Another year and another weekly blog post commitment from me. For those who have been on this journey with me before—thank you by the way—you have witnessed my wishlists of 52 guitars, 52 amplifiers and 52 pedals. This year I’m trying something different—52 guitarists.

It’s safe to assume therefore that this is also not a wishlist like previous years.

Also, this series is not a top 52 guitarists list. There is no ranking system here. What I will be doing however is writing about 52 guitarists who have been influential to me personally. By the end of this list, there will be many guitarists who would normally feature in a top 10 or top 100 guitarists list. Once again though, this is not that list. This is personal. These are the guitarists who either influenced me enough to start playing guitar or to continue playing guitar decades later. For me, this list needs to therefore start at the beginning. It starts with the guitarist who made me realise that guitar-focused music was going to be my passion.

My list has to start with Ace Frehley. … 52 guitarists, week 1—Ace Frehley