by NuWaveRx » Wed Jun 19, 2013 5:59 am
I guess, like so many discussions in this area it comes down to definitions. What does "great" guitarist mean? Technical virtuosity? Unique sound? Influence on later or contemporary musicians? NW wasn't usually about guitar technical prowess, so I suspect if that is the criterion the number of "worthys" are going to be pretty low: Andy Summers, Bill Nelson, Tom Verlaine, Johnny Marr, Perhaps Bob Mould, perhaps Brian Setzer (if their strain of rockabiliy would be counted in the "umbrella" version of NW) come to mind.
Mind you there are some guitarists who I was always very impressed with who weren't necessary "flash" lead players: I consider Stuart Adamson, Neil Clark, Peter Buck, Jeff Walls, Dave Gregory, James Honeyman-Scott, and Rob Buck to be among them.
Is it a unique sound? Dave Fielding (and agree with the need of the addition of Reg Smithies), Jaime West-Oram, The Edge (admire him or not, his use of harmonics really influenced a lot of people), Danial Ash, Robert Smith, Will Sergeant and others may not be Van Halen level technically good, but used their playing and effects to create something (relatively) new
These are always fun discussions, and we've had a number of them on the Outpost over the years. Always interesting, especially with guitarists and keyboardists, to hear the defintion of "great"[:)]