[duckman]

“...no doubt in my mind that Beck is the greatest guitarist ever.”

Agree, however, IMO Alvin Lee w/10 Years After is a pretty close second!

[LS]

I don't think it's close at all. Lee was a very old-line blues player who happened to be extremely fast. But he played the same 3-4 licks over and over again. I saw Lee many times, and he was boring after the first 10 minutes.

Hendrix is #2, then Clapton, then Page, Vaughn, and Van Halen. After that, in my book, the drop-off is so severe as to not warrant discussion. There were some very, very fast players like Yngvie Malmstein and Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, but again, they were more about flash and less about actually controlling the song.

[Psalm 73]

Quick cute story:

First date with wife, (1996), heading out to a Shakespeare play - "what's in your tape deck"?, two seconds after I push play, she said: "Mmmm, Goodbye Pork Pie Hat - Wired is my favorite Jeff Beck, too".

We married the next year.