Ritchie Blackmore or Eddie Van Halen?
 

In your mind, which rock guitarist is greater?

I think both of them are among guitar greats, but I always found Blackmore's playing to be more preferable, because it's much more MELODIC!

Eddie. Blackmore's great but he's not very diverse. Like cool you enjoy Haydn, whatever. Also his Celtic **** that he does with his wife is ****ing terrible. At least EVH has those flashy tricks and Spanish Fly.

Eddie definitely. I like both, but I just enjoy Eddie's soloing and riffs more generally.

EVH is possibly the most fun guitarist ever.

Van Halen as a whole basically defines fun. This song in particular, that blues twang that opens it up immediately gets you ready to party:

I might have to give that to Andrew WK.

Church

Haven't heard much from either. I think Blackmore's Night has given me a bad impression of his profile as an artist.

Ritchie Blackmore was great with Deep Purple, and to a lesser extent Rainbow, so whether you like either of those bands or not will probably determine what you think of Blackmore overall.

Here's a couple of my favorites from each:

Did Van Halen just not do all that much in Europe cause it's pretty much impossible for an American to have not heard "Eruption" more times than "Stairway to Heaven".