Build Your Own Clone Message Board

(This thread was originally titled: "Who Are the Best Guitarists of the 21st Century?")

Inspired by the "It Might Get Loud" thread.

Who will go down in the history books as the great rock guitar players of 2000 - 2015?

So, not who is the most technical, not looking for some freak of nature that no one has ever heard of. Who is the Jimi Hendrix or Eddie Van Halen, or Jimmy Page of the 2000's?

If I asked for the 60's, we could probably agree on: Page or Clapton or Hendrix

70's: Page or Townsend, maybe Santana

80's: Eddie Van Halen, The Edge

90's: Mark Tremonti???, Joe Satriani???

But for the last 12 years, who's the best / most popular guitarists? I really have no clue. What do you think?

I'd certainly put Joe Bonamassa right up there.

Ron Thal/Bumblefoot

But these aren't exactly household names like Hendrix or Clapton (or maybe I'm just getting old).

Hendrix
Clapton
Page
Santana
Van Halen
The Edge

After that, I'm coming up blank for great / hugely popular guitarists of the last 15 or so years that the average Joe on the street corner could name. I don't know, maybe that's not necessarily a bad thing, just seems sort of odd. We could all name the best quarterbacks of the 1980s, 90s, and 2000s, but I'm still coming up blank on the hugely popular guitarist of the 2000s.

Derek Trucks, Warren Haynes and Robben Ford.

I'd give both my nuts to play like any one of them.

Tom Morello. Started in the 90's, but def had some great work post Y2K.

The title you gave this thread is "Who Are the BEST Guitarists of the 21st Century?", not the most popular or best known....

Guthrie Govan, period!

It does it all, shreds, blue, jazz, funk, always have a great feel and sound, he's a really cool dude to talk with, had a chat with him when he came in Montreal with The Aristocrats.

And his playing technique is just flawless.

imo

Agree that he's a hell of a player....

That also brings BucketHead to my mind....The Giant Robots album was perfect!

I'll go with who I find my favorite guitarists whose bulk of work has been in the years 2000-2012 or have done a significant amount of great stuff in the new millenium......

Nels Cline - Wilco
Matt Bellamy - Muse
Matt Pike - Sleeper/High On Fire (You metal guys will dig him)
Dave Knudson - Minus the Bear/Botch
J Mascis - Dinosaur Jr (Still doing it!)

I am sure there is more, but I need to go to lunch.....

Fair enough. I'll change the title of the thread.

I guess what I'm looking for is who will the teens these day say was their Hendrix or Clapton or Van Halen?

I was looking at lists on the internet of top rock albums of the 2000's and the White Stripes are on there, along with Coldplay, and Radiohead, each with multiple albums on the list. But Coldplay and Radiohead certainly don't jump out at me as awesome guitar rock.

Maybe cool guitar licks are just a thing of the past?

has to be matt bellamy

Wikipedia says this of him:
In the January 2010 edition of Total Guitar, Bellamy was named "Guitarist of the Decade" and was proclaimed to be "the Hendrix of his generation".

So, I guess you answered my question. Thanks.

I don't really listen to Muse, and listening now on spotify, I'm having a hard time picking out any distinctive guitars. Can you recommend any great Muse guitar songs? What's his "Purple Haze" or "Stairway to Heaven"?

This guy blows me away - was just listening to MTB this morning. Never heard of Botch, though.. I'll have to check them out.

Scott C, I can't really think of any guitarists from the last decade that would qualify as the "modern day rock god". But then again, I may not be up on what all the cool kids are listening to either. I'm not sure why Bellamy would be named "Guitarist of the Decade", because yeah, Muse isn't all that guitar-heavy, and when they are, it's not particularly innovative or mind-blowing. Perhaps there just aren't many other choices right now.

Botch was way ahead of everyone incl Dillinger escape plan up til 02 when they broke up.
One of my all time favorite bands, no matter genre.

I have no business weighing in here, as I'm not much of a connoisseur of lead guitarists, but that Jon5 has some impressive technique. Feel free to throw things at me now

Honestly, I think the issue is just the sign of the times. What made Hendrix, Page, Van Halen, Clapton, Rhoads, etc, so god-like was the combination of cult-like loyalty and icon-like mystery. It was as much about the playing as it was about the status they had. If you wanted to hear Jimi play you had 2 choices…….buy the annual album to listen to one version of the song over 200 times or wait patiently go see him in concert (and Jimi died early, so even that was a limited run).

Now, I can go on youtube and watch any of my favorite guitar players play their masterpiece 50 different times from different concerts, talk shows and award shows. The hyped, “bigger than life” rush of seeing Jimi perform “Are You Experienced” or VH “Eruption” was something that was limited. Before the advent of technology (including the reissue rush of the late 80s), if you were lucky, you may only get to hear a different version of “Crazy Train” performed by Rhoads himself 2 or 3 times in your (and his) life. It was a f*cking epic event to hear Page play “Kasmir”. Now, you can see 40 different versions while working at your desk on a Tuesday afternoon.

As cool as Richards, Young, Frehley, Cobain, Slash, etc were, they were exalted due to the mystery surrounding the person AND the playing. Yes, to different people the playing has stood the test of time, but clearly as you look back you realize these guys were as much “Rock Gods” as they were “Guitar Gods”.

And remember, we didn’t know HOW these guys did it. We didn’t have pics of the pedalboards on the internet or video lessons on Youtube. Hell, now you have Clapton, Jimis or Satriani’s own pedal that has all the sounds they ues(d) included. I think even the guy from Stain’d has his own pedal…..

I honestly think there are plenty of players doing cool, technically interesting stuff and pushing the tone envelope now, too. I think we are just underwhelmed by the saturation of these guys as compared to the earlier guys. The increased accessibility of guitar player’s music has made many grow indifferent.

When Michael Jackson died, I thought about the fact that mainstream music had lost one of it’s four last icons, with the Prince, Bruce and Madonna being the other three. They were/are icons because they started their popularity in a time when music was epic. Yes, Michael, was popular before it, but when Thriller was released, we didn’t know much about it before it came out and then bam….Epic! Moonwalking on live TV…..Epic! Prince…Purple Rain and the movie…Epic! Bruce…..Born In The USA….Epic! Madonna…..Like A Prayer and performing Like A Virgin while writhing on the floor…both Epic! Not saying these are their best works, but they had that air of just smashing society over the head SUDDENLY. We don’t have that anymore…..we see pics of guys walking out of the studio with their wives or get leaked tracks of the album or six months of talk show promotion before the album comes out.

It is just not the same any more.

So to answer your question....Who Is the Hendrix or Van Halen of the 2000's? NOBODY.

Ok given the mystique and larger than life presence thing, yeah it ain't the same anymore.


Just cause he's a tool doesn't mean he's not a fantastic guitar player. Look at John Mayer. Total d'bag on paper, but can play a hell of a six string.

a big +1 to Joe Bonamassa

Once again getting no credit is who I feel is one of the all time greats, def tops of the 90s, and also still doing it - Mike McCready (Pearl Jam)

In my support of Guthrie Govan «canditature», here's a vid i took when i saw him live!

Robert Randolph. Like Jimi and Eddie, no one sounds like him. No one has ever played a guitar like him. Unique, amazing live show, stage presence, charisma and tone for years. In my mind they are the same reasons we were all blown away by the original guitar heroes, they were the first to do what they did.

Hell yeah Robert Randolph!!! "live at the wetlands' is fantastic.

As one of the very few blues cats on here I would challenge the notion there are no guitar gods. But this thread is sort who is your favorite band/artist kind of thing which is a different discussion altogether. Lord knows household name and popularity doesn't equate to best that is for darn sure.

But my disclaimer is I don't pay much attention to "popular" music so what do I know.

Hendrix was one of a kind. A class unto himself.

I'll still put Derek Trucks up against any one of the guitarists you can name.

Yeah - basically exactly what dcountry said. It won't happen again, ever, and there's little sense looking for it - nor do I think there would be anything good about having big luminaries like that back on the guitar scene again.

But ... yeah Bellamy is the most impressive player I've seen live in the 2000's ... ridiculous - and I hate Muse, for the most part. I saw Robert Randolph open for the Black Crowes once - which was nice because I nodded off during his set and I needed the rest. I don't see Bonamassa being the guy either - he's just so ... the same. I don't know who's playing down at The Thunderbird Cafe this weekend, but I guarantee there is someone as good as Bonamassa playing there. Guaranteed - great blues players are everywhere these days. I'd put Jack White on the list, I suppose - he's probably the guy most recognized as a 2000's guitar hero, right? Nevermind that there are dozens of metal bands in every city with guitar players that would blow the doors off of most of history's greats - some of those guys are just ridiculous!!!

I think this is a question without an answer.

I think that it's not just about the skills, but what the musician bring to the evolution of music itself... with that said, Bellamy is sure a good contender aswell Morello, who probably made Bellamy become what he is at a certain point...

Some of my favorite axeman are far from being technique genius, but they just have a vibe that no one have, like the Tool guy...what's his name....lol

For the metal shredders, there's one guy standing out at the moment and I think that it's Tosin Abasi...that guy is just fabulous to hear...

Eric Johnson continues to amaze and astound me.