Not stating this to diminish Hendrix, but there's another guitarist who most here would probably never put on a ‘top guitarists’ list, but who truly deserves mention - Terry Kath of Chicago. He had a lot of jazz and blues in him, and Hendrix thought Kath was great. He died young (gun cleaning accident was reported). He was very creative. Chicago doesn't top my list of the genre's of music I listen to, but Kath was superb.
I loved Terry's Kath's work with Chicago. He may not have been a virtuoso of Jimi's caliber, but he was definitely a hot player. He was one of the few guitarists I knew by name who didn't front a band back then. He really was good.