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.)

Wow we agreed on something. This is one for the record books ;)

I'm tired of this whole "well he's a better guitarist because he can play in more styles" argument, anyone ever heard of the saying, jack of all trades, master of none?

Vai is hit and miss with me, but when he's good, he's damn good. Satriani has some good stuff but overall he's too much of a wankoholic, same goes for Gilbert. Johnson is great and he certainly has more of a style compared to the other players. Malmsteen is someone I admire for his great talent, but I just can't get into neoclassical shred.

Shredders or anyone who does "guitar" music, these are the kinds of musicians you can only truly appreciate by actually watching them do their thing, because that's what it is, it's watching music.

I think they are all ****balls because shred is just stupid. No one besides guitarists gives a damn how fast you can play. I went wit Paul Gilbert cause some of his racer X stuff was really cool and quite inventive.

Oh I forgot about Petrucci, yeah, f*ck that guy.

I like a lot of guitar music and have quite a few virtuosos in my collection. It's true, sometimes it's appeal is in the guitarwanking and that interest can run out. But other times, they rely on the esthetics of the music they make. That's the kind of guitar music I like the most.

You people seriously have to download Get Out of My Yard before you can form any sort of opinion on what these players are trying to achieve.

I voted Malmsteen, because I'm a douche and because of this:

You don't include the whole link, FaSho, just the stuff after the =.

And he didn't even write that piece, it's Adagio in G minor by Albinoni.

Fixed.

pffft
I have it
I used to be a shred head.

Then why in the world would you say something so stupid as "No one besides guitarists gives a damn how fast you can play"? There's plenty of evidence that these artists' main goals do not include playing fast.

Nice vid, FaSho .. I enjoyed it. :)

Malmsteen has gotten a bit more chubby on his later days, I see. He certainly is an extremely accomplished guitarist, but I'm not so fond of his albums .. Or what I've heard of them anyways. I'll give'em another shot, though.

I know. He played it better then any other version I've heard though.

That was honestly ridiculously boring. So what, he can play really fast. Let's hear him compose a song that actually sounds good.

Really the only Malmsteen song I still listen to is Black Star. It's in my journal if you want to listen to it, but I doubt you'd like it.

eric johnson is the freaking man. it doesn't get much better than cliffs of dover.

I always liked Alive in an Ultra World so I'll take Vai

Do you even like Eric Johnson? He's more on the melodic side then the others.

I agree! I think that Satriani is the best Guitarist in the world.

Cliffs Of Dover beats everything Malmsteen's done, sadly none of Johnson's other songs compare.

Gods dammit, cliffs of dover is just a good song .. it's not the grandest piece of guitar wank ever made. Not on any level, technical skill, feeling or pure sound aesthetics.

That was an opinion, but I like to think it's somewhat educated one. I do like Eric Johnson and I've also had Ah Via Musicom in my collection for a long time, but I find him a little boring. Cliffs of Dover is definetly the best song from that album, I think, but I'm not sure it fully deserves all this godly praise. :p

Having a hard time choosing between Vai and Johnson. Both are stupidly good musicians.

petrucci. just a personal favorite. an idol for me. i'd love to be able to play like him someday.

this poll is a little silly if you think about it. all of these guitar players are incredible and extremely versatile, though i haven't heard much johnson.

yngwie is a little overrated maybe, but he's still fun.

They all play well, but without sould. None of there stuff makes me tingle, I think they pretty much sound the same. When you listen to Beck or Clapton, you realise just how empty those listed guitarists really are

Tell me that piece has no soul, and I'll have to make the assumption that YOU have no soul.

I have no soul.

But seriously... that bored me to f*cking death.

What do you think of Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton?

EDIT: And now that I think about it, what do you think of classical music?

I usually enjoy them a lot more than the G3 bunch.

I used that example BECAUSE it's so widely excepted as soulful, he and Satch have other good ones. But of course, there's plenty of their songs that aren't emotionally touching in the least, but then that isn't their purpose. That's like writing off any number of metal bands as poor because you get no emotional response from their music.

Bah, what's the point of arguing this? They're virtuosos, they're obviously good at what they do .. otherwise, they wouldn't be famous for being good.

If you don't like it, fine - most people don't. If you do like it, then that's also fine.

Many of these discussions seem to eventually burn down to "my taste in music is better than your taste in music" and unless it really entertains you, that's a stupid argument to have with someone on a forum.