I wholeheartedly agree with Hendrix revolutionising rock. He was so far ahead of his time, it's insane. And you're right, possibly the greatest frontman of all time (the teeth, behind the back, the sound altering moves with his guitar and amp, his parading sexual dances...)

i agree with everything on shanes list with the exception of Van Halen. to simply lump him in with randy is a gross understatement.....eddie hit in "77. about 6 years before randy did. and his accomplishments eclispse randy's by miles.

:applied the variac to his marshall plexi. (this was revolutionary in amplifier design).but burned out a hell of a lot of tubes along the way..lol...

:popularized the floyd rose trem system(kramer)...took a born in the basement idea and turned it into the industry standard...

:invented the superstrat(complete with one volume knob and a single pickup)..humorously enough,every company out there put a model of this on the market...all because eddie couldn't get the tone knob to work on the original frankenstien...lol....

:designed the kramer ripley guitar complete with an array of built in effects

:popularized and help design the trans trem tremelo(steinberger)....

:he introduced a completely new approach to the instrument(a new kind of shred complete with ferocious speed,hammer ons,moved taps,harmonics and every other bizzaro technique taken for granted by most players today)...it wasn't a mistake that ppl referred to the eighties players as coming from the "school of Van Halen" even randy himself admitted in articles that he copped quite a few of those licks for himself....but back then, everyone did...it was simply unavoidable.

:took a wurlitzer piano and wired it up with pickups and then ran it into a marshal stack and then recorded "the cradle will rock"(yes that rythm IS actually a piano,not a guitar)..

:took the backplate of his strat and actually played the springs on the trem("intruder" the opening to "pretty woman)...

:cut the horn off of a les paul and recorded all the slide licks on "dirty pictures(fair warning)...

:then there's the guitars....the kramer baretta...the ernie ball axis...and the peavy wolfgang...(and now the replicas at a ridiculous $25,000 a pop(are you kidding me))...

:of course on top of everything is the music itself...so many hit songs....very freaking cool riffs....drop D tuning done in completely different ways...the lead work was simply a bonus to the songs....all kinds of alternative tunings(check out Top Jimmy from 1984)....if you go back and listen thru the catalogue, you will hear him touch on so many different styles of guitar
--woman and children first(acoustic slide)
--chicken picken "finish what ya started:
--rock slide "dirty pictures"
--blues "ice cream man" and others
--even jazz" when push comes to shove"
--all kinds of drop D stuff
--a bunch of acoustic stuff
--sitar... the solo on :ain't talkin bout love:(yes there is a sitar in there as well)
--etc,etc.

never satisfied to staying in one mode...his influences will far outweigh randy's...not that i don't like randy...one of my favorite players....it's just that randy's contributions were unfortanatly cut short way too early and i don't view randy as being nearly as well rounded as eddie....or as influental to the extent of eddie....

Just my opinion on some add-ons and why...

I think Yngwie needs to be mentioned in there, as does Satch and Vai as does Cobain. I mean, After Malmsteen, EVERYONE started doing his deal, and to this day, Yngwie's the ONE neoclassical shredder type guy who's always remained true to himself, regardless of his 'style' or direction at the time. Yngwie sounds like Yngwie... And so does every other guy on the shrapnel label, lol...

Satch? He made it so instrumental guitar 'rock' didn't have to be so... Stiff, and lame. The guy rocked it, end of story and sold albums while doing it.

Vai, in my opinion is an example of modern, cutting edge virtuosity, an amalgamation of keen playing chops, and studio prowess. With a tip of the hat to his influences he's forged his own style on his own path which sets the standard for others like him. (Guthrie Govan, Greg Howe, etc)

Cobain reminded us that you don't have to be a guitar god to write cool stuff. He showed us that music isn't about formulas, and wrote and played some great songs. A bit rough around the edges, but oh so good. AND, he sold an album or 2.

Who's our current Page, Beck, Clapton, Hendrix, Van Halen? Hard to say. It depends I think on where music's headed and how it get's crammed down our throat. Much as I hate to say it, music's revolutionary status is about popularity, too. I mean, hey, there were groundbreaking players doing wild stuff at the same time as any of the "greats" it just didn't "catch" on...

The Muse guy has nothing to do with any other guitarist mentioned. Period.

hehehe I don't even know what "Muse" is... I should go find out, I guess...

lol.....Muse...they're not bad. but I don't think the guitarist from that band can be in this list....
yes zombre you're totally right. although yngwie has been playing same scales/licks for more than 20 years I think hes the one of the few ones that stayed true to himself - meaning he is really doing what he loves to do - and many musicians don't do that.

but I think getting a haircut isn't a bad idea for yngwie......

there are bunch of guys who changed rock history....but I have to say hendrix is the one who really changed it...without him there would be no guitar heroes these days - malmsteen, van halen, vai....you name it.

I really wish I could have seen him playing live....too bad I was born after he passed away.....

This is a good conversation! We look to all of these previously mentioned players as inspiration. Perhaps even as a template from which to build our own art. It might also be advantageous to investigate what made our heroes tick. Whether they were influenced by the radio, an old jazzer at a smoky no name club south of Chicago, their grandmother who played cello in a regional orchestra, or whatever. Sometimes just a story of where one of these guys came from is enough to get some creative streams in motion. But, already I've lost sight of the original post. I guess I want to say that the guitarists who have been unquestionably influential might not necessarily be our favorite players. Eddie does rule though.

Frank Zappa people! He showed that it was possible to not play the industry's game, and be successful at it. And that there's more to life than a minor pentatonic over a 4/4. And tha musicians can have serious, well thought out political opinions (not bashing the Maharishi or anything..).

Matt Bellamey doesn't deserve to be on the front cover of Total Guitar