What made Jimi an exceptional guitarist was his abillity to play rhythm and lead simoutaneously and so flawlessly, with very little use of overdubbing to my knowledge, no one before him played both roles so perfectly. He was very skilled but no he wasn't what you'd call "clean", he played like a man on fire and he actually used his occassional sloppiness to his advantage. He didn't invent any of the techniques he was known for, but he mashed it all together and pushed it to a level that no one had ever come close to doing before. He deserves to be number 1, period.
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