He credits much of his style as coming from Lonnie Mack. Any list of best guitarists will undoubtedly feature this great within their top 10, or they're wrong. Stevie Ray Vaughan is one of the most influential guitarists in blues music, leading the revival of blues rock in the 1980's. #9 - Stevie Ray Vaughan Top Strength: String Raking He started learning how to play guitar at age 5. He's credited with basically reinventing the country guitar style in the 1990's.

Trivia Facts: As a member of the National Thumbpickers Hall of Fame, Brent Mason almost ended his career after riveting a hole through his thumb. He's an accomplished songwriter, guitar teacher, and has his own signature guitar models and effects pedals.

To boil his skills down to just that would be a travesty, though. Mason is recognized for his heavy reliance on a thumbpick and acrylic nails to have an unbelievably consistent and even tone with a precise and fast attack on the strings. He's won countless 'guitarist of the year' awards as well as 'musician of the year.' Pretty much any hit country song had Mason playing on it. He's a renowned studio musician discovered by Chet Atkins (also on this list). #10 - Brent Mason Top Strength: Thumbpicking & Chicken Pickingīrent Mason has played on over 1,000 albums for all of the top country stars and in other genres. Without further ado, let's jump into the list of the top 10 best guitarists of all time. That lets you know how much the general populous cares about skill. Interestingly, only one of these fine players is one of the richest guitarists in the world. And of course at the end we give honorable mentions to the other greats (plus some shoutouts). We also include a few runners up that are very close to taking a top spot and may already have in your mind. The following are without a doubt the top guitarists to have ever picked a string. Nobody wants to be bombarded with 32nd notes during a ballad. Nobody likes the player that bumps up his volume knob and tries to shred non-stop. What matters is all of this in the right context, which signals maturity. Some want to see the fundamentals mastered while others others think if you aren't using jazz music theory you aren't even in the same playing field as the greats. Some people like shredding while others like slower and more melodic playing. Every rock fan, let alone guitar players around the world, have this argument at least once a month, and that's 'who are the best guitarists of all time?' The problem is everybody has preferences and different definitions as to which skills are the best to have.

Tim and eric midi jam