Lincoln Brewster-he has that blues/jazz sound but adds a lot more to make it
shred-errific
Eric Johnson-the tone, the hyrbid picking, the emotion
Joe Pass-his idea of playing scales with no spaces gave me a lot more confidence to explore around the fretboard
AJ Minette (The Human Abstract)-this guy was trained in strictly classical music, and used many scales and techniques to get a really unique sound in the band
Paul Waggoner (Between the Buried and Me)-i look up to him because his formal training was to a minimum and he has created some amazing music which technically is difficult (odd time riffs, symmetric scales to other scales in those riffs), and has the ability to play many genres in one song and make it flow beautifully, his technique is amazing for someone who took a couple months of music lessons
Buckethead