Guitarists that have left you speechless

Mark1960

Albert Lee

BB King

Buddy Guy

Keith Richards / Ronnie Wood - Incredible together!

clarkefan

Been many, but "walked out stunned" - Jeff Beck, Michael Schenker (both times, with 28 yr gap), Gary Moore (multiple times) and JD Simo.

Thinking about it, I wanted to add Rory Gallagher, SRV and EVH but funnily enough they were just amazing

JerkMoans

Too many to particularise, but the individual that immediately springs to mind is Michael Hampton, aka Kidd Funkadelic rattling off Maggot Brain. 

The rest of my guitar life has been a pale shadow after those 11 minutes

monquixote

Thanks to this thread I just checked out JD Simo.

I usually find modern blues incredibly dull, but he really impressed me.

raulduke

James Dean Bradfield is always massively impressive. He is a very underrated guitarist IMO. Doing it all while singing lead vocal as well to boot.

The one for me who really stood out above all others is Neil Young.

Ol' Shaky playing his electric rig live at full pelt was an experience I'll never forget (his Like a Hurricane solos were something else).

Seen Radiohead a few times and Jonny Greenwood is always brilliant, but I think Radiohead are more a sum of parts/players rather than one standout.

HerrMetal

Some already mentioned. Ritchie Blackmore, Gary Moore, Michael Schenker, Bernie Torme . Lots more if I thought about it for longer.

zepp76

Peter Green
J D Simo
Dimebag
Alex Skolnick
Dave Mustaine

the list could go on and on

octatonic

David Torn
Charlie Hunter
Derek Trucks
Holdsworth
Emily Remler
Tuck Andress
Jim Hall
Jim Campilongo
Bonnie Raitt
Django
John McLaughlin
Oz Noy
Mike Stern
Julian Lage

Derek Trucks is the only one who had me seriously questioning whether I bother continuing to play.
He is the most soulful player alive.

springhead

JerkMoans said:

Too many to particularise, but the individual that immediately springs to mind is Michael Hampton, aka Kidd Funkadelic rattling off Maggot Brain. 

The rest of my guitar life has been a pale shadow after those 11 minutes

I saw him with George Clinton years ago at Brixton Academy.  Stratocaster and a nappy!  I was busting for the loo, several minutes into a long solo. Took me ages to work my way through the crowd to the gents.  After the long walk back again he was still playing the same solo!

Edit: Maybe that's why he wears the nappy?  Should have thought of it myself.

JerkMoans

springhead said:

JerkMoans said:

Too many to particularise, but the individual that immediately springs to mind is Michael Hampton, aka Kidd Funkadelic rattling off Maggot Brain. 

The rest of my guitar life has been a pale shadow after those 11 minutes

I saw him with George Clinton years ago at Brixton Academy.  Stratocaster and a nappy!  I was busting for the loo, several minutes into a long solo. Took me ages to work my way through the crowd to the gents.  After the long walk back again he was still playing the same solo!

Edit: Maybe that's why he wears the nappy?  Should have thought of it myself.

Toss-up between a LOL and a Wis

McSwaggerty

Jeff Beck,  every single time...…..

fretfinder

Tommy Emmanuel.
Albert Lee.
Joe Bo.

merciful-evans

Joe Pass

mort

Aerial Bender

relic245

Paco de Lucia

Django Rheinhart

Creed_Clicks

Some of the flamenco players are seriously talented. They can leave me speechless at times. Dentists. Now they really leave me speechless at times.

DrJazzTap

Holdsworth, I saw him three times. I remember a gig in Swindon and his chordal comping was mindblowing. And the other was Guthrie, I've never seen somebody so in control of a guitar.

earwighoney

Creed_Clicks said:

Some of the flamenco players are seriously talented. They can leave me speechless at times. Dentists. Now they really leave me speechless at times.

As a part time flamenco player, I'm familiar with a lot of players who the general guitarist are not familar with and there are a lot of great flamenco guitarists around who can manage to marry phenomenal technique with expression.  

Paco DeLucia is the most well known flamenco guitarist and probably for good reason, but there are many others. 

For classical guitar, Julian Bream seems to occupy a similar reputation and again deservedly so. 

randella

maw4neu said:

Stevie Ray Vaughan, even though I nearly threw my guitar in the bin after watching Live at the El Mocambo

Stick with it - on its 12,325th viewing it'll just about make you want to pick up your guitar instead of burn it.  But then when he does that trick in Voodoo Chile, one hand running down the G in a series of pulloffs, flips pickups halfway through and then lands it in a sickening open E pentatonic flurry, yeah.  Get the matches out.

Anyone mention Joe Satriani yet?  Saw him live after years of listening to his records, and was still banging on about it three weeks later.

The same for Dweezil Zappa on the last Zappa-Zappa tour.  Jesus wept that boy can *play*.

My non-guitary wife had a great time at both, with an honourable mention for Steve Vai who she's also taken me to see.

Rocker

No player has ever made me speechless but the bass player with the Steely Dan show that played Dublin recently, impressed me greatly. He did not play ‘much’ but what he did was exactly what the song required.