The Friendly 12bar Blues Guitar Forum

EDIT: Poll set up - the 40 listed in Guitarist Magazine. In the interests of those who are often much liked, but never quite favourites, and because 40 choices are a lot for what might be not too many people voting - you can pick up to 3. I've set the poll to run till the end of the year.

Information probably only of much use to UK members. I guess also a lot of you will know much more than the issue covers - but it's nice to see Blues get some major attention from one of the monthly publications. £9.99 - slightly less than twice the price of teh usual magazine.

About 250 pages - 18 page (very) brief history of blues, 54 interviews with or profiles of "Blues Greats", 10 page (very) short history of slide guitar, Top 40 Blues Guitarists per the Guitarist Magazine team, and 10 short articles on famous blues guitars. Some omissions - eg no Freddie King interview or profile - I guess thay haven't yet done one which is a bit of an oversight.

It would be intersting to know how closely 12bar members views coincide with the Magazine.

The top 10 Blues guitarists they have (in alphabetical order) are:-
Eric Clapton
Buddy Guy
John Lee Hooker
Robert Johnson
Albert King
BB King
Freddie King
Derek Trucks
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Muddy Waters

If y'all want to post what order you'd put these 10 in I'll collate them and see how much we disagree with Guitarist.

replace John Lee Hooker with Mike Bloomfield :)

That's a hard list to prioritize... they are all so good. But.. here's the order I would see them in...

1. BB King
2. Stevie Ray Vaughan
3. Buddy Guy
4. Eric Clapton
5. Albert King
6. Robert Johnson
7. Muddy Waters
8. Freddie King
9. Derek Trucks
10. John Lee Hooker

microtech wrote:replace John Lee Hooker with Mike Bloomfield :)

Those lists are always incomplete... but it would be fun to start a poll here, be sure to include 'em all

Just realised I never got round to doing my choice - too distracted with USB interfaces - arrggggh!

And golfxzq is sooooo right! It is difficult. Do you go by technical skill, musical skill, emotional skill - 3 different lists - and with those that sing as well it's difficult to seperate how much you like the artist because of the guitar playing and the singing.

1. BB King
2. Stevie Ray Vaughan
3. Freddie King
4. Eric Clapton
5. Albert King
6. Buddy Guy
7. John Lee Hooker
8. Robert Johnson
9. Muddy Waters
10. Derek Trucks

I guess my John Lee Hooker at 7 will raise an eyebrow or two - he's there for the distinctive sound and resonance it triggers in me, not for the technical skill. I haven't heard enough Derek Trucks to be sure of placing him higher than 10 - I suspect from the little I have heard he might end up higher if I heard a lot more of him.

I've just noticed as I'm about to post this 12bar's comment about the poll. Hmmmm......
I've not done a poll thread before and I'm not sure how to do this. And does the poll system involve just the one vote for a favourite? I thought it might be like that which was why I'd be happy to collate results as there's a few players that can rank 2 or 3 in a lot of peoples lists but are very rarely first in a "favourites" poll where they will do much more badly.

But I can extend the list to the 40 on the full Guitarist Magazine list to set up a poll. Can you let me know 12bar (and let me know how)?

VikingBlues wrote:But I can extend the list to the 40 on the full Guitarist Magazine list to set up a poll. Can you let me know 12bar (and let me know how)?

Just edit your first post and select the poll creation tab below the text area. Currently limited to 10 items, but I can raise it to 40...

Good Idea VB .............Poll would be good

with all the possible contenders .. we are surely going to need at least 25 spots bare minimum

where is ..Peter Green ?? where is Walter Trout ... Alvin Lee ?? Rory Gallagher ?? Gary Moore ?? Taj Mahal ?? Otis rush ?? Lightning Hoopkins ?? Steve ray Vaughan ?? Johnny Winter ?? Buddy Whittington ?? John Mayer ...........(sorry but he has to be up there somewhere) MicK Taylor ??? Robert Cray ?? .......

Where is Duane Allman ...com'on !!!!

Not sure what the criteria is for the "Guitarist Top 10" .but having Derek Trucks in the top 10 above some of the guys I've named .straight off the top of my head too .............is just not sensible !!

VB .we may have opened a large can'o worms !! .But it will be pre Chrimble fun !!

12bar wrote:

VikingBlues wrote:But I can extend the list to the 40 on the full Guitarist Magazine list to set up a poll. Can you let me know 12bar (and let me know how)?

Just edit your first post and select the poll creation tab below the text area. Currently limited to 10 items, but I can raise it to 40...

Thanks 12bar. If you could raise it to 40 please - particularly in view of Strummers comments - most of the players he's listed are in the 40 and I could see some of the 11th to 40th placed getting some votes here.

I'll come back on later and do the update / poll set up.

Joe Bonamassa should be somewhere in there.

I'm missing someone in the list... what was his name again... uhm VB.... yeah !

One glaring omission that I see from that list is Leslie West. He might seem like a hard rock player, but Mountain was as far as I was concerned, the closest America was to Cream.

He has some pretty good blues phrases, and I was fortunate enough to see him live two years ago in Reno, when he opened for Joe Satriani. His playing is what I've been borderline obsessed with lately.

HalfBlindLefty wrote:I'm missing someone in the list... what was his name again... uhm VB.... yeah !

.. ..
But ... can I vote for my "Strat"?

StratLover2 wrote:One glaring omission that I see from that list is Leslie West. He might seem like a hard rock player, but Mountain was as far as I was concerned, the closest America was to Cream.

He has some pretty good blues phrases, and I was fortunate enough to see him live two years ago in Reno, when he opened for Joe Satriani. His playing is what I've been borderline obsessed with lately.

Not even in the 40 I'm afraid - along with Taj Mahal, Buddy Whittington and John Mayer alreadt mentioned by Strummer. Aren't there just a lot of really good blues guitarists for us to listen to and learn from.

Sounds like they should make it a top 150 or top 200. It won't come close to capturing all the superb blues guitarists out there, but it would be a start.

When you see all the names listed in the poll you realize how hard it is to narrow down. My top 3:

1. Muddy Waters- Father of Chicago Blues
2. Elmore James- Everyone who plays slide owes him
3. Stevie Ray Vaughan- Brought blues back to the mainstream in the 80's

I am a big Derek Trucks fan, but I don't even think of him as a blues guitarist. His music is influenced by so many world music styles, especially from the far east, that he does not belong in the top ten.

My favorite blues player is Buddy, no doubt, and I do think that he was and is the best in blues.

Where can I find or order a copy of this issue of Guitarist Magazine? Their website doesn't mention this blues issue at all

deejaid wrote:Where can I find or order a copy of this issue of Guitarist Magazine? Their website doesn't mention this blues issue at all

I found this with Google rather than Guitarists Magazines website - I see why you hit a dead end there!
http://www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/m ... es-heroes/

Thanks VB! Got a copy on the way

tombstone wrote:My favorite blues player is Buddy, no doubt, and I do think that he was and is the best in blues.

Without a doubt, my man, without a doubt.

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