Favourite 90's guitarists

Frisell is my favorite guitarist and biggest musical influence. I will say, though, that I miss his use of the volume pedal. One of the beautiful things that’s a part of his sound was having the compression pedal come before the volume pedal and this in conjunction with delay and reverb gave him a gorgeous sound that he seemed to have abandoned around the mid-90s. Yes, he used to use an Electro-Harmonix 16-second delay and loop certain chords or motifs and play on top of them and this sounded so gorgeous. He still does this but with a Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler.

 

Thalia and Chris Brokaw as a classic two guitar combo (Stones, Television, etc. ), definitely.

I’d add Sir Richard Bishop, Kurt, Albini, Kevin Shields, Lee Renaldo (& Thurston), Andy Cohen and Joel RL Phelps (Silkworm), Ian and Guy, and ****, I guess Ask the Ages is from 91 so Sonny Sharrock.

 

Geordie Walker

 

Robb Flynn
Dino Cazares
Max Calavera/Andreas Kisser
Billy Graziadei/Bobby Hambel
Dimebag Darrell
Tommy Victor

 

Trey Anastasio

it was his peak decade.

 

Man, three pages and no mention of J Mascis?
Sure, he started in the 80's (but so did Kurt, Kirk, Kim, Jerry) but he wrote some great stuff in the 90's.

The Hendrix of my generation

 

Matt Pike

 

1.John Frusciante
2.Jerry Cantrell
3.J Mascis
4.Kurt Cobain
5.Lucio Maia

 

Kevin Shields

 

Neil Fraser
Fennesz
Josh Homme
Kat Bjelland
Bernard Butler
J.Mascis
Dave Wyndorf

The combination of Brownstein/ Tucker.... really hard to separate aren't they?

 

1. Jerry Cantrell
2. Dimebag Darrell
3. James Hetfield
4. Dave Mustaine
5. Dean Ween
6. Tom Morello
7. Pepper Keenan & Kirk Windstein
8. Kim Thayll
9. Adam Jones
10. John Frusciante

 

People may think of him what they will but Reeves Gabrels is a very interesting and individual player.

 

Kat Bjelland is a great choice

 

Paul Leary

 

Just off the top of my head....

1. Dimebag Darrell-a bit of a cliche choice, but screw it. Very inventive player; with a mix of Eddie, Iommi, some of the country and blues he and Vinnie were raised on (for those who don’t know, their father is a country musician), and a dash of more song oriented rock players like Ace, he created this totally ripping yet very pure and organic sound, kept the metal yet brought a bluesier touch back after it was discarded.
   
2. Larry LaLonde: Often gets overlooked in favor of Les, but again, very original player with some cool abstract phrasings, and like Dime (and Adrian Belew, but I digress), he made effects part of the sound without being dependent on it and without it becoming a gimmick.
3. Buckethead: Dude can freakin rip, mixes metal, funk, avant garde, prog, and even some psychedelic blues into this weird stew. Though I’m a bigger fan of him than the ones listed above, I put him here as most of my work of his is in the 2000s.
4. Jerry Cantrell: Again, pretty old school. His leads and melodies are just so beautifully crafted, he’s one of those dudes that just always seem to know what’s good for a particular song. His playing is just as haunting as his and Layne’s voices and builds so much of the atmosphere. Also, “Rotten Apples”, one of the best uses of talkbox I’ve ever heard.
5. Derek Trucks: One of the best blues or slide players I can think of. A tone of pure gold, his mix of the blues with rock, fusion, and world music is steeped in tradition, yet it feels like nothing else man. And this dude started at 13! What were you doing at 13? Me, nothing worth talking about!
6. Marty Friedman: Not my favorite Megadeth guitarist (that would be Chris Poland), but man, his phrasing, his use of Japanese scales, and his solos which were shreddy yet still felt like a song within a song. Also, check out some of his solo stuff like Scenes and Introduction, really cool ambient pieces very unlike what you come to expect from him or Megadeth.
   
7. Warren Haynes: Steeped in the tradition of not only the Allman Brothers but also Cream And Zeppelin among others, he really revitalized the Allmans, giving a bluesy touch with an agressive acid-fueled touch to the proceedings.
8. Dave Navarro: While most seem to know him more from that Tattoo Ink show now, the man was a fantastic player. Very technically skilled and versatile, his style was a mix of hard rock, alternative, Gothic, and psychedelia. Even his more subdued moments still bring a real weight to the song at hand. Very unique sound and touch on the instrument, just wish we could hear it more.
9. Kim Thayil: When it comes to Soundgarden, everyone thinks of Chris Cornell’s voice or even Matt Cameron’s drumming, but Kim has such a cool Sabbath/post punk style and the little unorthodox touches he brings to a song are just so darn cool. Just as important to the sound as those two.
10. Tom Morello: Not so much a guitarist as a sonic designer, creating an aural painting of the righteous fury that fills his music.

 

Live, Babes In Toyland could be downright scary and powerful! But of course Hole were the band that made it....

 

Great choice!

 

Bob Mould
Chuck Prophet

 

bob mould is more an 80's man no?? but he's so great

 

so happy to see jerry cantrell quoted so much, he is so great

 

Dean Deleo
Jerry Cantrell

 

To some extent. Husker Du broke up at the end of the 80’s and Bob released a string of brilliant to pretty good albums since. Likewise Chuck Prophet was part of Green on Red in the 80’s/90’s but has released great albums since. His playing is much more subtle now but great

 

Kim Thayil
Rich Robinson
Marc Ford
Josh Homme
Neil Hagerty

 

+ to my list:

Suso Saiz
Mickey "Dean Ween" Melchiondo