Who are your current guitar heroes?

So, thinking about Eddie Van Halen today. Who's left on your list of active guitar heroes? (And do you even care?)

If we're each picking three:

Geddy

Vernon Reid

Alex Skolnick

For me, it's about their style/ability, body of work, and the actual person.

Derek Trucks

Warren Haynes

Buckethead

not into Metal

but  BB King  would be my quick first choice , 

and Hendrix   for a few songs but would give me a headache after an hour of guitar only.

Mark Knopfler

Paul Simon

Lindsay Buckingham

Okay, maybe not exactly "current"...

My top three:

Jimmy Page

Angus Young

David Gilmour

The honorable mentions are too numerous..

fromeast2west said:

My top three:

Jimmy Page

Angus Young

David Gilmour

 

The honorable mentions are too numerous..

 

 

This is pretty much my list, except I'd probably swap Angus out for Clapton.

Currently alive and making new music:

Brent Hinds of Mastodon
John Petrucci of Dream Theater
Darrell Scott. A bit different than the others, but a true artist and man, can he play 6 steel strings. 

I also think Brian May does not get the credit he deserves.  Perhaps it's because Queen changed their style so very much.  But he was really good.

But I'm going to take this on a tangent- drummers

Neal Peart

Stuart Copeland

Buddy Rich

Way back in the day.

I did like Alex Van Halen quite a bit.

Can't remember the drummer for Living Color- but he blew my mind in some of their songs.

And now it's totally Carter Beauford of the band everyone here hates.  What he can do is utterly magical.

Lee Kiernan from Idles makes such a glorious noise from one or two notes. I really respect his anti guitar god attitude. In his words "I prefer dancing to playing so I keep it simple"

Marc Ribot's playing on Tom Waits "Rain Dogs" album is so stilted and wobbly in the best way. "Jockey full of bourbon" is perfect

John Reis manages to blow me away with everything he does. In Rocket from the crypt he was a dead solid rhythm player, In Hot Snakes he is a powerhouse that is a danger to every building he plays in, In Drive like Jehu he is an absolute madman doing whatever it takes.

I don't really have one.  The player who made me want a Les Paul was Steve Clark of Def Leppard and he wasn't really a lead player, although he did play a number of the guitar solos on the early Leppard recordings.  But that said, I grew up listening to such a varied amount of music that nobody really stands out, even today.  I like them all about the same.

If I need to pick one player who makes me really want to grab a guitar and start noodling, I'd say Pete Thorn.

Gilmour. So much so that I didn't realize how much he affected my jazz saxophone playing until I started to re-listen to Floyd 30 years later. Too bad, I probably would have been much better had I realized what I was trying to do.

Others that I would not miss a chance to hear: Colin James and Buddy Guy. 

Don't really follow specific musicians much but Tom Morello seems talented and has a pretty distinct sound to my uneducated ear.

Mike McCready

John Mayer (really) his solo stuff doesn't show it off at all, but he's legit on guitar. 

Slash

Jack White

Dan Auerbach

Even though he's not a guitarist, I gotta give Les Claypoole honorable mention.

In reply to alfadriver (Forum Supporter) :

That's Will Calhoun on drums for Living Colour--and I love his style, too. A month or two ago, he offered his own personal set of Ludwig drums for sale--a complete kit from 1966 for like $2000. That'sa good deal, never mind the provenance. I ran the deal past a good friend who plays/collects Ludwigs. Buy them, he said. I don't play drums, and they take up space so I passed. You can check out Will's other listings here.

Jason Isbell

Uwe Kruger

Vince Gill

Parker Milsap

Danny Donato

The following if you can separate their guitar licks from the crap they play on the radio:

Brad Paisley

Keith Urban

Zac Brown

I'm going to throw some random names out, all of whom are still alive.  I won't count the dead ones.

Brian Setzer

Junior Brown

David Gilmour - living proof that you can speak volumes quietly

Johnny Hickman - country(ish) music's David Gilmour

Steven Wilson

John Petrucci

Steve Vai - because everybody loves a little flash sometimes

Jack White - I'll buy that.  He's maybe not a fantastic guitar player but I'd really like to be able to play like he does.

That's a very random sampling, and like I said, limited to live players only.

Billy strings

Uh yea that's about it that i know by name

barefootskater said:

Currently alive and making new music:

Brent Hinds of Mastodon
John Petrucci of Dream Theater
Darrell Scott. A bit different than the others, but a true artist and man, can he play 6 steel strings. 

My man! Brent Hinds is at the top of the list for me as well. Writes gnarly riffs and his crazy chicken-pickin solos.

James Hetfield - because, the master of writing of the thrash riff.

Billy Gibbons - because, well, Billy Gibbons.

As mentioned before, there are so many, this list could change given the day or mood.

I'll add Justin Johnson. 

Check him out on the Youtubes.

Mike Campbell for sure. 

Ray Toro as well.

Sam Beam for low fi recording. 

Sturgill Simpson as well.  

I have odd taste. 

Gibbons, how did I miss Gibbons. If you want to hear some great slow blues, check out Sure Got Cold When the Rain Fell, then remember he was something like 23 at the time. 

Brian Setzer is a great live show. 

RevRico said:

Billy strings

Uh yea that's about it that i know by name

Came here to say Billy Strings

also Marcus King

thats all I know about current / recent guitar

Claypool on bass

1988RedT2 said:

Mark Knopfler

Paul Simon

Lindsay Buckingham

 

Okay, maybe not exactly "current"...

Knopfler doesn't get the credit he deserves. I mean Dire Straits had Clapton wearing a pink suit playing rhythm for them at a show.....that's gotta mean something right? 

I saw Chris Stapleton live in Austin a few years back. He was shredding some decent gnar gnar outside of his normal country blues.

Jack O' Shea from Bayside has some shredding capabilities

Can't forget Greg Ginn either

I have been on such a binge of listening to classic rock and turn of the millennium emo rock (SiriusXM has a great internet only channel) that I've not really picked up on any new/current rock acts, that and pop/punk & emo rock don't really lend to "great guitarist." The new rock pushed out on broadcast radio also lacks depth and soul, any recommendations for new stuff would be greatly appreciated. 

Keith Tanner said:

Brian Setzer is a great live show. 

Brian Setzer is one of those guitarists who plays like he's having a ball, not like he's trying to prove a point.