Poll Best G3 Guitarist
 

Petrucci, Satriani, Vai, Gilbert, Eric Johnson, Yngwie Malmsteen.

Pick one and state why you chose him.

I personally love Petrucci because of how versatile he truly is. The stuff he writes for dream theater and LTE are just out of this world. He incorporates classical guitar techniques and scales into progressive rock like no other. Also, he's probably got one of the most beautiful tones in the game, and plays with passion. Also, who else can play that fast? seriously?

Personally I don't think any of them play with the passion of their slower counterparts, however for me it has to be Steve Vai. His work with Zappa is some of my favourite guitar stuff, simply because of how ****ing cool it is.

Paul Gilbert for sure. He can play so many styles, and he's simply the funkiest of them all. Eric Johnson is a close second, and Steve Vai is a close third.

And if anyone votes Yngwie they're getting my foot up their ass.

Put your boot on then.

I hate everything associated with G3 so I won't vote.

or perhaps



Trying to change your mind :p:

I just feel absolutely no emotion in any of that, and I know some of you will disagree, but if I want to instrumental stuff I'll listen to Mogwai or something.

I'm with Dac on this one, while I like Vai's Zappa work and various of the better constructed albums of some of the other artists. I can't listen to **** like that, it's just playing really fast, and there's nothing good about playing really fast.

Cliffs of Dover (the second video) is my 2nd fav guitar piece ever, and I feel so much emotion in it. He could play a lot faster if he wanted to, but he doesn't. John Petrucci and Yngwie Malmsteen are the ones who try to incorporate the most speed in their music, and therefore have the most loss of emotion.

If you want a guitar virtuoso who plays with no emotion, that would be Malmsteen or Rustey Cooley. You can simply tell from Paul's performances that he feels eveything he plays. I don't get why you guys don't feel it <.<

Edit for an example of no emotion:

Joe Satriani!

I just think he's a true master guitarist. He combines the best of technical skill and speed with a true guitar feeling. It really is an extension of his body and you get the feeling he can make that thing make any sound he wants it to.

I realise this is more or less true for all these virtuosos, but I just think ol' Joe is a tiny step ahead of the competition.

Watch him play his excellent song "Satch Boogie" (from Surfing with the alien, excellent album by the way). He starts playing after a little guitar wanking for the crowd first.

It is awesome. Anyone who likes guitars must watch this. To the very end!



edit :

khfreek, I think I share some of your feelings regarding guitar virtuosos. I mean, speed and skill is not everything. I like it when you can hear that the guitarist really has a feeling for his instrument. There are so many guys who can play whatever really fast. For me personally, I put less and less value in that. I mean, if speed is all you like, you might as well just listen to Dragonforce ..



Okay, it's fast as **** knows, but I still don't like the sound of it that much. ;)


(That video up there with the reverb playing probably sounds harder than it actually is, by the way. The reverb is playing half the notes! Nice tune, though.)