Favorite prog guitarist
 

Woooooo.

Lol. this is gonna take some consideration... EDIT: but definitely not dave brock

Gilmour!

I sure hope a bunch of people don't end up voting for Gilmour because they haven't heard the rest.

I went with Steve "The Cryptkeeper" Howe.

In the past it definitely would have been Petrucci as I was a massive Dream Theater fan, but now i'd probably go for Steven Wilson or Adam Jones. Also, whoever plays for Pain of Salvation is pretty awesome.

Edit: Oops. completely forgot about Omar Rodriguez Lopez....it is probably him.

This is a great thread.

Anyways, really tough for me. I love Gilmour, but I also love Latimer, Adam Jones, Frank Zappa, and Mikael Akefeldt from Opeth (riffs on the new album are so good.) Fripp is great too.

Ugh, It is like a huge tie minus Jones, but I will go with Frank Zappa because he is so damn creative.

BTW, I might be going to a KC concert. Does anyone know what they might be playing these days?

Oh damn, Mikael Akefeldt! Another one I forgot about. I didn't realise I loved so many guitarists from this genre.

Allan Holdsworth(UK/Bruford) & Michael Romeo(Symphony X) are also worth adding to the list. Too many options i guess. Still wouldn't change my mind :p:

I think they do a good deal of Thrak material.

Wow. I never really even thought about this before. I was recently introduced to Hawkwind by jackhammer and they're starting to grow on me a lot. Probably Steven Wilson or Buckethead as a second choice. They are so diverse.

Mahavishnu Orchestra is Jazz fusion.

Gilmour is my favourite guitarist but in my mind a prog guitarist is a little different. Coming up with different techniques and sounds as oppose to just being a great soloist. With this criteria Zappa is very high. Steven Wilson. Robert Fripp. Buckethead. Michael Karoli. So many choices

They are certainly one of the more innovative fusion groups though. And they're very often considered prog as well.

A lot of jazz fusion came out of prog, especially Canterbury.

Fripp, the master of anti-solos comes to mind.

said it better than i ever could. Karoli started blowing my mind after seeing his solo on 'Paperhouse' on youtube

Steven Wilson is my favorite, personally. Though it was really hard to click his name with so many other greats up there.

It was a tough call between Alex Lifeson, David Gilmour and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, but I went with Alex Lifeson.

I find Lifeson competent but nothing more. His work is good but Lee's and Peart's work has always seemed to overshadow his. His solo on 'Open Secrets' is exquisite though.

Lee and Peart are amazing musicians, so I'd have to agree.

I like his solos, especially "Working Man", though that was in Rush's Zeppelin-esque hard rock days.

I hate Geddy Lee. I think his vocals are absolutely atrocious, and I know it's those that keep so many people from enjoying Rush. Actually, I like Alex the most of the group, because he always seemed the most levelheaded and humble.

Buckethead is probably the most technically gifted guitarist on that list; a lot of his work has breached genres and is years ahead of everyone else.

I like Geddy's vocals. I used to hate them though (when I was like, 9, and had heard Rush on the radio). I've grown to like them.

Martin Barre of Tull for me, although with the quality in this poll you really can't go wrong. I like Gilmour and Howe next on my short list, but really they are all top notch.

Lifeson is one of the most underrated, and Understated, guitarists in rock music today. the textural complexity of his chord work is amazing and every once in a while he throws out a guitar solo that will make you think twice about him. Just listen to Natural Science from the album Permanent Waves (definitely not one of their Zeppelin-esque albums) for evidence of that.

I much prefer their 80's output to their 70's output. 'Moving Pictures' and 'Grace Under Pressure' are my two faves.

I prefer their 80's and later stuff too. They didn't fully come into their own as musicians until at least the mid-eighties.

wow that's my exact situation haha but i went with gilmour

Im really digging the mars volta recently so omar!
byt steve howe has to be a close second
followed up with dave gilmour

Buckethead is fantastic looking at that list made me relized how many good ones are out there. I chose Zappa because he is brillent but it was a hard choice. Did anyone pick up the Rolling Stones issus a month or two ago on greatest guitarist?

Yeh, they were a pile of shite. Eddie Van Halen might be overrated by everybody on the planet but he still deserves to be in the top ten. Boo's got a good list though, but he refuses to add Lee Altus so I dunno. =P

Favorite Prog guitarist...
 

This is a tough one for me. Prog guitarists come in many shapes and sizes. David Gilmour will always be one of my favorite guitarists, because the man can make a guitar cry. He isn't about technique, he's about emotion.
John Petrucci (from Dream Theater) is amazingly fast. I was just listening to them, earlier this evening, and was blown away by the insane speed of his riffs. Then you have Robert Fripp of King Crimson. Not the master of Speed Metal, but amazing in his own right. One of the best, and most disciplined (no pun intended) guitarists out there.

There, put those three down for my favorite Prog guitarist...

Adam Jones, ftw.

Steven Howe.
I love that little alien man.

In my opinion Buckethead could play everyone of these guitarists styles or even just take there places in all of there bands, and he would probably sound at least as good or better.

But thats just me :)


edit: Im glad you remembered Steve Wilson, he is truly one of the best, even if hes still relatively young and inexperienced.

Buckethead is actually the most "inexperienced" on the list, but true, he could outplay/outcompose any one of those guys by a highway mile. It seems everything I listen to by him is fresh and unique. His later albums (post-2003) are REALLY good.

Although I voted for Fripp as I am a Crimson faithful, I also want to recognize Mick Box from Uriah Heep those tunes are unmatched and I think they are a very underrated band.

Why do you say inexperienced?

He has played with countless unknown and known musician, has 24 studio albums, more EP's, and is in quiet a few other bands. Not only that, but he finds the time to be in Guns n Roses when hes not busy.

/wiki/Buckethead#Discography

Because you said it. I was quoting YOU.

Correct me if I'm completely off-base, but this Steven Wilson is the same Steven Wilson who produced the last three Opeth albums and is on schedule to produce Anathema's next album? Not to mention he's been making music for the last twenty years.

I'm not suggesting Buckethead is inexperienced at all, but he is the youngest artist (at least in terms of musical production) on that list. And just so you know, he isn't in GNR anymore (thank God).

i rather like gilmour.

this is probably going to get me flamed but

i cant believe jimi hendrix isnt considered a progressive guitarist :yikes:

i voted other because to me
he is

Jones!