For over three years now I’ve been trying my best to put together an annual list which I cleverly called the 52 series. It started with 52 guitars, followed by 52 amplifiers, 52 pedals and this year’s 52 guitarists. Last year I struggled to keep up with the weekly posts and this year is off to a very bad start as well. I will not go into the details of why, but I sadly need to admit defeat at this stage and recognise that I am not going to be able to further commit to the weekly article series.
The series stops today.
As mentioned in an earlier post, the 52 guitarists list itself had been written, I just needed to write about each entry weekly—something I can no longer do. So, the best I can do is share with you now the entire list as it would have played out during the year. For those who were reading these with me, I thank you for your feedback to date and hope to see you around on Twitter. My Facebook page is going to close down as well—it is also something I can no longer commit to.
I have no idea what this website will become, but it will be updated a lot less frequently for a while until I can dedicate the time this site needs to remain relevant. Hopefully in time I’ll work out a way to get my mojo back.
As the first sixteen articles were already written and posted, I will link to those completed articles below. The rest will just be the names as they were intended on being written. As was stated at the end of each existing article, “This is not a top guitarists list and there is no significance in the order the guitarists are placed in the list. This is simply a collection of guitarists that have been influential to me.”
One thing I will add to that though, is that the final five actually are my top five favourite guitarists. Surprise! To make that easier to understand, I’ll restate that at the end of the page in a traditional top five list format.
52 guitarists
- Ace Frehley
- Eddie Van Halen
- Dave Murray
- Adam Jones
- Wes Borland
- Tommy Emmanuel
- Marty Friedman
- Tony Iommi
- Angus Young
- Kirk Hammett
- Billy Corgan
- Scott Ian
- Daron Malakian
- Brian May
- Prince
- Joe Satriani
- Gary Moore
- Jimi Hendrix
- Mark Knopfler
- Slash
- Dimebag Darrell
- Eric Clapton
- David Gilmour
- Jason Becker
- Tom Morello
- The Edge
- John Petrucci
- Yngwie Malmsteen
- Mark Tremonti
- Michael Angelo Batio
- Orianthi
- Steve Vai
- Kurt Cobain
- Joe Perry
- Ritchie Blackmore
- Billy Gibbons
- Lindsay Buckingham
- James Root
- Jimmy Page
- Jake E Lee
- Jerry Cantrell
- Rob Chapman
- Rob Scallon
- Ryan Bruce
- Ola Englund
- Keith Merrow
- Zakk Wylde
- Dan Donegan
- James Hetfield
- John 5
- Randy Rhoads
- Dave Mustaine
As you can hopefully see, this list is fairly diverse. These guitarists all inspire me in different ways and for different reasons. Once again, this is not a list of the 52 greatest guitarists of all time. I don’t believe in such lists. This is a list of 52 guitarists who mean something to me.
I still wish I could see myself having the time to write all of the articles, explain my reasoning and share all of the video links with you. But these things take time, and that is time I don’t have.
The last five guitarists in that list though … They are my favourite five guitarists. Each for different reasons. As quickly and simply as possible though, the top five with reasons are:
- Dave Mustaine—Quite simply the most metal guitarist I’ve ever heard. This man sings, plays rhythm guitar and lead guitar all while staying true to his metal roots. He is the guitarist I admire more than any other.
- Randy Rhoads—Taken way too early, Randy Rhoads combined melody with metal in ways that still inspire modern day guitarists to do the same.
- John 5—It would be easier to state the things John 5 can’t do … because I can’t think of any. I assume Versatility is John’s middle name.
- James Hetfield—James’ work on Ride The Lightning alone makes him one of my all-time favourite guitarists. The man is metal.
- Dan Donegan—Quite simply one of my favourite riff-masters and most likely one of the most under-rated guitarists out there. As a rhythm guitarist I wish I had half of his technique and accuracy. This is who I’d love to play like consistently.
There you have it. Again, I apologise for my inability to see this through, but the real world is not allowing me to give these articles the time they require and deserve. If you can’t do something right, don’t do it at all. Thanks again for all the positivity this article series had brought me to date.
Rock on.