Look. Jimi Hendrix is the best. He's like ten times more creative than Jimmy Page.

1. Jimi Hendrix
2. Eddie Van Hallen
3. Jimmy Page
4. Eric Clapton
5. Kieth Richards
6. Duane Allman
7. Chuck Berry
8. David Gilmor
9. Johny Ramone
10. The Edge

Dear God, my eyes are bleeding.

What the hell is the criteria here? Influence? Skill? Just our favorites?

Influence:
1 Hendrix
2 Beck
3 Page
4 Clapton
5 Blackmore
6 Van Halen
7 Iommi
^^^rough draft, though Hendrix should be locked for #1.

Skill:
Very hard to order, but Jeff Beck, Shawn Lane, Steve Vai, and Steve Morse should place very high. Lane is the fastest I believe, 19nps!!!

My favorites:
1 David Gilmour
2 Jeff Beck
3 Tony Iommi
4 Pete Townshend (not a typo)
5 Ritchie Blackmore

Jimi Hendrix
David Gilmore
Jeff Beck
Jimi Page
Eric Clapton
George Harrison
Bob Dylan
Mark Knopfler
Slash
Dave Matthews
Jerry Garcia

1) Steve Vai
2) Jimi Hendrix
3) Frank Zappa
4) J. Mascis
5) Wes Montgomery
6) Thurston Moore
7) Jimmy Bruno
8) George Benson
9) Eric Johnson
10) Joe Satriani

OMFG. does nobody recognise the brilliance of STEVE VAI? taught by joe satriani, he is a dead cert for the top ten. get rid of that !****! stain kurt cobain.

Only one person here thinks Randy Rhoads is in the top ten??
wuzup widat!!

Which band is he from?

He played guitar for ozzy. he died by crashing his plane. definately a great player

not in order!

jimi hendrix
eric clapton
jimmy page
carlos santana
tom morello(my favorite! how come no one mansioned him)
brian may(queen)
pete townshed
eddie van halen
angus young
slash
the edge

I have a problem with remembering names so even if I did have a favorite guitarist I wouldn't know how to tell you who it was. Though alot of these names are very familiar.

My opinion of a good guitarist: A talented guitarist should be both a composer and a musician, this means they should be able to play songs written by other people along with their own. They should be able to play both mechanical(the difficuly of the chords and struming)and techical(the difficulty of the rhythm) pieces.

It is fascinating to see someone play an impossibly fast piece, but generally those songs are going too fast to fit in alot of rhythmic changes(nothing wrong with that it's normal for alot of fast peices, just look at "Flight of the Bubblebee"). But with slower peices its always best to have rhythmic challenges, otherwise it would be very boring without the speed to keep you attached.

Good musicians and composers should have both of these.

If someone plays at an impossibly high speed and alot of rhythmic changes, I will definitly buy a recording.

Before I start getting chewed out, I didn't say ALL fast pieces have a basic rhythm. Or that ALL slow peices are boring without them, I was just giving an example of a Mechanical song vs. a Technical song.
I'm aware that there are guitarist that can do both, that why they're great.

<Added>

where it says: "mechanical(the difficuly of the chords and struming)"
and
"technical(the difficulty of the rhythm)" add "ect" to the end of the words in the parenthesis. I didn't mean to imply that chords and strumming are the only mechanical problems or that rhythm is the only technical problem. Sorry.

Jimi Hendrix
Jimmy Page
Eric Clapton
Angus Young

Haven't seen much mention of George Harrison but he is a great guitarist, maybe in my top ten, haven't decided yet though.

Kurt Cobain gets honorable mention from me for songwriting, but he is not top ten.

See the problem with this is everybody likes different bands and will say the guitarist of thier favourite band is the best even if he or she isnt, so to do this properly you would ahve to get a bunch of people that hated music alltogether and let them decide by listening to each artist, I meen I could say I think "John Petrucci" is the best becasue he excells at all aspects of guitar playing, and has not been matched in skill and speed by any other guitarist in the history of music,(and I dont even like John petrucci) Im just looking at the FACTS!

again I say that people should stop making lists of guys just because thier famous, heres my list though,

1. Joshua Paul Bryan - Sacred Flame
2. John Petrucci - Dream Theater
3. Carlos Santana - Santana
4. ABSOLUTELY ANY METAL GUITARIST AS THEY ALL HAVE TRUE SKILL AND SPEED AS WELL AS AWESOME ENDURANCE,
(people arent skilled because thier famous! so saying that is just childish!)

My top ten list:

Jimi Hendrix
Eric Johnson
Robben Ford
Robin Trower
Jerry Reed
Eddie Van Halen
Vince Gill
J.J. Marsh (plays w/Glenn Hughes)
Steve Vai
Stevie Ray Vauhn

Actually - my favorite guitar player is my husband (Roger Williams) - but he is not famous so y'all wouldn't know him. LOL