25 Favourite All-Time Inspirational Guitar Heroes

The Police were pretty much constantly in my life from second album 'Regatta De Blanc' through to their final 5th album 'Synchronicity'. The combination of 3 virtuosos in the form of Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland set the template for many bands to come including Muse. Obviously Andy was a great user of Delay, Flanger and Chorus - and the band really had a unique signature style which covered so many bases - including sort of dub and ska elements even - but wholly in their distinctly unique manner. For just a 5 album run - The Police produced an extraordinary legacy which lasted just 5 or 6 years of active duty but still resonates today - as can be seen by the enduring popularity of 'Every Breath you Take'.

My first exposure to St Vincent was 2009's 'Marrow' while I didn't get fully onboard until the follow-up album 'Strange Mercy'. My favourite of hers is still probably 2014's eponymous album. She's well known for a slightly discordant style - with often quite aggressive fuzz lines - usually courtesy of Zvex Fuzz Factory and Mastotron pedals. Some people really don't like some of her more avant-garde live shows - while I feel this is pretty perfect Art-Rock - significantly inspired by Prince and Talking Heads, but with Anne Clarke's very unique melodic structures - which often have deliberately jarring and semi-grating elements. I feel she's really talented and I admire her constant experimentation and evolution. For those that don't yet like her - she's probably just a little too much ahead of the curve for you - I don't believe she's created a totally classic album yet - but that's certainly due fairly imminently now surely. When she did the Grammy Show Prince Controversy tribute I really understood just how much she had been influenced by Prince!

I'm still heavily into my Billy Gibbons phase - looking for that perfect Expandora sound, and hoping Decibelics Guillem Villademunt delivers the goods again with his forthcoming 'The Reverend' pedal - inspired by this great artist. Wonderful tone and touch - and a really cool rhythm guitar style. Another power trio for sure - I seem to be a fan of a lot of those. I was actually exposed to the Eliminator album first - mostly courtesy of killer MTV videos - while I then explored backwards to La Grange - which is surely the origination point for this particular tone chasing experience. I've got lots of pedals which get me really close to Billy - but I'm not sure I've got the perfect one yet - hopefully that will turn up soon enough!

I feel Queen has been in my life really from the start - or at least from when I was old enough to properly experience and enjoy music - which I guess was from 7 up really. Their 1981 Greatest Hits compilation was particularly formative and in heavy rotation for a number of years - including several vacation tours into Europe back in those days. I've always had a 'Brian May' pedal in my chain - that beautifully harmonic and saturating Top-Boosted Vox Sound. I still very much would like a proper Red Special guitar at some stage - while it sort of conflicts with my pedal platform dynamics where the guitar has to be full-frequency yet, but sort of neutral too - so that you can turn it to near enough any task. In any case that combination of Red Special and Vox AC30 sounds pretty magical!

The King of Smooth and Soulful - Carlos really won me over with Samba Pa Ti - while I was also exposed to the 1969 Woodstock footage fairly early on. I guess Carlos was also the one who turned me onto PRS Guitars first. Still as emotionally impacting to this very day - in particular Samba Pa Ti and Europa - two songs I regularly attempt to play - with varying success. I have so many favourites and so quickly move onto the next thing - that I often don't have sufficient time really to absorb and work on any one particular artist.

There's a lot of John Mayer fans out there - while my own John Mayer is Chris Buck - who has the most delicate and sensitive touch - he glides across the fretboard with the most elegant of styles - always tasteful and subtle - yet always the right musical touch. There's something really special in Chris's touch and he sounds just as incredible on modelling amps as on fully cooking tube amps. And while his style is mostly tasteful and elegant - he has enough musical vocabulary to notch things up to more crunchy and raunchy. He's several times been voted as the people's favourite blues player - and while I don't necessarily fully appreciate all of Chris's Bands' output - there are still several songs in their catalogue I really love - including the. two featured here. Chris is already great - while I believe his best days are still to come!

My first exposure to Pink Floyd wasn't until album no. 11 - 'The Wall' - I then tracked back to 'Dark Side of the Moon' and took in 'Wish You Were Here' and 'Animals' along the way - where that block of 4 albums largely makes up my Pink Floyd and David Gilmour experience - I've dipped my toes in some of the other albums - including some of the weirdly experimental early albums with variable returns. Still plenty of greatness to get stuck into - and 4 highly influential pedal brands all connected to the David Gilmour sound - Pete Cornish, Buffalo FX, PastFX, and Vick Audio! I certainly have no shortage of classic Gilmourish pedals!

I of course did a major piece on Eddie when he passed a couple of years back. He was one of my original 3 OG guitar heroes who got me into this whole guitar thing - alongside Ian Crichton and Brian May. Eddie is the Rhythm King and King of Sizzle! His core tone just sounds amazing - possibly my favourite guitar tone of all time - and he had the chops to do it all. And while he didn't invent finger-tapping he surely took that to new heights. So many songs from the Van Halen back catalogue are my absolute favourites - and his rhythm work really was among the finest of all time - an extraordinary talent for sure - and even more so considering he was so far down the road with playing drums before his brother stole that away from him! Obviously a total natural for guitar - who really pushed that format forward and remains the key role model for so many guitarists still today.

I'm always taken aback by those who belittle the Edge's talents - which seems to be all too many an occurrence. While David Howell Evans is one of the genuine pioneers of this discipline and a consummate tone master. His expertise with delay pedals set new standards - and of course his 'Where the Streets Have No Name' is still a benchmark and masterclass in that area. But he's far from a one trick pony - taking myriad guitars, amps and effects with him on tour every time. His technical prowess is largely unmatched and he has evolved a plethora of different classic stadium rock tones over the years. He is for sure very much still a major inspiration for me - and I'm well known to bash out some of those early hits - New Years Day, Pride and Sunday Bloody Sunday in particular!

So it was Ian who was the very first inspiration for me to pick up guitar - mostly on the back of that classic 1982 live album 'Saga In Transit'. Saga was the ultimate progressive rock band for me in those early formative years - with those duelling keyboard plus guitar solos - just the pinnacle of a tight band and with each member very much a virtuoso. Weirdly has has never had a proper signature guitar that I'm aware of - largely playing stock Music Man Silhouettes as his favourite type of guitar. And he uses no pedals famously - just his killer Diezel Herbert amp and those magical fingers. Again - a great tone master with superb timing and magnificent phrasing and fretboard runs. Everything he does is just magical and looks wholly instinctive and effortless while a number of those runs are incredibly tricky to achieve. 'On The Loose', 'Humble Stance' and 'Wind Him Up' remain massive favourites of mine still to this day - and I truly wonder how Saga didn't get to be as big as they deserved to be at the time.

There's not much more to say about Jimi that hasn't been said already. Surely the all-time leading inspiration for the electric guitar art. He largely pioneered the use of effects pedals - with the various classic fuzzes - Fuzz Faces and Octavias in particular, but also use of Wah and Uni-Vibe. And such a masterful stage presence and showmanship - everything about Jimi was great and his influence is still pervasive - he has to be the greatest guitar hero of all-time! 

Weirdly I came to Led Zeppelin much later in life - via hits Black Dog, Kashmir, Immigrant Song and Whole Lotta Love in particular. I've always admired Jimmy's use and mastery of fuzzes. Where he remains one of the few to have made the most out of all the key varieties of Tone Bender - MKI, MKII and MKIII. Again a mastery of technique and virtuosity and one of the greatest riff-makers of all time. I'm less familiar with Jimmy's early days in the Yardbirds - while the Led Zeppelin phase was truly killer. Fascinated too by ho much of the 1970\s rock sound was founded on fuzz pedals! A lot of people profess not to like fuzz - but still love Led Zeppelin - which is one of the quintessential tent poles in the history of rock!

I believe it was Pete Thorn who first introduced me to the delights of Brazilian Lari Basilio - she was using quite a bit of Suhr gear back in those days, while nowadays she is very much artist in residence at Ibanez - with her own signature model there. I always imagine Lari as a great session player as she has such incredible chops and can pretty much turn her hand to any style. She's an incredibly talented guitarist who is at peak technical prowess - but doesn't quite yet have the killer songs really to do her reputation full justice. She just needs a few key signature songs now really to secure her long-term legacy. She is for sure one of the chameleons of the guitar art - yet still has her own identifiable style!

I can't recall which was the first Dire Straits album I was fully exposed to (courtesy of brother Petur) - Making Movies or Love Over Gold for sure - while the most influential Mark Knopfler track for me is still the Terry Williams on drums assisted Live Alchemy Tour version of Sultans of Swing. That and Brothers in Arms are the perfect encapsulation of Dire Straits for me - possibly throw Money for Nothing into the mix too for the ultimate short-hand sample for that band. Mark's expressive finger-play is a wonder of the guitar art - and his delicate touch and tasteful flourishes are really best exemplified by Brothers in Arms. For classical guitar players Mark Knopfler is typically their ultimate 'modern' idol - another brilliant technician with a deft touch for emotive and enduringly resonating melodies.

It's nice to see / hear that Muse are back on killer form with their latest Won't Stand Down single - which bodes for a major return to form for their forthcoming album after a couple of middling efforts - and they've finally managed to combine the best of their heavy tones with the more recent electronic direction. Matt's mastery of the modern guitar art is almost unparalleled - with custom Manson guitars featuring onboard Korg Chaos Pads and Zvex Fuzz Factory even - Matt is a virtuoso with Voice, Guitar and Piano - which despite various classical influences - Matt is actually not classically trained at all - but has amazing skills in playing by ear. When Muse are on form they're typically my favourites of all bands - and particularly in a live setting!

My three favourite all-time artists are Prince, Bowie and Björk - in that order. And Mick 'Ronno' Ronson was a key marker for the most formative early Bowie years and central to those Ziggy Stardust classics. Still to this day his tone was a really unique combination of MKI Tone Bender and Cocked Wah - via Les Paul and Marshall amp. No one quite sounded like Ronno back in the day and no one really does nowadays either. He doesn't always get proper credit - and it was kind of sad to see Bowie toss the Spiders of Mars aside after moulding them into such a killer band. I always feel Ronno was poorly treated and that Bowie could have reached even greater heights earlier on if he had persisted with the band - there was no need to throw the baby out with the bath water - surely the band could adapt and change in step with David. Mick still had a decent career after Bowie - but he never quite ascended back to that level of popularity and universal acclaim.

I have attended a couple of Paul's workshops and he's the most charming nicest guy with the most amazing chops and incredible song library in his head - he can pretty much play any song from memory - including vast tracts of The Beatles catalogue. His incredibly long fingers allow him to straddle the fretboard like no other. His Fireman guitar is actually quite large - but looks diminutive in his hands. I don't think anyone has as big a reach as Paul - and few are as dextrous - he is lightening quick up and down the fretboard. My favourite part of his career was the early Racer X days - while I don't feel he's quite had the career he deserves. If I were to pick a favourite all-time guitar teacher - it would probably be between Paul and Tim Pierce!

My favourite artist, stage performer and showman long before I got to the depths of this guitar prowess. In fact Prince's secrecy and lack of YouTube coverage really limited my exposure to his guitar virtuosity until after his passing - when all that treasure trove of footage was finally unleashed onto YouTube. The high watermark is of course is soloing on George Harrison's Hall of Fame Tribute - while there are plenty of other essential live footage clips which showcase his amazing talents. This guy was influenced by Chuck Berry, Hendrix and James Brown - but he was still every bit the original. A virtuoso on 27 instruments - he played and recorded the entirety of his first few albums - his dance style was entirely his own - compared to Michael Jackson who borrowed chunks from Jeff Daniels - including that celebrated moonwalk! In the 80's I really liked Michael Jackson and Madonna - but I truly loved Prince. Prince is everything an artist should be - and even while he grew slightly self-indulgent in later years he still had the knack of reeling out a gem or two. He was an extraordinary talent in every way and we will likely never see his equal again! I had hoped that a Prince heir-apparent would have appeared by now - but there is no one really who covered all the bases quite like Prince Rogers Nelson.

Randy Rhoads was unfortunately one of those artist taken from us well before his time - where he didn't even reach the iconic 27 when his life was cruelly ended in a plane crash. At that time he had just 4 albums under his belt - 2 with his early band Quiet Riot, and two as Ozzy Osbourne's lead axe-man - on Blizzard of Oz and Diary of a Madman. His classically influenced fretboard runs were legendary and he did much to lift the fortunes of Ozzy at the time. His two Blizzard tracks - Mr Crowley and Crazy Train are the high water mark of that manner of classically influenced fretboard runs. He really was an extraordinary player and most likely still had his best to come. There's no saying how lofty his guitar prowess could have become had he not taken that unfortunate sight-seeing detour. I think the lesson is to never get in a small turbo prop plane - there's just too many of those have have come to an unfortunate end. While Randy's legacy still endures - despite his relatively short time of exposure!

Most of my formative exposure to Steve was courtesy of 2 Toto albums - the original 'Toto' (1978) and 80's classic 'Toto 4' - alongside Steve's work on Michael Jackson's Thriller album. The first Toto album was introduced to me by cousin Svala, and that and Toto 4 were in regular repeat rotation for many a year - I fondly recall blasting out Toto 4 while we played table-tennis on our drive-way in one of the best ever summers Iceland has experienced - back in 1982! Like many I really enjoyed the groove and double solo on Rosanna in particular. Obviously Steve is one of the great session players too - another with incredibly deft touches and extraordinary melodic playing.

Steve Stevens for me really is all about those two early Billy Idol albums, solo on Michael Jackson's Dirty Diana - and that theme from Top Gun. When you watch his rig-rundown it's all about how many extraordinary tones get gets out of his rig, and how several parts that most assumed where keyboards and synths - are actually Steve Stevens generated on guitar. He's magnificent even when performing with Billy just on acoustic guitar as recently - those licks are still recognisable, and Steve adds in some incredible textures and flourishes to lift everything to the next level. For me 'Billy Idol' was always at its best as that core duo! Neither has as much impact on their own!

Steve Vai for me is the master of the whammy bar and general guitar pyrotechnics and tricks. I believe his signature Ibanez Jem guitar is the biggest selling signature guitar of modern times - close to the biggest ever - if you discount the Les Paul. I believe my earliest introduction to his talents was on David Lee Roth's Yankee Rose. My two Steve Vai tent poles as such are that first David Lee Roth album 'Eat 'Em and Smile' alongside Steve's now legendary Passion and Warfare sophomore album. I weirdly did not pay too much heed to his starring role in the Ralph Macchio vehicle 'Crossroads' (1986) where Steve famously played both parts of the devil's duel!

I consider Tim Pierce one of the ultimate consummate and professional studio and session players - alongside peers Steve Lukather, Larry Carlton and Tommy Tedesco. Those 4 are my own personal favourites. Tim has worked alongside so many favourite bands and artists - and in particular alongside Meat Loaf and Michael Jackson. Session  Players are an incredible breed - being total chameleons - able to turn to every style, and play solidly in the pocket - delivering tasteful riffs and flourishes. Tim has his own signature sound - but his skill really is as a superior accompanist in filling in all the necessary gaps in the most elegant, musical and interesting way possible - where still totally subservient to the groove. These are the kinds of guys that you can't always put you finger on the magic of their input - but it's so obviously missing when these guys are not involved. Tim is still effortless and enthusiastic after all these years - and is one of the go-to professionals artists rely on to help them sound better both live and on recordings!

Obviously Tom is one of my long term favourites - love his mastery of the wah and whammy and that cool DJ--like scratching sound he does. Lots of really cool tricks and techniques - with excellent signature tones and textures. The Killing in the Name of Solo has been much imitated - including by me!