Ollieboy

Where's Mark Knopfler, Glen Campbell? ....and Joni Mitchell? Why?

josquin1 Loc: Massachusetts

Where's Andre Segovia? Silly list.

TheShoe Loc: Lacey, WA

Add Xuefei Yang, the first classical guitarist from China, to the list

sodapop Loc: Bel Air, MD

Yes, I was wondering that too. What about
Rickey Scaggs as well?

sodapop Loc: Bel Air, MD

Top 40 best people. I will start with number 1

My mother

ad9mac

No Chet Atkins???
Worthless list with out.
Bet He's better than at least half of these.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATjE9i1_wAg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNbB6FSwuBA

NDMarks Loc: Dublin, Ca

To list "the greatest" guitarists is kind of useless. There are many types of guitarists! There are Classical, Flamenco, Jazz, Rock, Country, etc. Any how is Greatest defined? By what standards? It all depends on what a person likes. Me, for example - I never cared for Jimi Hendrix because I didn't like his music. Now, David Gilmour and Eric Clapton on the other hand, that's different because I liked their music. But does that make Jimi bad - of course not! He may still be the greatest ever depending on the standards used.

bcheary Loc: Jacksonville, FL

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

As in Segovia etc.

Back in the early 70s on a field school in Mexico, I actually met a couple of men who had made custom guitars for some of Segovia's students. Two brothers who ran a shop founded by their father, uncles and grandfather. I don't play, but one brother had a guitar that was part of a pair he made for one of Segovia's students and since it was the "reject" of the pair* it was cheap so I bought it just because it was so beautiful. When we married, I gave it to my wife. Our oldest son and some of his friends have also played it over the years.

The two brothers and most of the other instrument makers in the town (stringed instruments were the main industry of the whole town and people from all over bought from the various shops in town) always made two guitars when they got a custom order since due to materials etc. the pair would always sound a bit different. Sometimes the customer bought both, so they had a backup, and sometimes they only bought the one whose sound they liked the best. Then the other one was sold out of their shop at a much reduced price.
At that time only a few in the town had built any electric guitars and all of them were amplified acoustic models. Another town had one big guitar factory owned by a company in Mexico City, and they turned out electric guitars by the hundreds in addition to acoustic models for sale from shops in tourist towns all over Mexico. None of their instruments was as good as the best made in the first town.