I'm ashamed to say that I don't really have one.... If pushed, I guess I would say Hendrix. But I find it difficult to know who's a 'genius' and who isn't. I'm happy to hear a few power chords as long as they sound good.

So, for the guitar players out there (and others), who do you reckon is the VERY best? And is this person your favourite?

Sorry, I just checked... I'm getting completley muddled, like I said I haven't seen it for a while! I thought Penn played Reinhardt, but I realise he played Emmett Ray.

i don't use to pay too much attetion on the instruments , well i do , but theres persons who take more attention to it than the whole song
you know i m not gonna like a song because it has the fastest solo you ever heard
i just like the melody , simple ... and then you can had a good solo , that gives you a great feeling
Like the Beatles , they were not the best players around but they did one of the best bands ever , if not the best one
or
like Clapton or Hendrix

not the way that some metal bands do


i must say that i love Keith Richards playing but i think that i don't have a favourite
i love Clapton because ,seems that the guitar speaks for him , seems so easy when he play it , so honest ...
and theres Hendrix , the power


but im not very good on these themes ... i don't know that many guitar players

There are probably dozens of incredible virtuoso players in Brasil that we've never heard of.

theres a lot of incredibles players in Brazil , at least i like them
Chico Buarque , Caetano Veloso , Gilberto Gil .....

i saw Gilberto Gil live and it was great , Caetano Veloso played a concert last week in my city but 35€ so i could not go ... i have to have money for my holidays

oh and of course if it counts
Carlos Paredes , the portuguese guitar player

Nobody is going to agree on this one, but mine is Lou Reed - well, Lou is my favourite anything.
I once asked God if I could be Lou for a week, but got turned down .

Why Lou Reed?

- I heard her call my name
- Sweet Jane - best 3 chord progression ever
- Metal Machine Music - nobody else ever did an all-guitar album like that!
- The Blue Mask
- The Room (B-side to the 'Romeo had Julliette single')
- Forever changed (well, anything from 'Songs for Drella' is spectacular)
- What's good
- Riptide
- Ecstasy - live versions since 2003
- The Stone Issue 3: w/ John Zorn & Laurie Anderson
- Men of good fortune - live during any of the Berlin song cycle

"He is one of the true geniuses of the guitar. I suppose he is a musician's musician. His knowledge of the instrument and the music is so vast, and I think that's what knocks people out about him. But he's such a tasty player too. I think if Chopin had played guitar, he would have sounded like Lenny Breau." -Chet Atkins

"Lenny Breau played more great stuff at one time than anybody on the planet... with feeling and tone. He was the best that ever lived, bar none." - Danny Gatton

The guitar has, for various reasons, been the most popular instrument in the US for over a couple hundred years now. Unlike other stringed instruments like the violin or cello, it is fretted and easy to learn the fundamentals which will pretty quickly allow you to amuse yourself and not annoy those around you. Unlike the piano, it is portable and relatively easy to haul around with you. Unlike brass and reed instruments, you can play and sing along at the same time. The great acoustic guitarist Leo Kottke was asked just what it is about the guitar that makes it so unique and he explained that there is no other instrument on which the most casual player can suddenly stumble upon some odd combination of right and left hand technique that’s both interesting and never been done before. That’s a big part of the fascination as well.

I have a number of friends who teach guitar both here in Indianapolis and around the country and they have students who run the gamut from 12 year olds who want to sound like Eddie Van Halen to corporate attorneys who want to play jazz standards (or vice versa). I have spent hours on occasion in friendly arguments over which names belong on the list of the truly great guitar players. The early innovators in various styles like Segovia (who single handedly took the guitar from the gutter to the concert halls), Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian (and Carl Kress and George Barnes for that matter) who invented the single-note lead lines that have dominated guitar music forever. There is no one playing electric guitar in a rock context who doesn’t owe a debt to Jimi Hendrix. My own list would add names like Wes Montgomery, Larry Coryell, Joe Pass, Michael Bloomfield, Duane Allman, Jerry Garcia, Carlos Santana, Danny Gatton, Roy Buchanan, Davy Graham, Ralph Towner, Robbie Basho, Michael Hedges, and, if I don’t just pick this as an arbitrary stopping point, the rest of this post will be comprised of nothing but names and commas.

While I certainly listen to as many guitarists as I can – just this morning I’ve listened to records by Attila Zoller, Peter Finger, Chris Proctor, John Fahey, and Gene Bertoncini while I’ve been working on this – I have never hesitated when I’ve been asked “Who’s the best guitar player you’ve ever heard?”

While often referred to as a Canadian guitarist, Lenny Breau was born August 5, 1941 in Auburn, Maine. His parents, Hal "Lone Pine" Breau and Betty Cody were country and western performers who were active together as a live and recording act from the mid 1940's to the late 1950's. In 1957 the family moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba in Canada and formed a band to perform regularly on CKY Radio's live broadcast of the show “Caravan.” The majority of Lenny’s career was in the jazz clubs of Toronto, Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Vancouver. Like the two other players who might well be the answer to this question if Lenny had never been born, Joe Pass and Michael Bloomfield, Lenny also struggled with heroin addiction for a long portion of his adult life. The last period of Lenny's life (1981-84) was spent primarily teaching and playing in Los Angeles where, on August 12, 1984, he was found dead in the swimming pool of his apartment complex. Although his death was originally thought to be an accidental drowning, the Los Angeles Coroner report determined that Lenny had been strangled. The case remains unsolved to this date.

Lenny Breau’s discography is pretty varied and, as with Art Tatum and Joe Pass, I find the non-group recordings the most rewarding. The style that Lenny developed involved using the guitar as a polyphonic instrument. This is what classical players do, where the bass, middle and treble strings represent different sections of the orchestra. Lenny was able to play a complex bass line, play complex chords on top of that, and add fluid single note solos on top of that, all done in real time with no special effects. There are two CDs I’ll specifically recommend as the best places to begin if you’d like to explore the music of Lenny Breau. Cabin Fever is a solo album on the Guitarchives label (owned by B.T.O. guitarist, Randy Bachman). Lenny’s friend, Glen McDonald, bailed a despondent Lenny out of jail and took him to a cabin deep in the Canadian forest. The cabin had no electricity or running water; McDonald brought a small reel-to-reel recorder and a gasoline-powered generator and left Lenny there with a borrowed Ramirez classical guitar. If you turn the lights down when you listen it can be like having Lenny in the room with you; as intimate a recording as any I’ve ever heard.

The other CD is a double-disc set, Live at Bourbon Street, which pairs Lenny with bassist Dave Young at a Toronto jazz club. This features Lenny performing with his custom 7-string electric Kirk Sand guitar. Unlike other 7-string players, Lenny adds an extra high string rather than extending the bass. These 17 tracks recorded on June 14th, 1983, are the most impressive guitar music I think I have ever encountered and, as with most great art, every time I return to this I come away with new observations. Other players have picked up the torch of Lenny Breau’s phenomenal style. I’d heartily recommend the series of “Beatling” CDs by Steven King on which he plays solo acoustic arrangements of Beatles’ tunes with a skill that borders on the frightening. Bay-area Blue Note recording artist, Charlie Hunter, has taken the bass/treble approach to new places with a hybrid instrument that combines bass and guitar strings. Regardless of technical innovations and all sorts of contemporary flash however, "Lenny Breau" remains my answer to the question, “So, who’s the best guitar player ever?”

If I had to choose one that I could take into a debate and defend my choice, I think I'd make it Danny Gatton.

But my listening habits these days are showing a clear preference for Django Reinhardt and Dave Ray.

I have no idea who is/was the best, but I damn sure know my favorite and that is Jerry Garica.