The first position on the list of the best guitarists in the world is Guthrie Govan. The Aristocrats, Asia, GPS, the Young Punx, and the Fellowship, as well as his solo project Erotic Cakes, are some of the bands that Guthrie Govan has played in and taught guitar to. He has worked with Steven Wilson and Hans Zimmer more recently. He is a well-known guitar instructor who has taught at the Brighton Institute of Modern Music, Guildford's Academy of Contemporary Music, Lick Library, and the UK publication Guitar Techniques. In 1993, Guitarist magazine named Govan "Guitarist of the Year".

The best guitarist ever is Guthrie Govan, bar none. Even though others are amazing, this guy outshines them since he not only possesses the best technical skill but can apply it to any genre. Govan's powers know no bounds. He spreads the love by devoting a large portion of his time to teaching masterclasses on the guitar all over the world.

Asia is the most popular band he has performed with, although he has also played lead guitar in the Hans Zimmer Live band. He claims that Clapton and Jimi Hendrix are his musical influences, but he also claims to have the creativity of Steve Vai and the fervor of Yngwie Malmsteen. He has a different kind of intellect than ours, and he can hear or write down intricate tunes in his head before performing them.

American jazz guitarist and composer Pat Metheny is from America. In addition to leading the Pat Metheny Group, he takes part in duets, solo ventures, and various side endeavors. His musical aesthetic combines elements of Latin jazz, modern and progressive jazz, and jazz fusion. The only person to win Grammy Awards in 10 categories is Metheny, who has three gold albums and 20 Grammy Awards. He is Mike Metheny's younger brother, a jazz flugelhorn player.

His distinctive voicings and phrasing are adored by listeners, and this is especially true when he employs MIDI guitar to mimic the sounds of other instruments and even synths. Other than perhaps Steve Vai, there isn't a more professional and disciplined player out there. They adore his flawless choices and willingness to use strong compression.

Only Pat Metheny has ever won Grammys in 10 different categories. Mike Metheny, a well-known jazz flugelhorn player, is his brother. At times, he plays a bespoke 42-string Pikasso guitar. He was a pioneer in the use of the guitar synthesizer. The 2008 fire at Universal Studios cost him several of his masterpieces, which were thankfully digitalized.

American musician and songwriter Eddie Van Halen was born in New York. He co-founded the rock group Van Halen in 1972 and served as its guitarist, keyboardist, backing vocalist, and principal songwriter. He is recognized as one of the best guitarists in the annals of rock music and is credited for popularizing the tapping guitar solo method, which enables two hands to play quick arpeggios on the fretboard.

In these rankings, Eddie Van Halen frequently comes in first. He is that talented. Although he claims Jimmy Page is more his style, he attributes Eric Clapton as being his primary inspiration. He is the kind of musician that renowned performers like Michael Jackson have hired to provide backup tracks for them.

One of his distinctive techniques is tapping, in which he rapidly fires off notes while using both hands on the guitar's neck. Due to this method, many people believe that one of his solos is among the best, if not the best, ever. He claims that Jimmy Page and Steve Hackett of Genesis are where he learned this expertise. Eddie Van Halen is one of the best guitarists in the world.

The Derek Trucks Band was started by American guitarist and songwriter Derek Trucks. In 1999, he joined The Allman Brothers Band as a legitimate member. Together with his wife, the blues guitarist and singer Susan Tedeschi, he founded the Tedeschi Trucks Band in 2010. He has twice been included on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time, and his musical approach spans various genres. He is the nephew of the late Allman Brothers drummer Butch Trucks.

By the time he turned 20 years old, Trucks had already shared the stage with musicians like Bob Dylan, Joe Walsh, and Stephen Stills. In 1994, he started The Derek Trucks Band. He went on tour with Phil Lesh & Friends in 1999. Trucks joined The Allman Brothers Band as a permanent member in 1999 after playing on their albums Peakin' at the Beacon, Live at the Beacon Theatre, Hittin' the Note, and One Way Out as a guest performer with the band for several years. Trucks started working on a recording project called The Rock in 2006 with JJ Cale and Eric Clapton. He was invited to play at the 2007 Crossroads Guitar Festival, and following the festival, he went on tour with Clapton's band.

The next position on the list of the best guitarists in the world is Jimi Hendrix. He is a guitarist, singer, and songwriter from the United States. Despite the fact that his mainstream career lasted only four years, he is considered one of the most important electric guitarists in popular music history and among the most illustrious artists of the 20th century. He is referred to as "perhaps the finest instrumentalist in the history of rock music" by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Before his untimely death, Jimi Hendrix achieved popular acclaim for only four years before completely revolutionizing the guitar industry. He was a pioneer in introducing guitar effects like fuzz distortion and wah-wah, as well as the whammy bar. His use of the Fender Stratocaster is largely responsible for its ongoing success.

Early rock & roll musicians like Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and Elvis Presley influenced him. He pioneered many "firsts," including the use of specific effects, the rejection of the barre chord, and the substitution of thumb fretting. His aesthetic is a combination of jazz, rock, American folk music, British rock, and the blues. He was an expert at playing solos inside chords.

Steve Vai is a guitarist, composer, songwriter, and producer from the United States. Vai, a three-time Grammy Award winner and fifteen-time nominee began his musical career as a transcriptionist for Frank Zappa in 1978 when he was eighteen years old. From 1980 to 1983, Vai was a member of Zappa's band. In 1983, he started a solo career, and as of now, he has put out eight solo albums. Along with recording with musicians like Public Image Ltd, Mary J. Blige, Spinal Tap, and Alice Cooper, he has also performed live and on tour with Alcatrazz, David Lee Roth, and Whitesnake. Vai has also headlined worldwide tours and toured with live-only outfits like G3, Zappa Plays Zappa, and the Experience Hendrix tour.

A "very independent guitarist," Vai is credited with being a member of the "generation of heavy rock and metal virtuosi who came to the fore in the 1980s." His most popular album, Passion and Warfare (1990), was hailed as "the richest and best hard rock guitar-virtuoso album of the '80s." Flex-Able, his debut solo album, was released in 1984. He has sold over 15 million records and was named the "10th Greatest Guitarist" by Guitar World magazine.

Tommy Emmanuel was born in Australia on May 31, 1955. He is frequently cited as one of the finest acoustic guitarists of all time and is renowned for his intricate fingerstyle playing, upbeat concerts, and usage of percussion effects. After starting out as a session musician for several bands, Emmanuel developed his own sound and released a number of albums and singles that won awards. Emmanuel was made an AM (Member of the Order of Australia) in June 2010 and was added to the Australian Roll of Renown in 2011.

Emmanuel had remarked that Chet Atkins's use of the thumb and fingers of the right hand to concurrently play bass lines, chords, melodies, and harmonies while producing a dynamic variety of sounds from the instrument had intrigued him even as a young child. Emmanuel's playing draws from a wide range of musical genres, including jazz, blues, bluegrass, folk, and rock, but at the basis of his sound is this kind of country fingerstyle playing. Emmanuel's natural musical talent, innate sense of rhythm, and charm won him fans from all over the world despite the fact that he has never received formal music training and cannot read or write music. He never follows a setlist when performing solo and uses the least amount of stage effects possible.

One of the best guitarists in the world with the most recordings is Brent Mason. In addition to earning a Grammy, he has also won the Academy of Country Music (ACM) Guitarist of the Year Award 14 times and the CMA Award Musician of the Year twice (being nominated every year since 1991). He has been ranked among the top ten session guitarists in the world, standing alongside Steve Cropper, Jimmy Page, Larry Carlton, and Tommy Tedesco. Brent has contributed to well over a thousand recordings and is still recording new music. He was admitted to the Musicians Hall of Fame in October 2019 and will be admitted to the Country Music Hall of Fame in July 2020.

For all of the best country stars and in other genres, Brent Mason has played on more than 1,000 records. He's a well-known studio musician who Chet Atkins first came across (also on this list). He has received numerous "musician of the year" and "guitarist of the year" accolades. Mason played on pretty nearly every popular country song.

In order to get an improbably constant and even tone with a precise and quick attack on the strings, Mason is known for heavily relying on a thumb pick and acrylic nails. But to reduce his abilities to just that would be a disgrace. He has his own line of signature guitar models and effects pedals in addition to being an outstanding songwriter and guitar teacher.

English guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter David Gilmour is a part of the rock group Pink Floyd. Prior to Syd Barrett's departure in 1967, he joined as the band's co-lead vocalist and guitarist. Pink Floyd's concept albums The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977), The Wall (1979), and The Final Cut (1980) were commercial successes around the world (1983). They were among the most well-known and successful musical artists by the early 1980s, and by 2012, they had sold more than 250 million records worldwide, including 75 million in the US. Pink Floyd carried on under Gilmour's direction when Roger Waters left the band in 1985 and produced three more studio albums.

David Gilmour is renowned for his ambient chords and basic yet powerful blues riffs with lots of note bending and sustain. He doesn't get much recognition for it, but he is as skilled at playing many other instruments. Although many have attempted to mimic his sound and recreate his precise instruments, you cannot duplicate his fingers, note selection, or affect usage. He executes it flawlessly in context, which earns him a spot on every best-of list, though not necessarily in the top 10. He is without a doubt the greatest lyrical guitarist ever.

George Benson, an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, was born on March 22, 1943. He started out as a jazz guitarist when he was 19 years old.

Benson, a former child prodigy, originally rose to fame performing soul jazz with Jack McDuff and others in the 1960s. After that, he started a lucrative solo career, switching between jazz, pop, R&B, and scat singing. His 1976 album Breezin, which debuted at the top of the Billboard album list, was triple-platinum certified. He continues to have a sizable fan base, and his concerts were widely attended throughout the 1980s. Benson has received recognition with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and has won 10 Grammy Awards.

Other guitarists appreciate Benson's work because he layers complex jazz structures on top of his blues skill. It results in a distinctive and rich composition. He also came across as quite likable because to his soft and sweet vocals. Benson claims that because of his devotion to his family and religious beliefs—he is a Jehovah's Witness—his music focuses more on love and romance. Benson has called Englewood, New Jersey, home.

Synyster Gates, sometimes known as Syn, is a stage name used by American guitarist Brian Elwin Haner Jr. (born July 7, 1981). He is best known for playing lead guitar and providing backing vocals for the heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold. He comes in at No. 9 on Guitar World's list of the greatest metal guitarists ever. In 2016 and again in 2017, Total Guitar selected Gates as the Best Metal Guitarist in the World.

Synyster Gates, a musician, author, and comedian who played in Sam the Sham's band in the 1970s and has performed in sessions for Avenged Sevenfold is the father of Synyster Gates. Gates pursued jazz and classical guitar studies at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles, California, as a part of the Guitar Institute of Music program. Gates has German and Spanish origins.

In the 2008 Kerrang! Readers Poll, Gates was selected as the Sexiest Male. He was named one of the 30 greatest shredders of all time by Guitar World in 2010. He was able to execute finger-twisting licks, acrobatic sweeps, diabolical chromatics, and towering dual harmonies, according to their accounts. One of the top 50 fastest guitarists in Guitar Hero is Gates. Gates won the awards for Best Metal Guitarist and Snappiest Dresser in Guitar World's 2010 Readers Poll. Gates was ranked as the third finest musician in the business in Rock One Magazine's 2010 Readers Poll. Together with bandmate Zacky Vengeance, Gates received the Revolver Golden God award for Best Guitarist on April 20, 2011. Avenged Sevenfold received multiple additional honors and gave the evening's main performance.