I would add Clapton to my list of all time great guitar players.He'd be on my list, too.
Some recordings I still love to listen to when I get the chance: his blues duets with Jimmy Page (then a session musician primarily). I've probably heard him play better, but I can't think of too many times when he was more relaxed and more at peace with his music than those.
And I'll throw one to Mike Bloomfield, too. Beautiful player. If it hadn't been for Bloomfield and Eric Clapton, the Les Paul guitar as we all know it probably wouldn't have been resurrected. (Gibson had actually stopped making the classic Les Paul circa 1960; the SG was intended to replace it, notwithstanding that Les Paul himself wasn't crazy about the new model, but Bloomfield turned up playing one in his final days with the Butterfield Blues Band and Clapton turned up playing one with John Mayall and in the earliest Cream days---his original Les Paul was stolen, it was said, during the sessions for Fresh Cream, and he replaced it with the Les Paul SG that he eventually had painted into the famous psychedelic job---and, with the influence those two wielded, plus Peter Green on the crack Mayall set A Hard Road and with the early Fleetwood Mac, guitar players started hunting down the guitars and Gibson got wise . . . I could be wrong, but they started making the guitars again to stay in 1968.)
Bloomfield and don’t mention Butterfield’s Band? SHAME!
Sorry...you did mention Butter in there...didn’t see it...but what about his wok? Done a Lot of Wrong Things is still in my top ten list for vocals and harp playing...
Buddy Miller’s Italian Davoli Guitar gets honorable mention ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPDwrQtR9n0