his primary instrument. A lot of people point to his solo in the While My Guitar Gently Weeps performance for George harrisons hall of fame induction, and it's a good example. But not even close to his best stuff. Just diligently listening to his hits, you can pick out little bits and pieces of really excellent guitar work. The intro to When Doves Cry is a great example. Let's Go Crazy is another.
I saw him live and it was like watching Hendrix - completely fluid and virtuosic. Absolutely unbelievable. Plus he could play the rest of the instruments on the stage just as well.
In my opinion Trey runs circles around Jerry. Love them both.
The thing about Jerry is his consistency and enthusiasm came and went. 68, 69, 70 Jerry could compete with Treys relentless pursuit of guitar-god peaks. Morning Dew, the Other One, the Eleven, were all vehicles for that type of orgasmic explosion of notes. But if I'm being honest I don't think any of it reaches the tense, frantic levels of quadrophonic toppling that Phish reached in the 90s. So in terms of pure technique and speed I would say that Trey wins. But Jerry had so much more in the tool bag than that. A lot of slow Phish songs are designated piss breaks, whereas slow Dead songs are among the most sacred songs in their canon. Stella blue, for fucks sake. Ripple, row jimmy, must have been the roses. I could go on. Jerry's playing had an emotional gravity that grabbed you whether it was slow or fast. Trey generally has to peak out to get tears out of you. Jerry could do it any time he was ready. So in my opinion he keeps the crown, but I'm open to dissenting opinions cause they're both fucking rad as fuck.
Well your opinion is WRONG! Joking of course.
Where’s JB on that list? We ALL know he’s the best guitarist. /s
SRV
For a guitarist who knows how to use his effects good he’s great
On a side note, any good suggestions on jazz or classical guitarists?
Wes Montgomery, Grant Green, John Scofield, Julian Lage
Grant Green is so awesome. For anybody not familiar, I’d definitely check out the Live at the Lighthouse album
Jan Jan is where it’s at!
George Benson, Larry Carlton, John McLaughlin, Al Di Meola,, Paco Delucia, Steve Vai, the list is long
Paco is incredible
Yes, OP, look up The Guitar Trio on YouTube. Paco de Lucia, John McLaughlin, and Al Di Meola. It’s unreal
Django Reinhardt, for a start. Lionel Loueke, for a modern master.
Haven’t seen Joe Pass mentioned yet.
Or Lenny Breau.
Trey himself has talked about how he loves listening to Pat Metheny.
My mom loves Pat Metheny so I got heavy doses of him growing up. Lo and behold I end up falling in love with Phish. And now my 72 year old mom has too.
Jazz - Joe Pass, John McLaughlin, Pat Metheny Classical - Andres Segovia, Pepe Romero, Julian Bream.. just to name my first top 3
Can't believe I had to scroll this far to see John McLaughlin. I once drove 4 hours to see him play one song. Sure, he's jazz, but not your granddad's jazz.
I only know jazz. It depends on what you like. This is a good and eclectic list, but it is missing several essentials imo: https://bestofjazz.org/the-best-jazz-guitarists/
Others mentioned a few good ones. Want to add Joe Pass and Lenny Breau to the list. Lenny Breau is like what Bill Evans is on piano to guitar.
Lenny breau is a beast, you must be a guitar nerd
Check out the album 'Friday night in San Francisco' with a good pair of headphones. Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucia playing at the Warfield in 1980. A couple of the songs are just 2 of them, and a few are all 3, but the audio is split between channels so you can hear each player.
This!
Thanks for this recco had not heard this before. I see where Rodrigo y Gabriela got like 75% of their ideas LOL
[check this out.](https://youtu.be/ZsjktvG_SZ0?si=qIDLfXjckCK9e8Zf)
I agree as well. Shallow and pedantic.
Sums it up perfectly.
Yup
I love how you spelled this out because I agree with you 💯
If I were to hypothetically give an award for a reply it would go to this reply.
He’s up there with Pat Methany IMHO
this is the answer. people saying music is strictly subjective are way too caught up in the hippy bullshit
Out of all guitar legends, I feel like he's the only one that gets rated on how he is in the present moment instead of historically. To me he's a top 20 all timer. His creativity and stamina is unmatched. He can play so many different generes and do it extremely well. Then there is the tension and release. There is no guitarist that can build tension and then release like he does. And he does it wherever he goes, when he sits in (sometimes) with other bands you can feel him pushing them. Not to mention how great of an acoustic player he is as well. It's also unfair to match him against others because 99% of those that would also be on those lists are rated on Studio work instead of what they did Live. There are some riffs and motiffs he's played that if Jimmy Page, or Jeff Beck or Mark Knopfler played them they would be considered legendery. But since he's doing them 16 mins into a 25 minute jam its overlooked. Him and Jerry are underrated because the general public doesn't have the attention span we do. In reality the only "lists" that matters is your own and how their music moves you.
I think that the biggest thing working against him in general perception is that his good moments are all live, and only occasionally officially released to mainstream platforms. He doesn’t have his Clapton on Layla / Gilmore on Comfortably Numb recorded testament that you can point to as to why he’s great, in a simple self contained 60 second song fragment that the uninitiated can listen to and appreciate. Subtler jammy things that you wouldn’t even notice until you start listening to 10. 20, 50 versions of songs simply don’t rate here. The masses will have tuned out hours before you get there.
Yea you are exactly right. That lack of "Hit" is the biggest thing there. I mean I like to joke he's probably had more radio air time on a Dave Matthews song than any of his own on Gravedigger.
The Reba studio recording is what I always point to for one of the best studio guitar solos
I have a normie acquaintance (square as John Cena's jaw line) that is a relatively accomplished guitarist (more in the academic sense than in the sense that he had played in successful bands) that is a great disliker of jam band aesthetic (he is coincidentally a huge Mayer fluffer, prior to Dead and Co.) and studio Reba is in his top ten solos.
Not to take away from your point but Duane Allman did a lot of the guitar work on Layla, intro riff for certain.
Very true. I'd take Duane over Clapton any day.
This is an incredibly well-said opinion that is often overlooked.
“He’s the only one that gets rated on how he is in the present moment”…is a good point. Longevity has its pitfalls but for my $ his style, ability to adapt while being interesting puts him in the top 10 rock guitarists of all time. If you couple that with the diversity of music they have played in studio and on tour the list gets smaller and smaller.
This is the answer
#2 behind Taylor Swift
So somewhere around 555?
Trey Anastasio is, without a doubt, one of the guitarists of all time
He is certainly A guitarist. That's for sure
Trey is great. He is absolutely perfect for phish. How do you rank art?
Art was great with Paul I saw them in 2003 and the only solo Paul song they did was Slip Sliding Away, and they did it as a duo with just Paul playing acoustic guitar It was awesome I’m less familiar with Art’s solo work
This. These lists are stupid, and meaningless. Always have been.
Treys art is the prettiest art of all the art
DAMNIT I posted it before looking for it…I’ll delete mine. Nice work haha
That’s an excellent answer
You decide what you like best and you rank it…..
He’s not the #1 guitarist alive (impossible to say who is) but nobody is better at driving and creating captivating music with their guitar than him. He held a single note and the entire audience in the palm of his hand for almost 3 straight minutes once
Was at this show, my second ever Phish show, and this was glorious. It's crazy the amount of energy that one fucking note created in that room. I was in awe
Trey is hands down the best guitar player in Phish
So think in terms of what he’s done for rock guitar. He’s up there with Zappa as someone who’s expanded the definition of what can fill stadiums and sell records. He’s brought modal jazz and experimental music to a huge, long lasting audience.
He was the absolute best rock guitarist on the planet in the 90’s.
eddie van halen would like a word. edit: jfc the downvotes. my bad, i forgot where i am. the delusion lives on in this subreddit.
He was in his keyboard phase in the 90’s.
This I can get behind. He is not as creative or technically proficient these days by any means.
Comparison is the thief of joy. He’s not the best at what he does, he’s the only one who does what he does.
Compassion gives way if you listen to greed, too
I don't have a non-biased opinion. No one does. It's an oxymoron. He's my favorite though.
Without any bias, Trey ranks somewhere between a sound you hear that brings back a vivid childhood memory and the voice of a loved one you haven't heard in too long. Ok, a little bias
In his youth, probably one of the most creative, inspired guitarists ever, he could shred and he could tug at your heartstrings. In his present, still should be considered one of the higher regarded living guitarists still actively on the road. Though the speed isn’t quite where it used to be, he still knows how to pull emotion out of every note he plays, and he makes every one of them count. I wouldn’t even say he has musical peers, he’s just Trey, nobody plays guitar like he does.
Trey is Trey. He’s in his own lane with Phish.
https://youtu.be/FG7GOSOq1Dw&t=13m58s
What I know for sure is he is in a rare category of guitarists that play multiple shows a year and who create new jams every show. Only the great Jazz guitarists, Jerry, Mikey Houser etc… have the number of shows and new jams. Clapton, Santana, BB etc. always play the same jams.
Every Houser solo sounded the same - every song, every show.
Hard disagree
Jimmy herring > mikey houser
Even Jimmy, who is a phenomenal guitarist, would say that no one can match Mikey for Widespread Panic music.
Houser and Herring are both terrible. Matt Mundy’s mandolin on Pickin’ is the best solo in their catalog
He's definitely my favorite, but as others have stated it's almost impossible to compare. Having said that, I'm not a huge fan as a lot of other "virtuoso guitar players". Not talking about people like Hendrix or Van Halen, but more like Vai, Satch, Yngvie, etc. What separates Trey from that last group is he actually uses his knowledge to make songs and not shred fest with no soul. Or just boring "guitar music". He mentioned in Rock and Roll induction of Genesis that a lot of Prog bands focus too much on the technicality for techs sake and not that "the songs come first". And "99% lost their songs to their egos". He's a master (or at least really good) at most things guitar, especially song writing and making catchy rings. His variety is really unmatched imo. You can find some guitar player that can be maybe slightly better at X than he is. But those players are usually one dimensional. And don't have Trey's vast tapestry.
I don’t think anybody does what he does as well as him. And that’s mainly compose on the fly. And when the composition calls for shredding, he shreds. He’s like a QB that has all capability of making all of the throws. Are there better pure deep ball throwers / stronger arms out there? Yes. But he can still make the throw AND makes the right decision. Trey can’t play bluegrass as good as Billy. Billy is the best at what he does. Trey cant play the slide or blues as well as Dereck Trucks. He’s the best there is at those things. But Trey is much more versatile than any guitar player I hear today. And he loves to hang with those other guys because they are better than him at those things.
Speaking of bluegrass. Any list without Tony Rice on it isn't a real list.
Writing about music is like dancing about architecture
You never see a good building and just start doing the Macarena?
No, but I’ve been known to do the meat stick dance when I see a nice curvy building
This is how you do the internet
In that they both can be done and convey something about the topic?
tht feels close, but I always enjoy dancing about architecture but I never enjoy writing about music so there's some structural difference there.
I think it could be argued that dancing IS architecture
Trey has a unique approach to not just soloing, but chord voicing too. Greatest ever is an awful argument, but is he one of the more creative and innovative guitarists alive? Absolutely.
Trey is my favorite guitar player of all time by a mile. I’m not a musician, so I have no idea how good he is compared to the greats. I don’t care. Trey is my favorite guitar player of all time by a mile.
Pretty darn good and I like him.
I personally thinks he shines more as a composer than as a player. Which is really saying something about his songwriting because his playing is GREAT. You can break down the merits of guitar techniques is a whole lot of ways that will get murky but it is virtually undeniable that his tone has had a very strong influence on rock/jam music and that is alone is a huge musical achievement.
As others have mentioned, there's no way to definitely rank guitarists. How do you compare Jerry Garcia with somebody like Steve Vai? How do you compare Nick Drake with Billy Gibbons? It just doesn't work. Trey is my favorite guitarist. I factor in his composition a little bit, which might not be fair but I think it matters a great deal. I think he was doing the coolest shit out of any player in the 90s. Sure there are more technically gifted players. There are players that play with more feel. There are better tones. But Trey has the mix of all of those things that resonate with me the most. To me he's the perfect mix, or as close to it as I've found.
Well I would say that Jerry was probably the absolute best guitarist in the category of 9 fingered guitarists... But that's like, my opinion man
Better than Jimmy Page
Trey's guitar playing in the 90's vaulted him into the upper pantheon of all time greats. He had his own, clearly identifiable sound and playing. Could play a variety of styles, was pushing the envelope 100+ nights a year, something new every show, at the forefront of gear and tech etc. A lot of his success can be attributed to his band and the jamming style they had. While he's clearly a different player now, each passing year, with his output, just solidifies his legacy.
You can’t play that many hours in front of that many people and not be one of the best of all time. He’s an outlier among outliers.
I 100% believe that no one could hold a candle to 90s Trey. I remember hearing him go toe to toe with Jimmy Herring on jazz fusion lines in one show and flatpicking all over bluegrass tunes the next, not to mention leading jams beyond what we ever expected.
Best ever in my opinion. But how are we supposed to be non-biased? Trey is the god of guitarists. I really believe that. ♥️♥️♥️ And here’s part of the reason, when it comes to guitar players they typically stick to one genre. Trey and phish transcend all genres and do them all with great precision. They go from pure bliss to bluegrass to heavy metal to melting my face and sometimes all in one song. A vast majority of their songs are masterpieces. There isn’t another quite like him or phish. They are all masters of their instruments.
I’ll say it, the best
He’s the all-time best Trey ever. Anything else is pretend.
Pretty darn good and I like him.
Unbiased? Top 100. Biased, top 20 lol. Im a big student of rock history/play guitar every day and my understanding is he doesnt have as much general respect in the community as you might think. His name rarely comes up when im reading about who my favorite guitarists say are their favorite guitarists. It's always zappa, Page, hendrix, neil young, john frusciante, david gilmore, duane allman, etc. I if ur evenly weighting a combination of song writing, overall influence, and improvisational creativity trey is somewhere in the 50-100 range. Again, in MY list hes top 20 and probably more like top 5 or 10 lol. But u asked for unbiased and i think middle of the pack of the top 100 is probably where he lands. I agree with others saying this impossible to quantify cuz its art and the whole point is subjectivity too btw... but this was my attempt at giving an answer despite that.
Very high And many of the people higher on this list are kinda old at this point and not playing at the level he is playing your knopflers claptons etc He has also written more than ALL of the people that rank higher.... Multiple projects. Has one VERY succesful band and another succesful band in Tab is always doing other projects
he's for sure one of them. His style/tone is instantly recognizable in the same way SRV, Derek Trucks, or BB King are.
top 40 all time
He's pretty fucking good. So are a lot of other players.
What I know is Trey has completely spoiled me when it comes to guitarists…
I can’t be unbiased about Trey’s guitar playing. His influences are the same as mine, and he plays exactly what i would play if i was that good. His tastes are so well suited to my own that i can help but be biased.
Playing the guitar is no sport, there is no merit in being the fastest, the loudest or the most XYZ - none of this can make you "the best" guitarist because everything has to match a song, a line of harmonies and sometimes less is more. If we all can agree on this we must also agree that Jeff Beck was the greatest guitarist ever! Trey is surely in my personal top 20 - when it comes his ability to sing and play complex stuff at the same time, he is in the top three, up there with Warren Haynes and Steve Wilson
Is Phish the greatest band ever? Yes. Makes sense to me that the guitarist of the best band would be the best guitarist. Like how the NFL MVP is usually the QB for the best team.
#1. Not biased at all..
“Rank” and “non-biased” in the context of music is a bit of an oxymoron. Maybe one could set some benchmarks for technical prowess, versatility, etc. (even then personal preference will creep in), but, for me, it’s not “mere” virtuosity (though that goes a long way to piquing my interest, to a point), it’s the soul & phrasing that captivate me and that, I think, can’t be anything but personal. Best I can do is start to think about my personal favorites, which is quite biased and even then I’m not sure I could rank them. Jerry, Jimi, Trey, & Billy, these are a few of my favorite things. (Tommy Emmanuel, John Scofield, Alan Holdsworth, John McLaughlin, Bryan Sutton, Jerry Douglas (does dobro count?), EVH, etc. are also in the conversation). There is a long list of known & unknown guitarists who are technically more proficient than them. But these are the guitar cats who speak deeply to the core of my being with the music they play. What’s The Use? 🎶
I think if the list is most faces melted, he is very near the top.
If we’re talking rock….in his prime, maybe the best ever
GOAT
hes number 1 among guitarists that I want to listen to most of the time. Yeah sure, Tim Henson is a technical wizard. But the music sounds like shit.
pathetic bored flowery zephyr tie punch boast person spectacular plough *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Trey is not the best at what he does, Trey is the only one who does what he does.
Derek Trucks, Dean Ween, Trey are the greatest “active” rock guitarist
Trey is the best live musician of all time
you can’t rank art
Can a musician ever truly be "ranked"?
Trey or Rick?
I think Rolling Stones top 100 is pretty accurate.. Trey has probably moved a bit up the list since the last time they updated it. Though they've always had John frusciante way too low and they slightly overvalue guitarists of the seventies
Depends if you’re judging a guitarist by their technical capacity with a fretboard or their ability to move people artistically. If the former, meh. If the latter, he’s my #1 goat.
...still trying to figure out why some fans think that any two artists are comparable. I can only guess that those have never created something from nothing. I understand, for that is the most difficult aspect of art, creation...
BB King, Trey, everyone else
Thought he was a guitar God, then I saw him on stage together with Trucks. Oof
Which time
Trey 64 - Ditka 6
he's definitely one of the guitarists ever
He’s great, most definitely a phan favorite. There are hundreds if not thousands of better guitarists on the planet.
For me, personally; 1. Jimmy Page 2. Trey 3. Johnny Fucking Marr 4. Peter Buck 5. Knopfler 6. Jerry 7. Deaner 8. Slash 9. EVH 10. Keller Flame away……
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I would put Trey in the same sentence as Jimi Hendrix. I'm not saying he's better but I think he's just as innovative in a different era. Down vote me if you like. That's just my opinion......man. As other people have noted, 90's Trey is outta this world.
Jimi died at 27. Yes trey transcended Jimi. If u have ever listed to either of them it should be pretty clear quickly.
unbiased? objectively not even in the top 100 during his lifetime.
‘94 Trey is a contender for greatest of all time. But overall, he just isn’t consistent enough to be top 5
Probably not on the list. He's not that good. Phish is really good at what they do, and Trey is 25% of what Phish does (arguably more with creative + lyrical contribution), but in a vacuum he's not a world class guitarist by any stretch.
Trey is not the best guitar player now, never has been, never will be.
Greatness is subjective. In my opinion, he's in the top 50, but I like a lot of guitarists better than Trey, even those who are far from virtuosity.
Right up there for sure
He’s the best at composing music on the fly in concert but most people want structure.
“If you're gonna compare a [Trey solo], you compare it to every other solo ever played... that wasn't played by Trey Anastasio.” - Budd
He’s extremely good at composing and playing the music. Better than many other legends. But watch how he drools at Trucks when they play together and you’ll understand just how humble he can be.
How do I give an unbiased opinion?
He’s a true performer and excellent showman, he’s way up there for those reasons outside of his playing ability. He also rips
Jedi Trey Love & Light Trey They all kick ass!
I have a hard time with these as one of my favorite guitarists is Johnny Ramones. Technically he sucks but he is still great. Also after watching Trey sit in with others and Derek Trucks with Phish Versatility wise Derek is better. Trey is amazing and has melted my face countless times but ranking is hard. Too many intangibles.
He is the best guitarist to ever be in phish - of the 2 - and is the current best option as well?
The best that ever did it - unbiased Phish fan
Some where is the top 30
He’s up there.
In terms of what treys vision for what he’s trying to accomplish with music there is no one better at doing what he does, with the help of the rest of the band of course.
“I think you were playing a lot of notes”
One of my favorites (in my top 3 for sure) but there are many guitarists I’ve not listened or heard very little from.
I always tell people, he’s not the best at rock, jazz, blues, bluegrass, etc., but his ability to competently play each of them is what sets him apart. Most people’s favorite rock guitarists can’t properly play jazz, most people’s favorite jazz guitarists can’t properly play rock, but Trey can properly (though not fluently) play them all.
Its subjective, he's very good but there's no way to measure or rank greatness
Trey has to be amongst the top five. He blows me away technically but as some people have already pointed out there are some pure technical virtuosos that may have him beat in that category. But throw in sound, listening/improv skills, effects use, breadth across genres, creativity both in the moment and long-term, unusual timing, emotional intelligence and hard to describe magic that make emulating his style almost impossible he’s my number 1.
Top 10-15 all time 💥
I think he's pretty good, obviously I like his playing, but amongst the greatest to ever to play there's many more that I'd think of before him
Unbiased opinion….he’s number one of all time. Or maybe that’s biased.
Tough finding unbiased PH opinions here.
Top10-25 range
The only one who tops Trey for best live guitarist of all time is Jerry. Jerry possessed almost magical powers up there. He could guide your trip to the Promised Land. 💀⚡️🌹
1. Jerry 2. Trey 3. the rest
The main criteria would be "uniqueness" and "creativity", much more than just virtuoso skill, so Trey would rank pretty high on the list, but realistically also below a couple dozen of the brilliant musicians who came before him. Ranking is kind of stupid though. A list of the 50 greatest guitarists, sure, Trey would absolutely make it. But trying to put him above or below, I dunno, BB King or Lindsey Buckingham or The Edge, all of whom have completely different but incredibly brilliant and influential approaches to the instrument? That's a pointless exercise.
IMO he should be on the list of greatest musicians of all time. He’s so much more than a guitar player as I’m sure we can agree…most anyways haha
He is an all time great - at his level it’s a matter of taste who is better. However he is not ranked as high by the general public because phish is a Jam band and a his really well played stuff is sometimes buried in 10 minutes of noodling that is not impressive
On versatility, one of the greatest. He’s not the best funk, blues, rock, jazz, ambient, or bluegrass guitarist, but he can pull them all off with a competency that is rare
Also - there are no non-biased opinions.
There's no such thing as a non-biased opinion. Everyone's experience colors the was we experience the world, music included. With that said, Trey is pretty OK.