first of all - here is Gabor Szabo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gkg7Uqdc7Go

he was a real talent

and of course Jimi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCQBbgb_Lvo

And don't forget Django Reinhardt (he is our logo too)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UVw5C0SDkc

how about victor wooten?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR6t47pV8Qc

he is great too:)

Jimmy Page is a genius too

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyabIKB2CWI&feature=related

Charlie Christian

Okay, I love Wooten's 'Amazing Grace.' Do you have any idea how he played it? It doesn't sound too hard.

It's not too bad, except you have to compress the crap out of your bass sound to get the volume on the harmonics that he does.

http://blog.chess.com/severIII/rip-shawn-lane

Here you can read a touching rememberance of Shawn Lane

hope you don't mind if I weigh in on my top 5 guitarists + FZ

OK, here is my list.....  Frank Zappa is my favorite as you can tell.... 

Here he is playing Black Page #2 with Stevie Vai and Ray White

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X89WRRiTsXc

Here are my other 5

 Stevie Vai

here is Vai doing FZ's "Dirty Love"  -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bmIxpYUnkE

Dweezil Zappa

here is one of my favorite parts of the ZPZ show.....  this is where Dweezil trades solos with his dad!  Just awsome!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6nXAUQytlc&feature=related

Frank Gambale

playing "Got A Match"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJBwvq9-Czo

Jeff Beck

playing "Drown In My Own Tears"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reuK2msTzec&feature=related

Tony MacAlpine - I may have to put him up there close to Stevie Vai.....  He is awesome on the piano as well.....  If you have not heard him before, he is going to totally blow you away!  Here he is live playing "The Taker" 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nmoe6ngRrIQ&feature=related

cool!

I realize that I stayed within (more or less) the rock genre, and my list would be different if I were delving into jazz, blues, classical, or acoustic......  Also with the exception of FZ which I separated from the others, I stayed with only contemporary......  my question to you Bardamu (and any others interested) is which one (s) you feel are overrated and undeserving of the "top 5" and who are the ones you think should be there?  I suspect that my inclusion of Dweezil will draw the most criticism, but after seeing him perform twice in the last year and having my jaw drop on both occasions I am willing to take the heat for it.  I would not have put him on my list before.  To add perspective, he leapfrogged over my other 2 favorites that did not make this list whom I also had the opportunity to see this past year.  Joe Satriani and Eric Johnson.  By the way, have you seen Oz Noy or Yngwie Malmsteen perform and what is your opinion of them?

don't forget Steve Howe!!!

I have no problems with the Zappas :) and the others too - and att least I get to know now Tony McAlpine who is a real talented musician whooa. If you want know some other great guitarist here is Ferenc Snétberger - his a hungarian guy - with a big talent  - he play jazzy-folk-classical music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX-NmxQlv1g&feature=related 

Ups I almost forget the late Stevie Ray Vaughan

here is a great guitar lesson from him

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZoX6Q0UK8A&feature=related

RIP Stevie

I'm an older rock 'n' roll person myself but it still surprises me that no one mentioned Eric Clapton.

I don't have a picture, but I would like to mention the classical guitar legend - Andres Segovia, and probably the best rock guitarist on the Balkans - Vlatko Stefanovski.

man, i saw stevie ray vaughn at his last concert in alpine valley.  that was a sad day to say the least!!!!

 Yeah Clapton is good too, for me he is slightly boring (sorry Eric), but in the Cream days he was pretty great, and by the way perhaps Cream was one of the best trio in rock history ever, along with Jimi Hendrix Experience