The 30 Greatest Guitarists of All Time: Ranked and Reviewed

Ask ten music fans to name the greatest guitarist of all time and you might get ten different answers. Some people want speed and fireworks, while others care more about tone, feel and a riff they can hum.

This list looks at three things: technical skill, a sound you can recognize in a few notes, and influence on the players who came after. That mix brings together blues pioneers, rock gods, jazz masters and a few players who changed the instrument itself.

The list runs from the Delta blues of the 1930s to the alternative rock of the 1990s, and every name on it left recordings that guitarists still study today.

If you like this one, you might also enjoy our list of the greatest guitar solos of all time and our ranking of the greatest drummers of all time.

1. Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix is the name that tops more “greatest guitarist” lists than any other, and for good reason. Born in Seattle in 1942, he moved to London in 1966, formed the Jimi Hendrix Experience and became a star almost overnight with songs like “Purple Haze,” “Foxy Lady” and “The Wind Cries Mary.”

Hendrix turned feedback, fuzz and the wah-wah pedal into real musical tools instead of accidents. He was left-handed and played a right-handed Fender Stratocaster flipped over and restrung, and he often wrapped his thumb over the neck to play bass notes while his fingers played chords and melody.

His 1968 album Electric Ladyland is still one of the most studied guitar records in rock. His version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Woodstock in 1969 became one of the defining moments of the decade. He died in 1970 at just 27, and the Experience was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

2. B.B. King

B.B. King could say more with one note than most guitarists say with a hundred. Born Riley B. King in Mississippi in 1925, he became the best-known blues musician in the world and toured almost nonstop for decades.

King rarely played fast runs or chords. Instead, he built his style on string bends and a quick, shaking vibrato that made the guitar sound like a human voice. He often sang a line and then answered it with a short guitar phrase, a call-and-response style that blues and rock players copied for generations.

He named his guitars Lucille, and the name became part of his legend. His 1965 album Live at the Regal is often called one of the greatest live blues records, and “The Thrill Is Gone” became his biggest hit in 1970. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

3. Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton was so admired in mid-1960s London that fans wrote “Clapton is God” on city walls. Born in Ripley, Surrey, in 1945, he made his name with the Yardbirds and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers before forming Cream with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker in 1966.

Clapton took the sound of American blues players like Robert Johnson, B.B. King and Freddie King and played it louder and longer for rock audiences. With Cream, he stretched songs like “Crossroads” and “Sunshine of Your Love” into long improvised jams.

In 1970 he recorded “Layla” with Derek and the Dominos, and he later had solo hits like “Wonderful Tonight” and “Tears in Heaven.” His black Fender Stratocaster, nicknamed “Blackie,” is one of the most famous guitars in rock. Clapton is the only artist inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame three times: with the Yardbirds, with Cream and as a solo artist.

4. Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin)

Jimmy Page was one of London’s busiest session guitarists before he joined the Yardbirds in 1966. When that band fell apart, he formed Led Zeppelin in 1968, and it became one of the biggest rock bands in the world.

Page could move from heavy riffs like “Whole Lotta Love” and “Black Dog” to the acoustic folk of “Stairway to Heaven” and the Eastern feel of “Kashmir.” He used alternate tunings, played a violin bow across the strings on “Dazed and Confused” and made the double-neck Gibson EDS-1275 famous on stage. His main guitar was a Gibson Les Paul, though he recorded the “Stairway” solo on a Fender Telecaster.

Page also produced every Led Zeppelin album. His way of layering guitars and recording drums in big rooms shaped how hard rock records sounded for decades. Few players have built as many famous riffs.

5. Chuck Berry

If rock and roll guitar has a starting point, it is Chuck Berry. Starting with “Maybellene” in 1955, he recorded a string of hits for Chess Records, including “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Sweet Little Sixteen” and “Johnny B. Goode.”

His style was built on double-stop licks (two notes played at once) and a driving rhythm borrowed from boogie-woogie piano. The opening of “Johnny B. Goode” is one of the most copied guitar intros ever, and almost every beginner rock guitarist learns it.

Berry was also a great showman, and his “duck walk” across the stage became his trademark. The Beatles covered “Roll Over Beethoven,” and the Rolling Stones’ first single was a Berry song, “Come On.” Keith Richards has called him one of his biggest heroes. In 1986, Berry was part of the first group of artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

6. Robert Johnson

Robert Johnson recorded just 29 songs, yet he may be the most influential blues guitarist who ever lived. Born in Mississippi in 1911, he recorded at two sessions, in San Antonio in 1936 and Dallas in 1937, and died in 1938 at 27.

Those recordings include “Cross Road Blues,” “Sweet Home Chicago,” “Love in Vain” and “Hellhound on My Trail.” Johnson played a walking bass line with his thumb while picking melody and slide parts on the higher strings, which made one acoustic guitar sound like two players.

His records were little known until Columbia released the album King of the Delta Blues Singers in 1961. It became a bible for young British musicians. Cream turned “Cross Road Blues” into “Crossroads,” the Rolling Stones covered “Love in Vain,” and Eric Clapton later recorded a whole album of Johnson songs. The legend that he sold his soul at a crossroads only added to his fame.

7. Prince

Prince is usually remembered as a pop star, but many guitarists rank him among the best players of his era. He mixed Hendrix-style fire with funk rhythm and soul, and he often played most or all of the instruments on his own records.

“Let’s Go Crazy” ends with one of the wildest solos of the 1980s, while the long solo at the end of “Purple Rain” shows how much feeling he could put into slow, sustained notes. His most-used guitar was a Hohner Telecaster-style model, and he also played the custom “Cloud” guitars first built for the Purple Rain era.

One of his most famous guitar moments came at the 2004 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony, the year he was inducted. During an all-star tribute performance of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” Prince stepped forward and played a long solo that stole the show. The clip is still one of the most-watched guitar videos online.

8. Eddie Van Halen

Eddie Van Halen changed rock guitar almost overnight in 1978. On Van Halen’s debut album, the short instrumental “Eruption” showed off his two-handed tapping, a technique he did not invent but made famous. Within a few years, guitarists everywhere were trying to copy it.

He also used harmonics, dive bombs with the whammy bar and a hot, crunchy amp tone he called his “brown sound.” His homemade “Frankenstrat,” a Stratocaster-style guitar he put together from parts and painted with red, white and black stripes, became one of the most famous guitars in rock.

What set him apart was that he wrote real songs, too. “Runnin’ with the Devil,” “Panama,” “Hot for Teacher” and the keyboard-driven “Jump” were big radio hits. Van Halen joined the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007, and Eddie died in 2020 after a long battle with cancer.

9. Sister Rosetta Tharpe

Long before rock and roll had a name, Sister Rosetta Tharpe was playing it in church. Born Rosetta Nubin in Arkansas in 1915, she began performing as a small child alongside her mother, who was a traveling evangelist.

Tharpe sang gospel songs, but she played guitar like a blues star, with sharp single-note runs and hard picking. By the 1940s she was playing electric guitar, and her 1944 recording “Strange Things Happening Every Day” crossed over to Billboard’s race records chart, which was rare for a gospel song.

She later played a white Gibson SG, and in 1951 about 25,000 fans paid to watch her wedding and concert at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C. Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Little Richard and Johnny Cash all admired her, and many historians now call her the godmother of rock and roll. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018 with the Award for Early Influence.

10. David Gilmour (Pink Floyd)

David Gilmour joined Pink Floyd in 1968 and soon became the voice of the band’s guitar sound. He played on their biggest albums, including The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall.

Gilmour is not a fast player. He picks fewer notes, bends them slowly and lets them ring, using delay and sustain to fill the space. Fans often name his second solo on “Comfortably Numb” as one of the greatest guitar solos ever recorded, and his work on “Time,” “Money” and “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” shows the same patient style.

His black Fender Stratocaster, used on many of those records, became so famous that Fender released a copy of it. Gilmour has also released solo albums, and his tone is still the model for countless players who care more about feel than speed. Pink Floyd entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.

11. Jeff Beck

Jeff Beck replaced Eric Clapton in the Yardbirds in 1965 and briefly shared the lead guitar role with Jimmy Page. He then formed the Jeff Beck Group, which featured a young Rod Stewart on vocals and Ronnie Wood on bass.

In 1975 he released Blow by Blow, an all-instrumental album that mixed rock with jazz fusion and became a hit without a singer. Its follow-up, Wired, went even further in that direction.

Beck’s playing was full of surprises. He gave up the pick for much of his later career and shaped notes with his fingers, the whammy bar and the volume knob, making the guitar sound almost like a voice. Many famous guitarists called him the most gifted player of their generation, even though he never sold as many records as his old bandmates. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, with the Yardbirds and as a solo artist, and died in 2023 at 78.

12. Carlos Santana

You can usually recognize Carlos Santana in a few notes. His tone is warm and singing, and his solos favor long, sustained notes over speed.

Santana’s band became famous after a powerful set at Woodstock in 1969, mixing blues rock with Latin rhythms and percussion. The 1970 album Abraxas brought two of his best-known songs, “Black Magic Woman” and “Oye Como Va.”

He played Gibson guitars early on and later became closely tied to PRS guitars, which make his signature models. In 1999, almost 30 years after Woodstock, he released Supernatural, which included the hit “Smooth” with Rob Thomas and won eight Grammy Awards in one night, tying Michael Jackson’s record at the time. Santana was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.

13. Keith Richards (The Rolling Stones)

Keith Richards has never cared much about flashy solos. As the Rolling Stones’ guitarist since 1962, he has built his reputation on riffs, groove and rhythm instead.

His most famous trick is open G tuning with the low string removed, which leaves five strings tuned to a chord. You can hear it on “Honky Tonk Women,” “Brown Sugar” and “Start Me Up.” He wrote the fuzz riff for “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” in 1965, one of the most famous riffs in rock.

Richards plays Fender Telecasters more than any other guitar, along with Gibsons over the years. Together with Mick Jagger, he wrote most of the Stones’ songs. He showed that rhythm guitar could be the heart of a band, and that a simple riff with the right feel can last for decades.

14. Stevie Ray Vaughan

Stevie Ray Vaughan brought the blues back to rock radio in the 1980s. The Texas guitarist and his band Double Trouble released Texas Flood in 1983, the same year he played on David Bowie’s hit album Let’s Dance.

Vaughan’s sound came from Albert King, Buddy Guy and Jimi Hendrix, but his attack was all his own. He played a battered Fender Stratocaster he called “Number One,” used very heavy strings and tuned down a half step, which gave his playing a thick, biting tone.

Albums like Couldn’t Stand the Weather and In Step showed off songs like “Pride and Joy,” “Cold Shot” and his take on Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child (Slight Return).” Vaughan died in a helicopter crash in 1990 at 35. Players like John Mayer and Kenny Wayne Shepherd have named him as a major influence.

15. John McLaughlin

John McLaughlin is a guitarist’s guitarist, admired for blinding speed and his mix of jazz, rock and Indian music. The English player moved to the United States in 1969 and recorded with Miles Davis on In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew, two albums that helped create jazz fusion.

In 1971 he formed the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Its albums The Inner Mounting Flame and Birds of Fire combined jazz improvising with rock volume, odd time signatures and very fast, precise playing. He often played a double-neck guitar on stage.

In the mid-1970s he formed Shakti, an acoustic group with Indian classical musicians, showing a completely different side of his playing. Many jazz and rock guitarists who wanted to break free of standard blues licks point to McLaughlin as the player who showed them what was possible.

16. Duane Allman (The Allman Brothers Band)

Duane Allman had one of the shortest careers on this list, but one of the biggest impacts. He founded the Allman Brothers Band in 1969 with his brother Gregg, mixing blues, jazz and country into what became Southern rock.

Allman was a master of slide guitar. He played it with a glass Coricidin medicine bottle on his finger, and his slide lines sing on songs like “Statesboro Blues.” The band’s 1971 live album At Fillmore East, with long jams like “Whipping Post,” is often called one of the best live rock albums ever made.

He was also a busy session player. His most famous guest spot is on Derek and the Dominos’ “Layla,” where his slide guitar and Eric Clapton’s leads weave together. Allman died in a motorcycle accident in October 1971 at just 24.

17. Muddy Waters

Muddy Waters took the Mississippi Delta blues, moved it to Chicago and plugged it in. Born McKinley Morganfield, he moved north in 1943 and switched to electric guitar so he could be heard in loud Chicago clubs.

His slide playing, inspired by Son House and Robert Johnson, became the backbone of the Chicago blues sound. Recording for Chess Records in the 1950s, he cut classics like “Hoochie Coochie Man,” “Mannish Boy” and “Got My Mojo Working,” usually with harmonica and piano in his band.

His influence on rock is hard to overstate. The Rolling Stones named themselves after his song “Rollin’ Stone,” and British players like Eric Clapton and Keith Richards studied his records closely. Muddy Waters was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

18. Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple)

Ritchie Blackmore co-founded Deep Purple in 1968 and later formed Rainbow, two bands that helped shape hard rock and heavy metal. His riff on “Smoke on the Water” is one of the most famous in rock and one of the first riffs many guitar students learn.

Blackmore mixed blues rock with classical music, borrowing ideas from composers like Bach for his solos. You can hear that on Deep Purple’s Machine Head, especially the fast, structured solo in “Highway Star.”

With Rainbow, he pushed that classical side further on songs like “Stargazer” and “Man on the Silver Mountain” and albums like Rising. He mainly played a Fender Stratocaster through loud Marshall amps. Yngwie Malmsteen and many other neoclassical metal players have named Blackmore as a key influence. Deep Purple joined the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016.

19. Randy Rhoads

Randy Rhoads recorded only two studio albums with Ozzy Osbourne, but they made him a legend. Before that, he co-founded Quiet Riot in Los Angeles in the 1970s.

Rhoads had studied classical guitar, and it shows. On Blizzard of Ozz (1980) and Diary of a Madman (1981), his solos use classical scales and arpeggios instead of standard blues licks. “Crazy Train” and “Mr. Crowley” feature solos built like short pieces of music, with a clear start, middle and finish.

He played a Gibson Les Paul, a polka-dot V-shaped guitar built by Karl Sandoval, and later a custom Jackson guitar that became the Jackson Rhoads model. Rhoads died in a plane crash during a tour stop in 1982 at 25. Generations of metal guitarists still study his recordings.

20. Pete Townshend (The Who)

Pete Townshend was never about long solos. As guitarist and main songwriter for The Who, he made his mark with power chords, slashing rhythm and his famous windmill strum.

His riffs drive “My Generation,” “I Can See for Miles,” “Pinball Wizard,” “Baba O’Riley” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” He also wrote the rock operas Tommy and Quadrophenia, building whole albums around guitar themes.

Townshend was one of the first players to use feedback as part of the music, and he became infamous for smashing guitars on stage. He played Rickenbackers in the early days and later used Gibson SGs and Les Pauls and Fender guitars. His loud, percussive rhythm style helped inspire punk and arena rock. The Who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

21. George Harrison (The Beatles)

George Harrison was often overshadowed by Lennon and McCartney, but his guitar parts are some of the most memorable in pop. As the Beatles’ lead guitarist, he favored short, melodic lines that served the song.

His Rickenbacker 12-string helped create the chiming sound of “A Hard Day’s Night,” and his own songs “Something” and “Here Comes the Sun” are among the band’s best. Harrison played sitar on “Norwegian Wood” in 1965 and then studied with Ravi Shankar, bringing Indian music into songs like “Within You Without You.”

After the Beatles, his slide guitar became his signature, heard on “My Sweet Lord” from the 1970 album All Things Must Pass. He played Gretsch, Rickenbacker and Fender guitars over the years. Harrison was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the Beatles and again as a solo artist in 2004.

22. Chet Atkins

Chet Atkins earned the nickname “Mr. Guitar.” Born near Luttrell, Tennessee, in 1924, he learned fiddle as a boy before turning to guitar.

Inspired by Merle Travis, Atkins developed his own fingerpicking style, using his thumb to play a steady bass line while his fingers picked melody and chords. It sounded like two guitars at once and inspired players from country to rock, including George Harrison.

Atkins was also a top producer and executive at RCA Records in Nashville. In the late 1950s and 1960s he helped create the smooth “Nashville Sound,” which brought country music to a wider audience. He won more than a dozen Grammy Awards and mentored players like Jerry Reed and Tommy Emmanuel. Gretsch and Gibson both made Chet Atkins signature guitars.

23. Wes Montgomery

Wes Montgomery is one of the most influential jazz guitarists ever, even though he never learned to read music. Born in Indianapolis in 1923, he taught himself by playing along with records by Charlie Christian.

Instead of a pick, he plucked the strings with the side of his thumb, which gave him a warm, round tone. He was also famous for playing melodies in octaves, the same note on two strings at once, which became his signature sound.

Albums like The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery and Smokin’ at the Half Note are still considered essential jazz listening. He often recorded with his brothers Buddy and Monk. Late in his career he found pop success with albums like A Day in the Life, before he died of a heart attack in 1968 at 45.

24. Les Paul

Most people know Les Paul because of the Gibson guitar that carries his name, but he was also a great player. Born Lester Polsfuss in Wisconsin in 1915, he was a fast, clean jazz and pop guitarist who had a string of hits in the late 1940s and 1950s.

Paul was also an inventor. He built an early solid-body electric guitar he called “The Log,” and Gibson released the Les Paul model in 1952. He pioneered multitrack recording and overdubbing, which let him stack many guitar parts on one record.

With his wife, singer Mary Ford, he used those studio tricks on hits like “How High the Moon,” which reached number one in 1951. The Les Paul guitar became a favorite of Jimmy Page, Slash and many others. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and played weekly club shows in New York into his 90s.

25. Django Reinhardt

Django Reinhardt created a whole style of music, gypsy jazz, and he did it with two working fingers on his fretting hand. Born in Belgium in 1910 to a Romani family, he was badly burned in a caravan fire in 1928 that left two fingers of his left hand badly damaged.

Rather than give up, he worked out a new technique, playing his fast solos mostly with his index and middle fingers and using the injured fingers for some chords.

In the 1930s he and violinist Stéphane Grappelli led the Quintette du Hot Club de France, a band made up only of string instruments. Songs like “Minor Swing” and “Nuages” are still standards that jazz guitarists learn today. Les Paul and many other players named Django as an early hero, and gypsy jazz festivals around the world still celebrate his music.

26. Brian May (Queen)

Brian May co-founded Queen in 1970, and his guitar is almost as recognizable as Freddie Mercury’s voice. Much of that comes from the Red Special, the guitar he built as a teenager with his father, using wood from an old fireplace.

May plays with a sixpence coin instead of a regular pick, which adds a little bite to his tone. He is famous for layering many guitar parts in the studio to create harmonies that sound like an orchestra, which you can hear on “Killer Queen” and “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

He also wrote some of Queen’s biggest songs, including “We Will Rock You,” “Fat Bottomed Girls” and “I Want It All.” His solos tend to be melodic enough to sing along to. May also earned a PhD in astrophysics in 2007, and Queen were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.

27. Angus Young (AC/DC)

Angus Young is one of the most recognizable guitarists in rock, thanks to his schoolboy uniform and nonstop energy. He formed AC/DC in Australia in 1973 with his older brother Malcolm, who played rhythm guitar.

Angus keeps things simple and loud: blues-based riffs and solos played with a sharp attack on a Gibson SG through Marshall amps. You can hear it on “Highway to Hell,” “Back in Black,” “You Shook Me All Night Long” and “Thunderstruck.”

On stage he runs, spins and does his own take on Chuck Berry’s duck walk while playing. Back in Black, released in 1980, is one of the best-selling albums ever made. AC/DC were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003, and Angus showed that a guitarist doesn’t need complicated parts to sound huge.

28. Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath)

Tony Iommi is often called the father of heavy metal guitar. At 17, an accident at a sheet metal factory cut off the tips of two fingers on his right hand. Because he plays left-handed, that was his fretting hand.

He made his own fingertip covers from a melted plastic bottle and started using lighter strings and lower tunings to make playing less painful. Those changes helped create Black Sabbath’s dark, heavy sound.

His riffs on “Black Sabbath,” “Paranoid,” “Iron Man” and “War Pigs” became the template for metal and doom. Albums like Paranoid and Master of Reality are still the starting point for heavy riff writing. Iommi played a Gibson SG for most of his career, and Black Sabbath were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006.

29. Kurt Cobain (Nirvana)

Kurt Cobain never wanted to be a guitar hero, and that is part of why he changed guitar playing in the 1990s. As Nirvana’s singer and guitarist, he favored simple, heavy riffs and raw noise over technical skill.

Songs like “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” “Come as You Are” and “Heart-Shaped Box” use a quiet verse and a loud, distorted chorus, a pattern that defined grunge on the albums Nevermind and In Utero.

Cobain was left-handed and played cheap Fender Mustangs and Jaguars, along with right-handed guitars restrung for left-handed playing. He cared about mood and tone, not solos. After Nevermind, a generation of alternative and indie bands picked up guitars and followed his example. Cobain died in 1994 at 27, and Nirvana were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014.

30. Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine)

Tom Morello made the guitar sound like things it was never supposed to sound like. In Rage Against the Machine, he used a toggle switch as a kill switch, a DigiTech Whammy pedal and other tricks to imitate DJ scratching, sirens and electronic noise.

You can hear his style on “Killing in the Name” and “Bulls on Parade,” where crushing riffs sit next to sounds most people would never guess came from a guitar. The band’s albums Rage Against the Machine and Evil Empire made him one of the most talked-about guitarists of the 1990s.

Morello later played in Audioslave with Chris Cornell, adapting his sound to more melodic hard rock. He has inspired many players to treat pedals and switches as part of the instrument. Rage Against the Machine were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2023.

What Makes a Guitarist Great?

Ranking guitarists always starts arguments, because greatness on the guitar can mean very different things. Speed and technique are easy to notice, but they are only part of the story.

Feel and Phrasing

A single bent note with the right vibrato can say more than a fast scale. B.B. King and David Gilmour are proof that the notes you leave out matter as much as the ones you play.

A Sound All Their Own

The greatest players can be recognized in a few notes. That can come from technique, like Wes Montgomery’s thumb, or from gear, like Brian May’s homemade Red Special.

Influence on Other Players

Many players on this list are here because they changed what came after them. Chuck Berry, Robert Johnson and Eddie Van Halen each started styles that thousands of guitarists copied.

How to Listen to a Great Guitarist

Next time you play songs by the guitarists on this list, try listening for more than the solo.

Five Things to Listen For

1. Rhythm: listen to how the guitar locks in with the drums and bass, like Keith Richards on “Honky Tonk Women.”
2. Tone: notice whether the sound is warm and round or sharp and biting.
3. Space: pay attention to the gaps between notes, not just the notes themselves.
4. Dynamics: listen for how a player builds from soft to loud within a song.
5. Serving the song: notice when the guitar steps back to make room for the vocals.

Start With the Classics

A great place to start is with landmark albums like Electric Ladyland, Live at the Regal, Led Zeppelin IV and Van Halen. Each one shows a different idea of what a great guitarist can be.