Even Jeff Beck acknowledges that to this day no one has surpassed Django at playing from the heart with the greatest degree of skill.  And he did this with only two working fingers (and the occasional thumb) on his left hand to fret with!

Guitar spotlight: My Gitane D-500 replica by Saga.

Beck continues to be an innovator.  He has moved through fusion, blues, classic rock, pop, and even loop-driven electronica lately.  His latest album is better than much of his earlier material.  There aren't that many guitarists who can continue to be original.  Even David Gilmour says Jeff Beck is his favorite guitarist.  I don't know who could give a higher recommendation than that.

EVH is undeniably one of the most inventive guitarists and individuals on the planet.  Any single innovation Eddie had a hand in creating or popularizing had such a tremendous effect that it would have been remarked upon throughout his career.  But Eddie has quite a history.  Consider the following.

• Tapping.  Eddie certainly wasn't the first to do this, but he was the first to employ this technique the most imaginatively and consistently across his work, inspiring heavy metal guitarists for the next decade and beyond.

• The Floyd Rose.  He didn't invent it, but Eddie was an early adopter of this tremolo system, and he used it to great effect, easily pushing it to extremes beyond anything most players out there would have considered before he set the example.  Also, rather than using a floating tremolo, Eddie has almost always used a flush-mounted version on all his guitars; it can dive-bomb but cannot be pulled back

• Guitar building.  Eddie always did things his own way.  Countless guitars marketed by Kramer and their imitators were influenced by his unique one pickup design.  Further, Eddie's penchant for striping his axes resulted in a similar run of recreations among guitar makers... at least until Eddie's lawyers set them straight.

• Electronics.  In addition to playing a role in building, designing, and rebuilding various pickups, Eddie also modified his amp, including adding a VARIAC to change the properties of his equipment and to get the sounds he sought.

• The D-Tuna.  This is Eddie's latest creation.  A major drawback of the Floyd Rose tremolo was that even a simple drop-D tuning could not be achieved without an Allen wrench.  This device gets around that by dramatically extending the range of the fine tuner on the low E string such that it can drop a full step.

Guitar spotlight: My customized Frankenstrat replica.  I also built a 5150 out of a Kramer years ago, but have since sold it since I already had the Frankenstrat and didn't need another single pickup guitar.

He has also demonstrated a skill for experimentation in searching out interesting gear.   Decades after building his trademark "Blackie" from the parts of "seconds" (guitars considered inferior), Clapton popularized Lace Sensor pickups and on-board pre-amps in his signature model Stratocaster that recreated his famous ax.

Clapton is the ultimate blues player.  There's just no question about it.  He simply is the best.  Unfortunately, he rarely shows the full extent of his abilities.  Some of his best recordings (see above) were back-up performances in the shadow of other artists.  He's just quirky that way, but humility always earns points with me.  So does opening a rehab center to help other recovering addicts.

Guitar spotlight: My black Strat, a take on Clapton's signature strat with all the same hardware plus a few tricks up its sleeves!

Setzer tried a brief stint in country music next, but his songs failed to showcase his capabilities with a guitar.  Then he somehow he literally wandered into a group of swing musicians and found that things clicked.  Since the formation of the Brian Setzer Orchestra he has gotten even better, even if the songs are sometimes sappier.  In recent years, Brian has put the Orchestra on hold and he has been rocking out as a solo performer again.  Most recently, the re-united Stray Cats have been out touring.  Who knows what's next?

Guitar spotlight: My Gretsch 6120 1960 reissue.  Essentially the same as Brian's signature model minus the expensive extras.  (He has three actual 1960 Gretsches of his own.)

Guitar spotlight: My red Strat.  Features Gilmour's EMG pickups, pre-amps, and much of the vintage look of his own axe.

Signature guitar: vintage sunburst Fender Stratocaster

Bands: Solo... always
 

Must Hear Recordings

Cliffs of Dover Trademark SRV

I was fortunate enough to see Eric Johnson live at a relatively small club when I was an undergrad.  I think about 90% of the guys in the audience were fellow guitarists because everyone just stood there with an unbreakable focus on Eric's left hand.  No one moved as he worked through an extended opening to Cliffs of Dover.  We all knew what was coming next and we definitely wanted to figure out how the hell he could play like that!

Eric's style is built around a number of unconventional techniques.  For example, he's famous for "string skipping," a conscious bounding across the fretboard instead of the usual scale runs.  Of course, he can do those too.  In fact, Ah Via Musicom is like traveling across the history of guitar music.  Pieces like Song for George take you way back, whereas Steve's Boogie brings you to closer to the present, and then tracks like Trademark are from a genetically enhanced future where everyone has extra fingers and lightning reflexes.

Signature guitar:  signature polka dot Fender Stratocaster

Bands: Solo... always
 

Must Hear Recordings:

Long Way From Home (from the SRV tribute album) Title track from Damn Right I Got the Blues

Buddy has amazing energy, yet can be incredibly laid back.  Consider the two tracks above.  On "Long Way," he takes a machine gun SRV track and brings it down to super cool.  Then he plays "Damn Right" like he's going to kill his guitar, and you're next on his list.

But Buddy has a sense of humor too.  At the close of the SRV Tribute concert some years back, there was an extended blues jam that had the performers each wrap up the piece with a signature lick.  Robert Cray played the usual minor pentatonic lick.  Bonnie Rait ran her bottleneck slide around something sort of bluesy.  The Buddy let out a chicken-scratch rendition of Mary Had a Little Lamb.  The audience went nuts.  Even Eric Clapton acknowledges Buddy Guy as "the greatest living blues player."

Guitar spotlight: My customized Les Paul.  Features all the crazy wiring of Jimmy's signature model and more (i.e., series/parallel switching, phase switching, coil taps, etc. plus a bit more).

Reeves is probably the most unconventional player on this list.  While he is capable of playing traditional rock and roll (see Tin Machine, for example), Gabrels has moved steadily toward abstraction like no one since perhaps Robert Fripp.  The first time I saw him was during his time with Tin Machine on a SNL performance.  That was also the first time I ever saw a Steinberger guitar (ever the innovator, Gabrels now plays a Parker).  I had never seen such wild playing before.  He demonstrated the extremes to which a Steinberger can be pushed.

Playing aside, Gabrels is also a very well-read and all-around intelligent guy.  He used to write a column in Guitar for the Practicing Musician magazine that went well beyond presenting interesting scales and alternate chord inversions.  His articles focused on ways to be different, to reconceptualize the guitar, and he often did this through analogies unrelated to music.  This was quite a departure from the style and content of the other columnists in GFTPM, and it was vastly more instructive.  If you can get a copy of these, they are definitely worth the price of the issue.

Guitar spotlight: My customized Steinberger.  A very, very cool guitar with a few extras you probably haven't seen elsewhere.

Signature guitar: Number One sunburst (what was left of the finish) Stratocaster with gold hardware including a left-handed tremolo (according to his guitar tech who built it, he wanted gold hardware and all that was available for the trem was a leftie!)
 

Bands

SRV and Double Trouble with David Bowie on Let's Dance

Must Hear Recordings

Little Wing Voodoo Chile

Must See Performance: On Austin City Limits (frequently re-run on PBS during pledge drives)

Unfortunately, and this is just my opinion (and an unpopular one at that), I feel like on a lot of recordings he's too drunk or stoned or whatever to produce great music.  Granted, he's a great guitarist, head and shoulders above just about anyone playing the blues, but you can see where some performances are clearly below what he demonstrated he was capable of delivering.

However, when you see some of the live material, it's amazing what he was able to do with (and to) that instrument.  The simultaneous rhythm and lead playing is uncanny.  He was two guitarists in one.

Personal note: Charlie's Guitar Shop (featured on SRV's t-shirt in the photo above) is right near me in Dallas.  Very nice place!  I've been there a few times and even bought some of my first push-pull pots from them some years ago.  They have a huge blow-up of this photo framed on the wall next to the front door.

Vai is anything but afraid of guitar effects, and Passion & Warfare is guitar rock what Star Wars was to science fiction.  He is very showy, but he knows how to employ big sounds.

In a few words....

• B.B. King -  Who needs chords?

• Joe Satriani -  Who needs hair?

• Brian May -  Versatile and the master of guitar orchestration.

• Kirk Hammett -  Faster and more intense.

• Zack Wylde -  Not bad.

• Randy Rhoades -  Amazing.

• The Edge -  Great songs and an inventive player.

• Carlos Santana -  A living legend.

• Jimi Hendrix -  A dead one.

• Slash -  Underrated.

• Jake E. Lee -  Even more underrated.

• Allan Holdsworth -  Channeled dissonance.