Originally Posted by: paul67both are great, no question. different styles. eddie could do it all, speed,unique sound all his own, creating a sound and stlye all his own, copied a billion times over by guitarist world-wide. eddie is no doubt number 1 !
jimi was great , eddie was just better, remember when jimi came out there was no one out there to compare him to,,so ofcourse he was king at that time. if the 2 played side by side eddie could shoot him down with ease.,just look at videos of both---2 diff. artists--different styles-- no fence riding here--eddie van halen number 1 on many lists of all time great rock guitarists!

Interesting debate, no doubt. Although I think Eddie defined rock guitar from their debut through the late eighties, I think you kinda have to give the nod to Jimi. The reason? Well, although Eddie could WAIL on the guitar, Jimi played with more soul. For me, it just seems that Jimi had more passion in his playing than Eddie does. Eddie is technically a superior player (like Vai and Malmsteen and Satriani...etc) but Jimi seemed to put more of himself into it.

I dunno. I've only been playing for about 18 months. What do I know?