It Might Get Loud - Name a substitute for The Edge

The chops galore show, plus Kenny tells great stories and John is very articulate speaking on music,

John Campilongo
Kenny Burrell
Adrian Belew

The loose as a goose dazzler,

Eddie Van Halen
Albert Lee
John McLaughlin

Good clean fun,

Bonnie Raitt
Keith Richards
Al Anderson

Heavy!,

Wino
Buzz Osborne
Tony Iommi

Slidin' Some Slide,

Sonny Landreth
Roy Rodgers
Derek Trucks

 

THANK YOU! I feel most of the responses regarding 'take out JW, Edge is the best' are all coming from people who don't understand/play guitar or are just too involved being U2 fans

I love JW but yes his personality and vibe are unusual and almost negative. However, JW is much closer to a caliber of JP playing then the Edge IMO... I love the part when Edge goes over a famous riff, all distorted and sustained and really looks into it. Then he dials down the gain and reveals he's simply playing 3 basic chords

 

Baddi Assad
Luciana Souza
Ry Cooder


David Rawlings
Johnny Marr
Buddy Miller



Baaba Maal
Femi Kuti
Ernest Ranglin

Eddie Van Halen
Leslie West
Tad Doyle

Brian May
Billy Corigan
Billy Duffy

 

Lol, most of the guitarists named in lieu of Edge or White would barely get the documentary onto Netflix, much less into the theaters.

 

The Unforgettable Fire is such a great guitar album, almost a showcase. The Edge is a fantastic guitarist.

 

Anyone who can actually improvise. Edge, play the blues!

 

A lot of folk here really have a one dimensional view of what you are able to do with a guitar.

 

Even though he ignored Bono's request and didn't play the blues at all, that Silver & Gold live solo is fabulous. Not difficult to play but utterly fabulous.

 

Page playing air guitar on Link Wray - Rumble. That was very cool!

 

I like that his style is not blues based. I love blues & blues rock but I think its takes a bit more imagination to not use them.

 

Billy zoom......Adrian belew......

 

Michael J. Fox

 

But again, as a guitar player I feel like the people who go "The Edge" is too simply is missing the point of the way he plays guitar. So what if he is only playing 3 basic chords? He knows how to use processing to make it sound unique and great within the context of the music he is playing on and to me that is all that matters

 

Yeah, most of you should never quit your day jobs to become movie producers, or music critics. My God, the snobbery on full display here.
Some obscure or cult status guitarist is never going to make it into a mainstream documentary. No way, no how. Why? It won't make money.
And some of you are proposing dead guitarists! Yes, by all means, let's dig up Roy Buchanan and get him in there instead of The Edge. Great idea...
Ay yay yay...

Love,
Billy

 

Three chords and the truth.

 

And plus all in all its just a fun little movie of three guitar players hanging out, this isn't supposed to be "the three guitar players who stylistically play best with each other" or "the three objectively best guitar players ever", this is just three dudes who are hanging out and talking about music and their past.

 

I guess I assumed this thread was just a fun little exercise, and not something to be taken too seriously (if at all).

Because the band originally formed as a quasi post-punk band so you have to assume they were never looking for a guitar virtuoso in the first place, right?

Regardless of how artistically limited U2 may be, I think the sum of the parts (bass, guitar, drums) is greater than the whole (or something like that). Individually, they all compliment each other and no one in the band is greater than the others (even though Bono is the universally acknowledged leader on-stage and off), and that's what makes their music so great, imo. To say George Lynch should've replaced The Edge is like saying David Lee Roth should've been their front man. Can you picture that? I'll give you a minute...

 

No guitarist could have written the music for The Unforgettable Fire, Joshua Tree or Achtung Baby except The Edge. Consider that. Three classic albuns chocked with top songs overflowing with tasty guitar.

 

Right. And if DLR was their frontman, all their song lyrics could've been written in the style of Mexican greeting cards.

 

One problem: nobody knows who Billy Duffy is.

 

Billy Duffy is one fine guitar player. If he were in U2, I dare say he would be a household name.

 

But he’s not a household name. That is the point.

 

And do remember who were producing or co-producing these albums... Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno.

 

George Martin, Jeff Lynne and Costello have produced Paul McCartney. Are you saying that Lanois & Eno wrote the songs and the guitar parts?

 

Nope I am not saying that.

They worked with the cream of the crop and the best of the band came out on these albums you have listed. I would also add Zooropa to your list.

I wonder why all of this acrimony about the Edge playing style. He’s a fine guitar player, final point. I would however like to hear him in another outing than U2. I think he wrote some movie soundtrack, Captive IIRC.

At their peak, U2 were the main act in the 80’s while all of the other big ones were under the radar for a while after the punk era.
They were able to sustain that long which is not the case for many of this generation bands.

I am mot a fan but rather an objective music listener.