Well fuck. the huge argument between "shred" and "soul."
In other words, two of the opposite. As far as talent goes shred, with sweeping arpegios, tap picking, and unbelivably fast scales, has much more talent then the 60s bullocks.
But! tony iomii from sabbath says "it doesnt matter of a technical guitarist thinks its good, its if it sounds good," so if in fact a soul-full guitarst plays something that you can nod your head too, that could completly own shred.
But! aside from metal guitarists, great guitarists would be:

Santana, John Williams (not the guy who wrote starwars and shit, the guy who did guitar concertos) Fernando Sor, Francesco Molino, Dionisio Aguado, and even people like Bach, or Vivaldi.

As far as talent goes, fucking Classical guitar takes the most.

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Michael Hedges and Leo Kottke

Exactly, if it sounds good to you, it is good.

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Douglas Pearce

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Mel Gibson.

ahahahahaahah^

rodrigo y gabrielle

I just has some noob who has been playing for 3 years tell me Serrana Apreggios is easy and pointless.

Stanley Jordan...
easily sounds like 2 guitars at once.

California Guitar Trio
takes popular songs of all genres and duplicates them well.
one of the guitars picks the vocals...very cool.

I can agree with you on this. He should be shot.

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ok
A-im not saying there arnt any
but why wood u make a thread for good guitarists that arnt metal on a sight called mother fucking METAL! tabs
B-the bitch who said serranna or w.e. arpeggios are easy...is jelous that we can do them and he cant
C-this is pretty hypocritical talking about a good nonmetal guitarist since i just said its dumb but justin king is a crazy bitch

steve lukather!!
i dont wanna argue about who is better, but i can understand not shredding all the time. i refer to it as a tasteful solo. not that shredding isnt tasteful. i love it too, but when an artist really takes the time to pick everynote to make the most emotional impact (ala lukather imo) its...nice. just for different moods. angst and crazy party call for metal and shred whereas chillin and realxin, dare i say chillaxin, is for smooth: journey, or toto, or Bob Marley.

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Isn't this a website?

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Jimmy > Jimi


Hell yes. One of the best

and then the youthman says : I can play 2145 notes per second
it's so fucking cool!.And hten the warrior said : I can play one note
for16 hours but it's gonna have so much soul,that's way cooler".
Bollocks.When will you learn : fuckin guitar=motherfuckety racket!
Pickup your drums and fight!
but it never ends,writing fast

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fuck buddy
that coodnt of been more offtopic
a fucking spelling error
go die

Gilmour was actually a fairly accomplished guitarist and definitely figured out a few more interesting ways to exploit a guitar's range than to constantly resort to sweep picking. I've listened to as much Malmsteen as Floyd in terms of quantity, but in terms of frequency I consistently go back to the latter and discard the former. There's a good reason for that: Malmsteen isn't terribly interesting, and the only thing that made him interesting (that he could shred better than most guitarists who weren't involved in fusion) has long since disappeared, as he's surpassed by a whole new generation of much more technically proficient guitarists, some of whom even have interesting ideas. But I'll take Gilmour over most of them, too. And it's not just 'he can play one note with soul;' it has more to do with phrasing.

People who haven't been mentioned:
Robert Fripp
Adrian Belew
Buddy Guy
John Mclaughlin
Alex Lifeson
Trey Spruance
Pat Metheny
Albert King
Mark Ribot
Frank Zappa
Duane Allman
Warren Haynes
Hubert Sumlin
Ritchie Blackmore

I think that's enough for now.

+1.

I'm not saying shred sucks and starting a soul versus shred competition going.
I'm wasn't just after opinions on other guiartists in the non metal category that i could discover and bring into my own playing. I love Metal- Carcass, Death, Slayer,Arch Enemy, Dimmu Borgir, Cannibal Corpse, Deicide etc. But theres something about Gilmour's playing that really is special like the solos in comfortably numb are just epic, perfect bends real meaningful notes. Malmsteen tends to run up and down his a minor scale i find which can get boring when you do it in every song (in my opinion).

I cannot believe nobody mentioned "SLASH"??? From Guns 'n roses?

they're metal to me.

anyone every wonder why, like, theres these guitarist who were way awsome when they were younger (malmsteen) but 30 years later (30 years of practice mind you) they still play the same shit. you'd think after starting off so well and being freakin awsome and then 30 whole fucking years of playing and practicing and learning they'd be pushing the limits of freakin human guitar capabilities? why?

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