Guitarists that have left you speechless

timmypix

The first for me was either Tommy Emmanuel or Ian Parker - my Dad tells the story of taking me and a friend (at the time both recently started 12-y.o. guitarists) to see Ian Parker and both of our jaws hitting the floor.

More recently, seeing guys like Per Nilsson and Ben Ellis of Scar Symmetry, Morgan from Bloodshot Dawn - they all have a similar thing of playing very uplifting melodic solos - deliberately going modal or relative major, and couple that with incredibly clean shredding and I just end up shaking my head in awe.

MagicPigDetective

J Mascis, at a D Jr gig in Manchester a couple of years ago. Not just speechless but emotional; I was in tears when he ripped into Out There’s solo! 

Jimbro66

relic245 said:

Paco de Lucia

Django Rheinhart

You saw Django live??!!

JerkMoans

Jimbro66 said:

relic245 said:

Paco de Lucia

Django Rheinhart

You saw Django live??!!

Well he does call himself 'relic'...

equalsql

Barry Finnerty when he toured the UK with The Crusaders back in the early 80s.

BB King.. during the same period. His tone and power was just amazing live, beyond any recording I'd ever heard by him.

John Scofield was jaw dropping live.. but of all the players I've ever seen live I'd have to say the one that spun my head the most was John McLaughlin on his acoustic tour in 89 with Jeff Berlin. He was mesmorising, utter command of the instrument and those complex rich chords..phew!

tone1

Speechless.... Clapton Crossroads, Gary Moore at the Strat concert, John Squire, Love is the Law Seahorses, EVH, Beat it solo....James Dean Bradfield at a small gig with MSP due to sheer volume.....

viz

Al di Meola, Greg Howe, Vai, Satch and Petrucci.

Actually with all 5 of them, every band member was rather good!

RobAllen

Kelly Joe Phelps. Met him at the Camden Jazz Cafe and he blew my mind

squidtastic

Joey Landreth  and Julian Lage.

amarok1971

Mike Oldfield of course  

Bridgehouse

amarok1971 said:

Mike Oldfield of course  

Cheeky

Bebopper

Sid Jacobs, giving a masterclass - incredible solo guitar, with the most incredible two-line counterpoint in play. He then whips out a pick and destroys a jazz blues with the most hip modern lines. 

Pasquale Grasso, in NYC - Has lifted the craft of playing bebop guitar by several notches and he's barely begun.

Adam Rogers, at the 55 Bar in NYC - Played half a set of standards on a 335, then straps on an SG with paperclips on the strings, cranks his amp and delay and off we go into an insane space funk workout.

Jim Hall, on his last UK appearance - A legend and a hero.

Nelson Veras - Both in duo with Jonathan Kreisberg (another frightening guitarist) and just on Wednesday in Guildford leading a trio. His fluency with poly-rhythms, odd-meters and ability to spin idea after idea without apparent struggle is staggering.

lewisanderson

Little Bobby Fripp, Danny Gatton and Jeff Beck

richardhomer

I saw Jeff Healey at a small club in Manchester sometime around 1990. The word ‘humbling’ springs to mind....

tralfamadan

Died before I was born but..

Robbie Basho

Clarence White

Roy Buchanan

Wrt guitarists still alive anytime I watch John 5 play my jaw hits the floor.

matone

Uli Jon Roth.

Nikc

My mate Jon Walsh - awesome blues player - hate him to bits

springhead

richardhomer said:

I saw Jeff Healey at a small club in Manchester sometime around 1990. The word ‘humbling’ springs to mind....

Yes, he was amazing.  I saw him in London around that time, same tour possibly.

rsvmark

Paul Gilbert
Josh Smith
Mike Dawes

stratman3142

Most guitar players I'd heard on record before I saw them live, so I was prepared. Also, I saw many great guitarists that, whilst I appreciated their brilliance, weren't what I was fully aspiring to with my own playing.

 After reading an interview with him in a very early guitarist magazine, I went to see Alan Murphy with SFX at The Cricketers Pub. Standing within a few feet of him in a small pub I was utterly floored. It was a mixture of exhilaration, and devastation because from that moment I felt I was nowhere as a player.

Then I became one of the "cassette recorder in a carrier bag tribe" that recorded the SFX gigs and obsessively tried to copy his playing.