The best singer who is primarily known as a guitarist?

Budgie

Dave Gilmour?

relic245

gordiji said:

BB King, especially earlier in his former career.

I think throughout his whole career. 

I saw him a couple of years before he died and 25 years after I first saw him. 

His guitar playing was not quite as good as it had been, but I felt he sang as well as ever. 

thumpingrug

Chris Rea.  Bit at the gravely end of the vocal range but good non the less and fantastic player

chillidoggy

Joe Bonamassa. He could make a living singing or playing guitar. Oh, wait..........

And although he's primarily a bassist and therefore may not qualify - Glenn Hughes.

Chris Robertson - Black Stone Cherry.

crunchman

relic245 said:

gordiji said:

BB King, especially earlier in his former career.

I think throughout his whole career. 

I saw him a couple of years before he died and 25 years after I first saw him. 

His guitar playing was not quite as good as it had been, but I felt he sang as well as ever. 

I saw him when he was 79.  For me, the guitar playing was still superb, but the vocals weren't up to the old recordings.

EricTheWeary

crunchman said:

relic245 said:

gordiji said:

BB King, especially earlier in his former career.

I think throughout his whole career. 

I saw him a couple of years before he died and 25 years after I first saw him. 

His guitar playing was not quite as good as it had been, but I felt he sang as well as ever. 

I saw him when he was 79.  For me, the guitar playing was still superb, but the vocals weren't up to the old recordings.

I always suspected he might have had an even bigger career if he had put the guitar down from time to time and pursued more of a pop ( in a general sense) career. Bit like George Benson did. 

Winny_Pooh

Eric Johnson - massice fan of his, but nope, too weedy

Gary Moore is good, I liked SRVs vocals too. Davey G is a more pleasant singer than Waters TBH, good shout there. 

Not on this list yet I think, but Ry Cooder's voice has mojo'd tremendously over the decades, I like it now.

RobertW

Budgie said:

Dave Gilmour?

I was expecting at least two thirds of the suggestions in this thread to be for Gilmour, so colour me surprised. 
Thankfully no ones suggested Covid yet, which singles this thread out. 
I'm going to say Nuno Bettencourt, great singer who's fronted some great bands, although if you'd have asked me this last year I'd probably have said Brexit. 

Philly_Q

Three pages on, and I think @axisus was pretty much right with the first post.

PolarityMan

lil wayne

axisus

Philly_Q said:

Three pages on, and I think @axisus was pretty much right with the first post.

Well I agree with you!

To be honest I think that many people didn't quite catch the spirit of the thread - eg Dave Gilmour has pretty much always been a band singer, I meant people who had stepped up to the mic later in their career after 'making it' as a guitarist. I probably could have worded the title better.

Oh well, still interesting opinions I guess ...

mudslide73

Robben Ford. Cracking singer imo. Didn't sing with Miles or Joni afaik.

BigBearKris

Chappers! 

Axe_meister

Personally I can't stand Eric Johnsons singing voice. Yes it is in tune, but lacking any passion and personality.

sgosden

Phil Collen of Def leopards

Barnezy

Hearing Gilmour sing with Bowie, made me appreciate how good a singer he is! 

BigBearKris

Daron Malakian does pretty all right in Scars on Broadway. 

stratology

B.B. King
George Benson
Leo Kottke
St. Vincent
Adrian Belew
Joao Bosco



There are many guitarists who are 'meh-ok' singers, but the quality of the voice and singing is nowhere near the quality of their guitar playing - Robben Ford, SRV, Rory Gallagher, Johnny Winter, Eric Johnson, etc.
When I hear them singing, I alway think they should stop, and either play instrumentals, or hire a singer that is in the same league as their guitar playing...

SPECTRUM001

Steve Miller - love his guitar playing, and his voice is as smooth as...y’know

Bernard Sumner - having created a all those sparse and modest guitar lines for Joy Division, he took on vocals for New Order. Again, not trying to be a hero, his voice has a haunting innocence 

Mick Jones - lead guitar for The Clash; does it get any better ? Holds his own on lead and back up vocal duties (and against Strummer - now that’s a challenge !!)

prowla

A couple of bass players:

Glenn Hughes is an utterly fantastic singer:

Billy Sheehan ain't bad: