Originally Posted by: thebluesbreakerI choose BB King. What i mean is who cares about speed. It's more about how they make you feel, not to prove they are better than you. Hardly any guitarists have made a career out of speed alone, those that have, well done. Most of the worlds most popular guitarist weren't that technically gifted. Say Jimmy Page opposed to John McLaughlin. Jimmy could communicate with the guitar, not just wank. Another very fine example is Slash, everyone in his day was just going as fast as they could then he comes along and plays blues on steroids. Nothing too complicated, but it had emotion. To quote from Zakk Wylde Speed Is Just Speed
Bye, have fun.

Well said! But this is the thread where we only talk about lame guitarists... :D

I have to disagree with you about John McLaughlin being a wanker, though. The reason he's my favourite player is that he seems to communicate so powerfully and passionately through his playing - sure, he uses plenty of fast runs, but for me, he uses them in a way that few other guitarists can. I also like the way he synthesises his really diverse range of influences, from Hindustani and Karnatic folk and classical music to modal jazz to Hendrix/Clapton-style blues rock.

But the fact is, that's just how I view him - different guitarists have different levels of expressive depth for different people. I love John McLaughlin because his music says so much to me, but it doesn't really do anything for you, because you have different tastes. Similarly, I know that my good friend Akira is a big fan of Steve Vai; I, on the other hand can't stand Steve Vai, because I too have different tastes. I'm not trying to patronise you or anything here, by the way (sorry if it comes across that way :o); my point is just that we all react differently to different musicians.