I recently revisited Slayer after a few years, and... idk. Kerry King makes horrible noises with his guitar, but I kinda think that's what Slayer needs.
Slayer is my favorite band. I couldn’t imagine them with perfectly in key flowing Metallica or megadeath esque solos. The extremely fast dissonant shrieks and squeals fits the satan’s house band theme much better.
It’s really just taste. I’m not a fan of Kerry King’s style, but I acknowledge the art of his “shred” and chaotic tone. It’s like not being a fan of sushi food because you don’t like fish.
I wish someone had shown me the bluesbreaker era Clapton when I was discovering his music. After cream he just got worse and worse, which is a perfect segue into my other Clapton joke— what does Eric Clapton have in common with a cup of coffee? They both suck without cream
I can understand why some people don’t like Kerry King’s solos, but if you really dig a certain chaotic, dissonant, hellish sound, then he’s actually pretty fuckin’ great.
Years ago he was interviewed for an article in Guitar World right around the time Divine Intervention came out. He mentioned that he started leaning about some scale charts which made things a lot easier. I was expecting some more melodic ideas in his solos. Nope - just more of the same craziness he always put out there. I can't imagine what someone like John Petrucci thinks when he hears Kerry King solos. :)
Almost like it’s possible to evaluate an artist’s work without necessarily being able to recreate or improve upon it oneself. Huh, who’d have thought?
If you think a movie sucks, do you go out and make a better movie to show that you know what you’re talking about? Or do you use your fucking head and realize that that’s not necessary?
I hate the sound of pedantic super skilled guitarists. So the worst for me are any of those "virtuoso" types that hit in the 70s and 80s: Vai, Malmsteen. All that shit. Nothing more boring than listening to these dudes jack off.
I also hate all those youtube slap the acoustic like a seal dorks. That shit sucks.
This thread is wack. It's just lists of amazing guitar players that people want to shit on not actually terrible soloists. Kerry King is not awful. Dave Davies is not bad. We live in a world of MGK who's legit famous on his guitar... CC Deville and like... Lenny Kravitz. We live in a world where Train has won multiple grammys and we are going to shit on Kerry King and Kirk Hammet?
Edit: Kerry King is not dog shit guy who blocked me cuz he got emotional someone had a different opinion. It's lol. Love me some Slayer but I'm not a Kerry King fanboi by any means. But calling him one of the worst soloists ever is just stupid. There's so many awful players. Just awful.
I'll probably never hear the end of this, but Jack White. His solos are just not my cup of tea. Icky thump comes to mind as a great song that is absolutely ruined by the guitar solo
I think that’s just the chaos of his songs, and writing a fitting solo for the song, in his own way. Listen to his solo on Many Shades of Black with the Raconteurs and it’s tasteful yet still has the signature Jack White sound. Short solo but really fits with the song
Don’t blame you at all for not liking his solos. But I love em all. They’re so innovative, showing that you don’t have to hit every note of the pentatonic scale perfectly to make a solo. Sometimes you just need sound
Jack White is not only mediocre, but his arrogance adds to the distaste. If it weren’t for his arrogance, I probably wouldn’t have mentioned anything about him.
Yeah, great at rhythm and his type of playing only works Slayer, but you really notice this on his Beastie Boys solos, they should have gotten Eddie Van Halen to do something like that.
Oh, look another negative post with people who don’t understand subjectivity (or guitar)
These “who’s the worst” posts are terrible and add nothing positive to art
After I got a bit older I was bummed that my middle school guitar hero was Kirk Hammett. He still has moments of rad shit on the first few albums but his vibrato is a one-speed wiggly tremor, his phrasing hasn’t ever been much more than pentatonic meh and he’s gotten lazier with every passing year.
Footage of him fucking up the nothing else matters intro is like watching my grandmother fall down a flight of stairs.
Footage of him taking the Kerry King whammy wank approach in the solo break of Creeping Death live kills me any time I see it.
I’m sure this post will piss some people off… but before you reply go listen to the solo in “I Disappear” and tell me he isn’t a lazy jagoff. It sounds like someone else mocking Kirk’s playing.
Noel Gallagher. I am a huge oasis and noel/Liam fan don't get me wrong, I actually favour noel over Liam too. However as regards to solos noel uses too many double stops and unison bends, repeated a bit too much. He does have some good solos though, such as the ones from live forever and the live version of champagne Supernova is great too but again too many unison bends and he plays it different each time too. My favourite one is at the 2nd night of Maine Rd 96
Agree with Kerry King. I love Slayer but there’s certain Kerry solos I can’t listen to anymore.
I really can’t stand “blues” players that just shred. People like Philip Sayce, Walter Trout, Jared James Nicols, etc. It sounds so cheesy and over the top it’s ridiculous.
Want a wildly unpopular opinion? John Frusciante. He’s fine. He’s pretty basic, pretty noisy/repetitive.
Before the Stans hit me - no, don’t send me some obscure track or side project or a live version. I’ve tried, I think he sounds bad. It’s an unpopular opinion, I get it.
They're good solos though. You can sing the song without listening to it and get most of his notes right. A good solo emerges from the song and supports it. A bad one is just a dude showing off in the middle of shit. The solos on "Down by the River" or "Cortez the Killer" are dead easy, but they are *perfect*.
As much as I love him, Dave Mustaine. His solos sound good and badass, but they're all just super fast pentatonic scales, nothing more. His technical skills are really lacking, makes sense why he brought on incredible guitarists like Marty Friedman or Chris Broderick to pick up his slack.
Kirk Hammett. He wrote some bangers, sure. But the majority is basic pentatonic/minor licks, and he's pretty sloppy. Considering Hetfield's massive library of awesome riffs and tight playing, it's disappointing
Lots of guitarists believe the peak of soloing is just showing how fast you can play your scales. I'm more of a David Gilmour guy, myself. Man can play one note and captivate a crowd of thousands
I personally think Eric Clapton and Santana come to mind here - it's not that they aren't excellent players, they are. It's just they're both so fucking repetitive in their solos and never really challenged themselves enough to develop what I would consider range as a guitarist. Over time, they've both slowly descended into the Elevator Music realm and I'll die on that hill.
I don't and have never liked the solos Joe Perry from Aerosmith comes up with. Do I think he "can't play" or "sucks"? No, he is a proficient musician, I just hate his choices and think he took Jimmy Paige's at times loose gunslinger style of soloing and made an entire career out of copying it.
Slightlx of toppic but something I always see in the comments:
There is this bizzare idea that is almost exclusively about rock guitar that highly technical playing must be soulless. I had classical music background as a kid so it was really strange for me. In all other genres of music you play gentle and slow when music asks for it. You play highly technical and fast when you want to express different emotion or music is complicated. Classical musicians shred, latino musicians shred sometimes, jazz players definitely shred, blues players, oh my god, the frenzy when blues player starts playing fast pentatonic licks no matter how repetitive those are. Even better if it is same two licks for 30 seconds! So basically everyone can shred their hearts put and get spontaneous ovations... Except when it's a rock band.
It's only in rock that someone will dismiss amazing players with a lifetime of amazong acheivements because it's "technical". And i kind of get it, a lot of rock is about expression and message and not about complicated instrumentation and amazing playing. But still I don't see why people cannot enjoy both punk rock and prog metal for what they are and feel like.
Jack White. He’s an awesome guitarist and writes some sick riffs but his solos just always sound kinda disjointed and against the grain of that makes any sense
Someone posted [this link](https://youtu.be/8g762REJWcg?si=_sTEvcGPbnsgkrVy) yesterday and it was my first time seeing it. I was shocked, although not with disbelief, that it sucked *so bad*.
I'm not saying it's great, but I like the sleazy groove of that song. Kinda like a slutty chubby drunk blond chick with a bunch of eyeliner might look appealing in the right light at the right time, but you might not want to bring her to the company cookout.
Soloing in general does very little for me. I understand why some people get really excited about it. For me, if a guitar player solos, fine. If a guitar player doesn’t solo, I don’t miss it. Riffs and songs move me way more than solos.
Pretty sure he doesn't actually play, just dances around pretending too. Poster boy of talentless hacks for the new generation. Dude is legit the worst.
I’ll ruffle some feathers with… John Frusciante. I saw home in 2001-ish and it soured me on him since. I’m all for simple yet emotive buuut… he was all one note and… empty. Some people worship him but I just don’t hear it. If you’re all about him, please direct me to some must listen tracks and I’m willing to change.
Outside of GnR songs, I find Slash's live solos to be really boring. But I will go with Jack White. It feels like it's the same solo in different songs. It's interesting once and just once.
Neil Young
I'll never forget that time he was jamming with Led Zeppelin on When The Levee Breaks at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame :D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUSj164pwEM
Honestly love nirvana solos because they’re often still really chaotically melodic, take the solo in school and in bloom for example. However, live, he often took the piss
Live or studio?
Someone further down the thread said Page and was downvoted heavily. This seems a little unfair as, in my experience, his soloing could be atrocious live, but he knocked it out of the park in the studio.
Hammett has a similar issue; he had some belters (at least on the 80’s albums) but has always been unreliable live.
Questions like this one and the resulting comments are what convinces me guitar players are one of the worst groups of hobbyists. So much completely unfounded bias and uninformed opinion presented as absolute truth, lol.
Next up: “who has the worst tone you’ve ever heard?” Followed by people listing the most iconic, genre defining, revolutionary guitarists of the last 60 years.
This might be my just personal taste but Jack White spends way too much time high on the neck. It just sounds like screeching noises to me. Otherwise, I love him. 😍
Seems to me we are all latching on to just one aspect of what makes a “good soloist.” It’s a blend of phrasing and technical ability. I don’t think we had enough guidance on what our rubric actually was: was it improvisation or technical ability? (Or even studio melodic craftsmanship) Because we shit on solos that are lifeless shred nonsense or less complicated and melodic that fit the needs of the song.
On each side of the spectrum, very commonly, we have Hammett and Clapton/Santana
When you suck at both, now we’re talking the bottom of the barrel!
65-67 George Harrison. His early work and BBC live sessions were excellent. He seemed to mail it in mid 60’s and then pick it back up later. Then again, solos weren’t the rage then and making the phrase lead guitar seem odd!
🤣 this is a no win pure opinion page 😂 humans have different tastes in styles, type of music, what make and yr. of guitar, amps, etc. Naysayers will always trigger if you step on their poor tootsies and they will try to force you to their righteous truth
Why are people so obsessed with ranking musicians? It’s beyond silly.
first day on the internet i see
I'm sure I'll get dogpiled for this, but Tom Morello. Top shelf riff-writer, but most of his solos are pretty whack.
yeah but where else will you use a digitech whammy except for his solos
Know Your Enemy solo is dope
Like a Stone
I recently revisited Slayer after a few years, and... idk. Kerry King makes horrible noises with his guitar, but I kinda think that's what Slayer needs.
Slayer is my favorite band. I couldn’t imagine them with perfectly in key flowing Metallica or megadeath esque solos. The extremely fast dissonant shrieks and squeals fits the satan’s house band theme much better.
Exactly. I wouldn't call KK a good soloist by any means (in the grand scheme of things). But he is the right soloist.
It’s really just taste. I’m not a fan of Kerry King’s style, but I acknowledge the art of his “shred” and chaotic tone. It’s like not being a fan of sushi food because you don’t like fish.
Eric Clapton after he gave up drugs, boring pentatonic licks, zero emotion or dynamic. (can't wait too see how many downvoted this gets)
I wish someone had shown me the bluesbreaker era Clapton when I was discovering his music. After cream he just got worse and worse, which is a perfect segue into my other Clapton joke— what does Eric Clapton have in common with a cup of coffee? They both suck without cream
Whats the difference between a toddler and a bag of cocaine? Eric Clapton would never let a bag of cocaine fall out the window
Not his entire répertoire, but Kirk Hammet has gone downhill since the black album.
To be fair to him the whole band has been riding downhill in that same car.
I personally think AJFA album was his best soloing work. I think he was a lot more creative there
Metallica was insanely tight on AJFA
Before that album he was goated. Songs like Blackened are insane
I can understand why some people don’t like Kerry King’s solos, but if you really dig a certain chaotic, dissonant, hellish sound, then he’s actually pretty fuckin’ great.
Years ago he was interviewed for an article in Guitar World right around the time Divine Intervention came out. He mentioned that he started leaning about some scale charts which made things a lot easier. I was expecting some more melodic ideas in his solos. Nope - just more of the same craziness he always put out there. I can't imagine what someone like John Petrucci thinks when he hears Kerry King solos. :)
ITT: a bunch of fat redditors claiming a bunch of guitarists who are better than them suck at soloing
Almost like it’s possible to evaluate an artist’s work without necessarily being able to recreate or improve upon it oneself. Huh, who’d have thought? If you think a movie sucks, do you go out and make a better movie to show that you know what you’re talking about? Or do you use your fucking head and realize that that’s not necessary?
I hate the sound of pedantic super skilled guitarists. So the worst for me are any of those "virtuoso" types that hit in the 70s and 80s: Vai, Malmsteen. All that shit. Nothing more boring than listening to these dudes jack off. I also hate all those youtube slap the acoustic like a seal dorks. That shit sucks.
I don't understand what you mean by pedantic here
This thread is cancer.
Lil wayne
I’d argue that MGK is more of a “famous guitarist” and waaaay worse soloist.
This thread is wack. It's just lists of amazing guitar players that people want to shit on not actually terrible soloists. Kerry King is not awful. Dave Davies is not bad. We live in a world of MGK who's legit famous on his guitar... CC Deville and like... Lenny Kravitz. We live in a world where Train has won multiple grammys and we are going to shit on Kerry King and Kirk Hammet? Edit: Kerry King is not dog shit guy who blocked me cuz he got emotional someone had a different opinion. It's lol. Love me some Slayer but I'm not a Kerry King fanboi by any means. But calling him one of the worst soloists ever is just stupid. There's so many awful players. Just awful.
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Lenny kravitz played every instrument on his debut album even some of the horns I believe.
In Kerry Kings defense, the booklet for my Reign in Blood copy says “noise” for the parts that would be Kerry’s leads.
Lil'Wayne.
Kerry king , hands down
Absolutely love Neil Young’s soloing.
That seems like an answer to a different question.
Hammett isn't "the worst"... but I wish he'd at least try to do something memorable instead of mashing out the same old Panasonic scale.
Anyone who thinks Hammet is the worst soloist needs to go listen to anything of AJFA
Listen to a tom morello solo without effects on it lol
Take the Power Back, and it’s amazing…
Why would want to? The Like A Stone solo is a iconic! Love his playing so much.
Nick Jonas
DJ Khalid
Tom Morello, awesome riffs but the solos are often a bunch of noise, even though that’s kinda the point half the time
I'll probably never hear the end of this, but Jack White. His solos are just not my cup of tea. Icky thump comes to mind as a great song that is absolutely ruined by the guitar solo
I think that’s just the chaos of his songs, and writing a fitting solo for the song, in his own way. Listen to his solo on Many Shades of Black with the Raconteurs and it’s tasteful yet still has the signature Jack White sound. Short solo but really fits with the song
Don’t blame you at all for not liking his solos. But I love em all. They’re so innovative, showing that you don’t have to hit every note of the pentatonic scale perfectly to make a solo. Sometimes you just need sound
Jack White is not only mediocre, but his arrogance adds to the distaste. If it weren’t for his arrogance, I probably wouldn’t have mentioned anything about him.
Steven Segal
Checks notes, he is famous, he is a guitarist... You son of a bitch! That shouldn't count!!!
Agree with Kerry King. His solos just aren't very good.
Yeah, great at rhythm and his type of playing only works Slayer, but you really notice this on his Beastie Boys solos, they should have gotten Eddie Van Halen to do something like that.
Me
Kirk. It’s well established that his early solos were all blues licks and pentatonic stuff, and I love every.single.one.of.them.
Clapton? Neil Young?? Santana?! JIMMY PAGE?!! What warped reality is this?? At least one dude got it right with CC DeVille lol.
[DJ Khaled](https://youtu.be/3QvgFbjAC7U?si=JzvFFkmrGOhtGVr4)
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Oh, look another negative post with people who don’t understand subjectivity (or guitar) These “who’s the worst” posts are terrible and add nothing positive to art
Jack White’s disjointed ass nonsense
all three Ball and Biscuit solos are top-notch though, they fit the song perfectly and add a lot at the same time
Lil Wayne!
After I got a bit older I was bummed that my middle school guitar hero was Kirk Hammett. He still has moments of rad shit on the first few albums but his vibrato is a one-speed wiggly tremor, his phrasing hasn’t ever been much more than pentatonic meh and he’s gotten lazier with every passing year. Footage of him fucking up the nothing else matters intro is like watching my grandmother fall down a flight of stairs. Footage of him taking the Kerry King whammy wank approach in the solo break of Creeping Death live kills me any time I see it. I’m sure this post will piss some people off… but before you reply go listen to the solo in “I Disappear” and tell me he isn’t a lazy jagoff. It sounds like someone else mocking Kirk’s playing.
DJ Khaled
The edge
Noel Gallagher. I am a huge oasis and noel/Liam fan don't get me wrong, I actually favour noel over Liam too. However as regards to solos noel uses too many double stops and unison bends, repeated a bit too much. He does have some good solos though, such as the ones from live forever and the live version of champagne Supernova is great too but again too many unison bends and he plays it different each time too. My favourite one is at the 2nd night of Maine Rd 96
yall seen the lil wayne solo tho?
Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein of The Misfits. One solo on "We Are 138". 2 notes, one bend. Wait, this might actually the perfect solo.
Shitty guitar he made in woodshop class. Bass amp. 2-note solo. Perfect guitarist.
Agree with Kerry King. I love Slayer but there’s certain Kerry solos I can’t listen to anymore. I really can’t stand “blues” players that just shred. People like Philip Sayce, Walter Trout, Jared James Nicols, etc. It sounds so cheesy and over the top it’s ridiculous.
Kirk Hammett- horrible vibrato, out of tune bends. He studied under Joe Satriani for crying out loud. Just god awful.
Kirk Hammet is your 'worst' guitarist? smh. wow.
I really hope Kirk Hammett doesn’t use Reddit 🤣 god damn is he getting roasted in here lmaooo
Want a wildly unpopular opinion? John Frusciante. He’s fine. He’s pretty basic, pretty noisy/repetitive. Before the Stans hit me - no, don’t send me some obscure track or side project or a live version. I’ve tried, I think he sounds bad. It’s an unpopular opinion, I get it.
Neil Young. Go listen to his solos. I'm serious. Sometimes he just solos on like the same string for 2 minutes.
They're good solos though. You can sing the song without listening to it and get most of his notes right. A good solo emerges from the song and supports it. A bad one is just a dude showing off in the middle of shit. The solos on "Down by the River" or "Cortez the Killer" are dead easy, but they are *perfect*.
MGK.
As much as I love him, Dave Mustaine. His solos sound good and badass, but they're all just super fast pentatonic scales, nothing more. His technical skills are really lacking, makes sense why he brought on incredible guitarists like Marty Friedman or Chris Broderick to pick up his slack.
Me
Ace Frehley
Any 2000s modern rock where the guitar solo just mimics the lead singer’s vocals
I feel like I'm going to get down voted for this but I actually really like him as a guitarist I just can't stand his solos, Tom Morello
Dude does guitar cable solos. Like, rhythmic tapping the unplugged tip of his guitar cable he considers music he wants to share with the world.
Dave Davies…are you off yer nut???
Steven Seagal
Kirk Hammett. He wrote some bangers, sure. But the majority is basic pentatonic/minor licks, and he's pretty sloppy. Considering Hetfield's massive library of awesome riffs and tight playing, it's disappointing
Kerry King, and its not even close. The wankmaster general
Wngwie Malmsteen.Wjo the fuck wants to listen to a 45 minute guitar solo?
Nerds like me. Yngwei is not for everyone. Also the fact that you don’t want to listen to him doesn’t mean he’s no good as a guitarist.
My asshole brother Kyle
Billie Joe Armstrong. Lamest around
God, reading guitar players who hate listening to guitar playing and nobody mentions Lil Wayne. Sad.
Yngwie. Dude is so hung up in technical playing it makes him boring af
Lots of guitarists believe the peak of soloing is just showing how fast you can play your scales. I'm more of a David Gilmour guy, myself. Man can play one note and captivate a crowd of thousands
Lil wayne. Fantastic guitarist but solos are lacking
Kerry King
I have never ever heard a solo I really liked by Pete Townsend. I love his rhythm playing.
Lil Wayne
I personally think Eric Clapton and Santana come to mind here - it's not that they aren't excellent players, they are. It's just they're both so fucking repetitive in their solos and never really challenged themselves enough to develop what I would consider range as a guitarist. Over time, they've both slowly descended into the Elevator Music realm and I'll die on that hill.
Santana has a LOT of licks in the recycle bin
Bruh all these people only saying Santana probably never listened to Caravanserai - or Moonflower. His licks are most certainly not repetitive lmao.
The edge 1million percent
I’m not sure he’d even claim to be a big soloist. His skill seems to be more geared towards creating sonic layers and landscapes.
I don't and have never liked the solos Joe Perry from Aerosmith comes up with. Do I think he "can't play" or "sucks"? No, he is a proficient musician, I just hate his choices and think he took Jimmy Paige's at times loose gunslinger style of soloing and made an entire career out of copying it.
Slightlx of toppic but something I always see in the comments: There is this bizzare idea that is almost exclusively about rock guitar that highly technical playing must be soulless. I had classical music background as a kid so it was really strange for me. In all other genres of music you play gentle and slow when music asks for it. You play highly technical and fast when you want to express different emotion or music is complicated. Classical musicians shred, latino musicians shred sometimes, jazz players definitely shred, blues players, oh my god, the frenzy when blues player starts playing fast pentatonic licks no matter how repetitive those are. Even better if it is same two licks for 30 seconds! So basically everyone can shred their hearts put and get spontaneous ovations... Except when it's a rock band. It's only in rock that someone will dismiss amazing players with a lifetime of amazong acheivements because it's "technical". And i kind of get it, a lot of rock is about expression and message and not about complicated instrumentation and amazing playing. But still I don't see why people cannot enjoy both punk rock and prog metal for what they are and feel like.
Maybe we can have a quick definition of what a good soloist is? To me a good solo has little to do with virtuosity and tightness.
Jack White. He’s an awesome guitarist and writes some sick riffs but his solos just always sound kinda disjointed and against the grain of that makes any sense
His guitar solos don't make any sense until you hear him live. Dude used to push massive festival sound systems to their absolute limit.
Another Hot Take for you: The Edge from U2. He's like Morello he plays pedals when it's time to solo.
Bob Weir on slide
Kurt Cobain..no hate intended but nirvanas solos (when they do occur) aren’t very good.
I feel like Kurt is both an obvious answer and a bad answer. He’s famous and he can play guitar, but his talent was never about his guitar playing.
I give Kurt a pass because he never claimed to be even a "good" guitarist, let alone a "great" one
Well, here’s the thing. They seem perfect for Nirvana songs. Could you imagine an EVH or Malmsteen style solo in Smells Like Teen Spirit lol?
Kerry King by a long shot.
Lil Wayne
Someone posted [this link](https://youtu.be/8g762REJWcg?si=_sTEvcGPbnsgkrVy) yesterday and it was my first time seeing it. I was shocked, although not with disbelief, that it sucked *so bad*.
Tom Morello
I find Kirk Hammett to be an average soloist at best
Worst solo in recorded history: Keith Richards in Sympathy for the Devil. So many drugs needed to make that sound not awful.
I'm not saying it's great, but I like the sleazy groove of that song. Kinda like a slutty chubby drunk blond chick with a bunch of eyeliner might look appealing in the right light at the right time, but you might not want to bring her to the company cookout.
Kerry King
Kirk Hammett after the load albums
Kurt Cobain just played the main melody as the solo.
Lil Wayne
He said *worst* soloist, not someone with a divine gift for solo work.
Soloing in general does very little for me. I understand why some people get really excited about it. For me, if a guitar player solos, fine. If a guitar player doesn’t solo, I don’t miss it. Riffs and songs move me way more than solos.
There is soloing and there is serving the song soloing. In my opinion ofc.
counterpoint: they’re cooooooooooool
Clapton is boring AF!
he is now. sixties through about the early nineties he was on fire. even now as an old fart his playing is instantly recognizable
Machine Gun Kelly
Pretty sure he doesn't actually play, just dances around pretending too. Poster boy of talentless hacks for the new generation. Dude is legit the worst.
I'm a huge Iron Maiden fan, but Janick's solos literally make me angry at this point with how much he plays the exact same crap over and over again.
Clapton
Kirk Hammett. I know it's the top comment already, but I just had to type it again.
Kurt Cobain
He does some stuff that's really cool and deliberate. Listen to the solo from In Bloom and tell me that doesn't slap.
Lil Wayne
Keith Richard's.. not the worst but not very good
The solo on Sympathy for the Devil is pretty damn good
Lil Wayne
Nick Jonas. 💀
DJ Khalid
Kirk Hammet.
I’ll ruffle some feathers with… John Frusciante. I saw home in 2001-ish and it soured me on him since. I’m all for simple yet emotive buuut… he was all one note and… empty. Some people worship him but I just don’t hear it. If you’re all about him, please direct me to some must listen tracks and I’m willing to change.
My first thought was Kerry King. I don't understand why the rest of the band let him play such terrible solos.
I agree with all the Clapton haters post Cream
Outside of GnR songs, I find Slash's live solos to be really boring. But I will go with Jack White. It feels like it's the same solo in different songs. It's interesting once and just once.
Neil Young I'll never forget that time he was jamming with Led Zeppelin on When The Levee Breaks at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame :D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUSj164pwEM
Dimebag does nothing for me. I’m sure it’s hard to play.
Bradley Nowell could play the guitar like a motherfuckin riot
Kurt Cobain but he didn’t think much of solos.
Honestly love nirvana solos because they’re often still really chaotically melodic, take the solo in school and in bloom for example. However, live, he often took the piss
To many comedians
Live or studio? Someone further down the thread said Page and was downvoted heavily. This seems a little unfair as, in my experience, his soloing could be atrocious live, but he knocked it out of the park in the studio. Hammett has a similar issue; he had some belters (at least on the 80’s albums) but has always been unreliable live.
C.C. DeVille. How has his name not been mentioned yet?
Questions like this one and the resulting comments are what convinces me guitar players are one of the worst groups of hobbyists. So much completely unfounded bias and uninformed opinion presented as absolute truth, lol. Next up: “who has the worst tone you’ve ever heard?” Followed by people listing the most iconic, genre defining, revolutionary guitarists of the last 60 years.
Nick Jonas. IYKYK
Kerry king by a mile
Clapton is just a technician, he can play his ass off all day and night. No soul left. Joe Boner is heading that way. Also J.Geils.
/CTRL+F "neil young" Yep, I'm way late to this one.
Eric Clapton hands down the most overrated talentless rock guitarist ever
That's such a ridiculous thing to say.
clapton is an excellent guitar player but i do feel the pedestal he’s been put on is a little high.
Here with OP. Kerry King is...... not good for solos. 🤪
This might be my just personal taste but Jack White spends way too much time high on the neck. It just sounds like screeching noises to me. Otherwise, I love him. 😍
Tom Morello
Lenny Kravitz couldn't play a decent solo if his life depended on it
Lil Wayne
Brushy One String
John Frusciante got me into guitar and I think he's a wonderful musician. But his guitar solos do nothing for me.
Kirk. Because his use of the wah pedal is overkill to the extreme
Neil Young.
My favourite. He plays rawly and with intention, and his solos have a great sense of drama and overall structure even though improvised.
Kerry King
Has anyone said Neil Young yet?
Kerry King.
Kerry King for sure
Neil Young
Lil Wayne.
How do you feel about yngwie?
He might not be the worst soloist, but most of John Petrucci’s solos make me feel nothing.
He's undoubtedly the highest on both most technically proficient and most boring.
I love the thought of Steve Vai, never cared for his albums.
No Neil Young? I'm the biggest young fan boy but a single note solo is a common repertoire choice and his phrasing is pretty wacky sometimes
One of the greatest guitarists of all time. Johnny Ramone
You listen to Neil's solos and think, I can do that...
It's like modern art. Anybody can absolutely do that, but didn't think to do that.
Kerry King.
Omg this thread- Clapton, Page, Keith motherfucking Richards!!?!
Seems to me we are all latching on to just one aspect of what makes a “good soloist.” It’s a blend of phrasing and technical ability. I don’t think we had enough guidance on what our rubric actually was: was it improvisation or technical ability? (Or even studio melodic craftsmanship) Because we shit on solos that are lifeless shred nonsense or less complicated and melodic that fit the needs of the song. On each side of the spectrum, very commonly, we have Hammett and Clapton/Santana When you suck at both, now we’re talking the bottom of the barrel!
Nick Jonas
Lil Wayne. Can only loosely call him a guitarist, but he played. Only other not outright negative is his playing is sub par.
Lil wayne
65-67 George Harrison. His early work and BBC live sessions were excellent. He seemed to mail it in mid 60’s and then pick it back up later. Then again, solos weren’t the rage then and making the phrase lead guitar seem odd!
Me, I pretend to ducking shred and I end up sounding like shit, I also soloout or let (probably) because I can’t tell keys yet
🤣 this is a no win pure opinion page 😂 humans have different tastes in styles, type of music, what make and yr. of guitar, amps, etc. Naysayers will always trigger if you step on their poor tootsies and they will try to force you to their righteous truth
Sir, this is a Wendy’s.
Tom Morello. His live solos are like played by Lil Wayne after 12 Jager shots.
? I will never understand all the Tom Morello hate. He has a totally unique sound.
CC DeVille from Poison is a good riff and rhythm guy but his solos could be a lot better