NFT: Where do you rank Jerry Garcia in the pantheon...

guitar great, but he wouldn't make my Rock Guitar Mt. Rushmore.

Jimmy Page
Carlos Santana
Eric Clapton
Jimi Hendrix

Garcia's greatest strength was him empathy for the material he played, whether it was R&R, blues, jazz, bluegrass or deep psychedelic space.

Hendrix and Santana ahead of jerry.

studio will never do a guy like him justice, same with Jimmy Herring. Herring can make the axe sing like few before him (and likely after him.)

So I guess pick the criteria on which he should be judged...

Was he as technically proficient as say, a Joe Satriani? Did he have the fretboard gymnastics capability of a Yngwie J. Malmsteen? (J. - I always loved the J. to distinguish himself from all of the 157 other Yngwie Malmsteens).
No not really. He could play though, no doubt.

But take a look at the following he (and TGD) had. He had his own signature bluegrass/folkie inspired style and tone that you could pick out of a heavy mix VERY quickly. He played some interesting melodies and he was extremely adept at improvising solos.


In my view it's how well you marry taste and more importantly musicality and feel to technical proficiency that determines how great you are at playing an instrument...

So based on the second paragraph you'd have to rank him pretty highly.

There are incredible guitarists out there.

Jimi, Duane, Eric, Jimmy Page, etc... But Jerry had this incredible depth of emotion to his playing and he could go anywhere from old standards, to blue grass, to folk, to country to R & B to psychedelia. He was a true virtuoso.

Frank Zappa
David Gilmour
Steve Howe
Peter Green
Jeff Beck


Any of those ring a bell?

is silly.

Hendrix, Clapton, SRV, Betts, Allman, Bloomfield, Page, Zappa, Gilmour all on my list.

god.

Can't deny his talent, but ultimately, his music bores me.

Hendrix, Dave Gilmour, tony Iommi, Trey Spruance, Adrian Belew, Frank Zappa are all better

Jimi
Eric
Page

Beck
Zappa
Allman
Vaughn
Knoffler

The top three are pretty easy. Jerry belongs somewhere in the next group I think. For me it's Santana that doesn't make the cut with this group.

Late 60's - early 70's he was widely considered Top 5. A lot of Dead Heads, but only Dead Heads, rated him as high as Hendrix. As that genre has declined in popularity over the last 40 years so has his reputation. There's also been some additional competition (Stevie Ray, at least for a while).

I could still put him in the Top 10, but it's close. Hendrix is my clear #1.

Listen to "Europa" by Santana. I think he clearly makes it to the Top 10.

As his best Santana was excellent. I just don't think there is a lot of his best. Very limited amount of top work to choose from compared to others.

on your own tastes and what you value most highly in a lead guitarist. I actually don't really prioritize guitar solos as much as I used to, and when they do happen, I want them to have (what I think is) a great tone and a sort of lyricism to them.

By those measures, Garcia's right up there.

For me, the name mentioned on this thread that I'd remove is Zappa. Good, but not in the league of these others, particularly any mentioned for Top 5.

I don't even consider Jerry Garcia when I think of my favorite guitarists.

The best is subjective but I'll play:

Jimi Hendrix
Frank Zappa
Peter Green
David Gilmour
Jeff Beck
Carlos Santana
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Jimmy Page
Steve Howe
Albert King
Eric Clapton
Martin Bare
Buddy Guy
Pete Townshend

Want to give a shout out to Doyle Bramhall II, son of Stevie Ray's drummer, played with Roger Waters and Eric Clapton, distinctive sound, up and comer...

Songwriter, vocalist, the driving artistic force behind the Dead. Their one indispensable member. And if all that counts then Townsend belongs as well.

And then there's everybody else ;)

Winwood are not list worthy

Saw winwood on Tuesday and he still is a fantastic guitarist.

and there isn't anyone alive younger than what - 60? Any young guys who could be on this list? Gary Clark Jr?

In comment 11870022 feelflows said:

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And then there's everybody else ;)

I'm with you.


and Dickey Betts may be the most underrated of all time.

In comment 11869938 Phil in LA said:

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is silly.

^^^^
this

In comment 11870034 Del Shofner said:

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In comment 11869938 Phil in LA said: Quote: is silly. ^^^^ this

I'm with that as well, I have favorites and preferences, but it's all taste and opinions.

In comment 11870029 The Turk said:

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and there isn't anyone alive younger than what - 60? Any young guys who could be on this list? Gary Clark Jr?

Derek Trucks is possibly the best guitarist playing at the moment, and he's young.

but Jerry is probably my all-time favorite. From rockin country and rockabilly stuff, to the blues and R&B covers with JGB, I honestly cannot get enough. Its often talked about how Jerry played the guitar almost like a saxophone at times, running up and down the scales and playing a melody within his leads. I love Jerry.

JGB_Tangled_7/30/77

Hard_to_Handle_8/6/71
^^^^^^HOTTTTTT

Trucks is GREAT - seeing TTB tomorrow night at the Beacon. John Mayer is also a great guitar player - like him or not, his tone is real pretty. Blake Mills also can really play. Jake Bugg is another young guy that can do a lot on the guitar.

In comment 11870058 Lafferty, Daniel said:

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but Jerry is probably my all-time favorite. From rockin country and rockabilly stuff, to the blues and R&B covers with JGB, I honestly cannot get enough. Its often talked about how Jerry played the guitar almost like a saxophone at times, running up and down the scales and playing a melody within his leads. I love Jerry. JGB_Tangled_7/30/77 Hard_to_Handle_8/6/71 ^^^^^^HOTTTTTT

That version of Hard to Handle off of Fallout from the Phil Zone is incredible.

and many more ahead of Jerry imho

...but also interesting to see what non-deadheads think of Garcia.

,

yeah - and I've heard stories that Jerry dropped down to his knees during the high point of that ridiculous lead section. Which just adds to how epic a version that is.

if you want to talk technical

Take away his gazillion effects and then tell me how good he is.

FWIW. Mark is an all time great as well, without question.

by a country mile . . .

Because Hendrix has come up a few times on this thread... i was browsing the diy subreddit yesterday and came across this post by a dude who took 10 thousand wooden dowels of varying lengths (about .5 to 1.5 in it appears) stained them to achieve 4 different shades and placed them side by side to create a contoured mural of Hendrix w/ the big fro. The guy goes on to say he estimates hes got something like 1200 hours invested in this thing and hes got it on ebay.... for 500 bucks.

Im tempted. But my wife would never let me display it anywhere. I dont care so much that its Hendrix. Im just blown away by the artistry.

Hendrix Mosaic - ( New Window )

.

on his right hand. no pun intended

In comment 11870092 SB said:

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Take away his gazillion effects and then tell me how good he is.

It doesn't really matter. The Edge has a sound in his head that's appropriate for their material, and he achieves that sound by relying on something every electric guitarist in this list relies upon to some degree.

.

if you plugged Edge's guitar into his effects rack and handed it to someone, they'd still have a hard time sounding just like him.

Not as hard as, say, sounding like David Gilmour (who, incidentally, also had a shit ton of effects), but hard nonetheless.

.

Gabby Pahanui. I don't have much of his stuff but what I have I like. Unfortunately, he never had access to top end recording facilities and he only recorded late in life.

. Segovia was the best pure guitarist ever