Guitarists, list your 5 main influences !

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Alex
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LordThurisaz
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Post by LordThurisaz »

1. Vinnie Vincent / Ace Frehley - These two are way more personality than the Gene and Paul show could handle.

2. Randy Rhoads - This really doesn't need an explanation, does it?

3. Marty Friedman / Chris Poland - These two gave Megadeth great influences to create a much more sophisticated band than that other group.

4. George Lynch - Dokken rules, nuff said.

5. Steve Vai - If I have to explain this, you haven't heard Vai yet.

Honorable mentions: These are guys who share aspects of the others

Vito Bratta
Eddie Van Halen
Dave Mustaine
Satriani
Jason Becker (the poor guy. :( )
Paul Gilbert (he'd be on my list, but it says top 5, not six)
Jeff Young (really melodic.. I try to get my solos to have a nice melodic contour).
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NicDots
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Post by NicDots »

I take it that this is just referring to pop/rock guitarists so...
I don't believe in numbering them cause they change spots all the time.

Tony Iommi made me want to play guitar. He's the riff MASTAH. If you don't have a good riff, you don't have anything. No one comes up with the doom sounds like him.

Slash has great tones, great looks, great presence. His solos and playing have a lot of color and a lot of character and I like how he does his bends. I like that you can hear his solos in your head and they're not just mindless guitar wanking. He also seems like a really cool guy too.

Randy Rhoads, of course, was THE MAN. Great look, great tone, great phrasing. I like that he wrote really hummable solos as well. I love his classical influence which makes him really stand out from other guitar players. He can totally shred in a very tasteful way as well.

Allen Collins/Gary Rossington...no one can make a couple pentatonic scales sound so bitching. 8) Seriously, the way they bend around these scales and everything is just incredible. They are WAY under rated as guitar players, I think. They're solos aren't super shreddy (except Free Bird I guess) but they're ballsy. I love the solo to Simple Man. Just perfect.

Dimebag Darrell could make his guitar create noises I'd never even heard before. He could wrote the most gnarly rhythm parts as well, in addition to really gnarly solos. He was an all around great player.

Honorable mentions:

James Hetfield (the down picker of doom)
Jerry Cantrell (the Tony Iommi of the 90s)
Zakk Wylde (one bad motha)
Jake E. Lee (insanity...crazy hands!)
Duane Allman (best slide player, hands down)
Eric Clapton (beautiful playing, lovely voice despite the fact that he now looks like a math teacher)
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RhoadsFan
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Post by RhoadsFan »

*please note this list IS in order from my favorite down.


1)Randy Rhoads - My biggest influence probably ever... His dedication is really what makes me idolize him so much.

2)Alexi Laiho - a very close second influence. Ive recently got into Bodom, and let me say this, if you dont have the album Follow The Reaper, go get it right now. I can honestly say I havnt heard guitar playing as inovative and neo-classical since Randy Rhoads...

3)Chris Poland - Being a fan of Jazz in a big way, I find that Chris has done a superb job (paticularly on the album "Peace Sells") mixing his jazz/fusion styles and tricks into early heavy metal (check out early Megadeth days if your intrested in Chris)

4)Marty Friedman - hmm I know what your thinking... 2 megadeth guitarists in your top 5?1? Generic!!!! but not in this case. I truly believe that Marty is one of the top guitarists out there today. his style is beautiful and as was put before, very "exotic".

5)Yngwie Malmsteen - 3 words... Icarus Dream Suite
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Post by LordThurisaz »

RhoadsFan wrote:2)Alexi Laiho - ...I can honestly say I havnt heard guitar playing as inovative and neo-classical since Randy Rhoads...
Paul Gilbert says: No more instructional videos for you. :lol:
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Post by Paul Wolfe »

RockyRhoads wrote:
RockyRhoads wrote:Billy Gibbons
Stone Gossard
Bruce Fairweather
Keith Wyatt
Mike Wilton/Chris DeGarmo
The more I think about it the more I need to add a couple...

Ace Frehley - made me want to play in the first place
Ted Nugent - I can't listen to Ted without wanting to go pick up my guitar
Matthias Jabs - He is just fantastic and gets no press at all
CC DeVille - I know everyone loves to hate CC, but in the context of a song, the man kicks ass.
Eddie Van Halen - I love everything he played up until 1982 when his playing went into eternal repeat.
Michael Schenker - one of the best ever


And probably my favorite underated player John Sykes - check him out, he is brilliant in every sense of the word.
I went back and read through this thread and realized that most of the players I listed are favorites as opposed to influences...

So, the 5 who influenced the way I view the guitar and what I play, would be:

Ace Frehley - For making me to want to play.
Randy Rhoads - For making me want to learn the theory behind the music.
Paul Gilbert - For showing me that feel is as important as note choice.
Eddie - For showing me what is possible if you work at it.
Rick Nielsen - For showing me just how out there you can be and still be pop.
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Post by shaun@def »

1) Ronni Le Tekro

2) Randy Rhoads

3) Jake E Lee

4) George Lynch

5) Brad Gillis

6) Michael Schenker (Pre alien abduction)
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chasmcneal
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Post by chasmcneal »

randy rhoads, paul gilbert, jason becker, gary moore, and david gilmour. if forced to pick.
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Post by Cpt Matt Sparrow »

Great point Paul

Influences on electric guitar (people that made me want to play and still do)

1.Jimi Hendrix

2.Jimmy Page

3.Randy Rhoads

4.Django Reinhardt

5.Robert Cray/Peter Green
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Post by The Flying Dutchman »

Matthew wrote:5.Robert Cray/Peter Green
I'm happy to see Peter Green mentioned here! 8)
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Post by rice_pudding »

putting together a top five is stupidly hard but i will try :lol: :arrow:

1. Randy "you know who :wink: " Rhoads

2. Jeff Beck

3. Paul Kossoff

4. Michael Schenker

5. Eric Clapton

there are dozens more but i cant list them all :( :lol:
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Re: Guitarists, list your 5 main influences !

Post by The_Scratch »

RANDY RHOADS: - first musician I connected with. 98% of the reason I wanted to play guitar.

JOE SATRIANI: - The perfect instrumentalist IMO. FIrst player to show that Instrumental rock could be consistant and mantained. Songwriting on an unbelievable level.

ALEX LIFSON: - RUSH is and always will be my favorite band. He is the true strength of the group IMO. Very underated player and usually overshadowed by Pearts incredible drumming and Geddy as the vocalist. Alex solos are very well structured and never repetative. His solo in "The Weapon" (signals) is utterly brilliant and he's the first guitarist I ever heard solo with nothing but chords... NO LEAD!!! I was like "Holy crap, you can't do that in a rock song", but he did and it was awesome.

STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN: - The total guitarist in the sense that he simply used it as a voice to channel his emotion like few others could ever do. Arguably the most talented player I have ever heard for a particular "genre" of music. He is the quintessential embodiment of everything that is blues expression on 6 strings.

MICHAEL HEDGES: - Utter genius. Although I don't incorporate anything from his playing into mine (I surely wish I could), Micheal changed the way I listened to music. No other musician made me realize there was more than what I was listening to.


honorable mention....
BUCKETHEAD is slowly starting to creep into my playing. I am building a guitar with a kill switch just to experiment with and I find many of his weird compositions and repetative use of rythm are very similar to what I do when I noodle. The guys fucking weird but holy sh*t can he play. Shadows Between Sky became one of my top 25 guitar albums on first listen. I highly recomend downloading it (it's out of print), there is no shred on this album, no kooky weirdness... it's a brilliant, soft contemporary acoustic album.
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