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Is there any guitarist today or in history you put on the same level as Jimi Hendrix?

Nobody_Important

“Aww, it’s so...average,” she said to him in a cold brick of passion
Jimi is not as head and shoulders above everyone else as others claim, but he is without a doubt one of the most influential people of the craft and everyone can agree on that regardless of whether or not they have him at #1 or not.
 

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
No-one has matched him as far as I am concerned. Its not just the technical ability but the emotional content of his playing.
 

01011001

Banned
in terms of technical ability he has been surpassed by many guitar players. the rise of match rock/metal, prog and neoclassical stuff made it so that more players go for the more technically intensive stuff.

he might be the most influential, but that influence brought many people into the scene that surpassed him as a result.
 

kruis

Exposing the sinister cartel of retailers who allow companies to pay for advertising space.
I think Hendrix is probably the most overrated guitar hero in rock music. I’ve never been able to sit out even one of his songs. I can name dozens upon dozens guitarists that I rate higher. Influential my ass.
 
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Yeah Jimi is great and I love him, but he's also pretty sloppy (could be the booze/drugs). Killer feel, a true innovator and one of the greats but I wouldn't say he's the greatest guitarist of all time, especially when you say pure technical ability in the OP.
 

Cleared_Hot

Member
Creatively speaking he was years ahead at the time I can't say he's the omfg greatest thing by a million miles. He was awesome. He made cool music. Maybe the most influential ever! But then again, there's a million guitarists who were inspired by ace freely
Buckethead is amazing. I'd bet money he's faster and has more technical mastery.


Yeah but how many hit songs does buckethead have? Could say Steve vai is better than hendrix with your logic but even vai himself believes hendrix was the best.
 
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Porcile

Member
Prince. Freaking MONSTER!!

Yeah, it is crazy how underrated Prince was as a guitarist. The man could absolutely run with the best.

Anyway there are lots of more technically gifted guitarists than Jimi Hendrix. It doesn't mean they are better than him.
 

Cleared_Hot

Member
Yeah, it is crazy how underrated Prince was as a guitarist. The man could absolutely run with the best.

Anyway there are lots of more technically gifted guitarists than Jimi Hendrix. It doesn't mean they are better than him.
Speaking of underrated, John Mayer comes to mind. Unbelievably talented. Dude can shred and write hit songs. You gotta be able to do both if you wanna be considered a true guitar virtuoso. Just watch him play Neon live on acoustic on youtube (starts at one minute mark in the video after he freestyles an intro solo) It's crazy how technically difficult that song is (if you know you know) but he also is singing! I mean, He's even shared the stage with some amazing guitarists like Joe Bonamassa and BB King.
 
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Nobody_Important

“Aww, it’s so...average,” she said to him in a cold brick of passion
Buckethead is amazing. I'd bet money he's faster and has more technical mastery.


It's not just about technical mastery. Jimi Hendrix was way ahead of his time in a variety of areas when it came to the craft of playing the electric guitar.


There may be people who have been able to play it better than him, but nobody played the guitar like he did at the time. And that is its own feat in itself. What he did was the foundation of several generations of amazing guitarists.
 

sankt-Antonio

:^)--?-<
It's not just about technical mastery. Jimi Hendrix was way ahead of his time in a variety of areas when it came to the craft of playing the electric guitar.


There may be people who have been able to play it better than him, but nobody played the guitar like he did at the time. And that is its own feat in itself. What he did was the foundation of several generations of amazing guitarists.
Imo, that was more about being famous/ alive the right time then anything else.

There is for example Tosin Abasi who created a new sound/ genre / playstyle... but its just way to late in the game to make as much of an impact as Hendrix has had.

The biggest influence in Guitar business atm comes from Taylor Swift :/
Most people take an interest and buy guitars because of her...
 
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Chankoras

Member
For his genera, excellent, but like others have said there are others just as influential in other types of music, Wes Montgomery, Joe pass, John Williams, Segovia, Tomatico, etc.
And some technically great up-and-comers.
 

niilokin

Member
It's not just about technical mastery. Jimi Hendrix was way ahead of his time in a variety of areas when it came to the craft of playing the electric guitar.


There may be people who have been able to play it better than him, but nobody played the guitar like he did at the time. And that is its own feat in itself. What he did was the foundation of several generations of amazing guitarists.
yep nobody will ever play like him, no one will ever play like rory gallagher etc... there are extraordinary guitarists everywhere but every single one of them is unique, that's why I don't like to compare guitarists or artists in general.
 

ntropy

Member
Jimi's musical greatness was his creativity and ear

i think Randy Rhoads was on his way from a classical perspective, but his life was cut short
 

Porcile

Member
The mark of a good musician is that their music always sounds like it was just released or like it came from the future.

I guarantee if you forced some kid to listen to Jimi, they wouldn't say something along the lines of "This sounds so dated now." They would say something like "WTF is this. I have never heard anything like it."
 

jufonuk

not tag worthy


/thread

🤣🤣

I think it has to be a few Jimi Hendrix. He could write actual songs and play actual music . Not just have a backing track where he could noodle some complex guitars riffs with no hooks

Brian May is an excellent guitarist
Slash
Jimmy Page
Prince

these are some of the best players ever
 
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Ionian

Member
No mention of Rory Gallagher?

Says a lot really. He's undeniably amazing and I'm not even a massive fan.

To answer the op's question, he's undeniably as good if not even potentially better, just depends on taste.
 
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EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
David Gilmour






michael fassbender perfection GIF
 

Ballthyrm

Member
He was the best at being Jimmy hendrix.
Artists shouldn't be judged by how technically proficient they are or how complex their music is.

It's music, it can take many forms and there is no good scale to judge it.

What you can judge however is how unique his musical voice was, how many new concept he introduced, how many people he inspired.
By that measure, yeah, there isn't a lot of people who were as influencial, but that doesn't he was necessarily "better" than anyone else.
 

VAL0R

Banned
We are talking about music, not courtroom stenography.

We are talking about "pure technical ability" and "greatness" (whatever that means).

The OP:
in terms of pure technical ability or greatness....seems like the consensus is Hendrix was the best and no one comes close? do you agree?

So yes, shredding scales cleanly with incredible speed would be an obvious demonstration of technical ability. I assume that's what you mean by stenography? I probably like Buckethead's "music" better too, but that's very subjective and not worth debating in my eyes.
 

V1LÆM

Gold Member
brian motherfucking may. everyone else is beneath him.

 
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AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Speaking of underrated, John Mayer comes to mind. Unbelievably talented. Dude can shred and write hit songs. You gotta be able to do both if you wanna be considered a true guitar virtuoso. Just watch him play Neon live on acoustic on youtube (starts at one minute mark in the video after he freestyles an intro solo) It's crazy how technically difficult that song is (if you know you know) but he also is singing! I mean, He's even shared the stage with some amazing guitarists like Joe Bonamassa and BB King.


John Mayer is the ultimate pleb filter, people think he writes soppy pop ballads - and he does - but he also fuckin' wails on a guitar. That live in LA show is one of my favourite "albums" of all time.

 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
My other vote for underrated guitarist is J Mascis from Dinosaur Jr. Listen to this track and tell me that guy can't make a guitar sing like a person.

 

AJUMP23

Parody of actual AJUMP23
Guitar thread and no mention of Joe Satriani....

This is a simple song, but he has some great stuff,

 

DarkestHour

Banned
First off, Jimi is God.

Second, the comparison has to be done within that time and not using examples afterwards. There's tons of guitarists better than him technically, but what he did in that era is amazing and innovative. Will never be matched.
 
there is no 'greatest guitarist ever', too many 20th century virtuosos covering every genre. and it was all made possible thanks to Andre Segovia.
 
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