Who do you like better: Hendrix or Santana?

[magiccarpetride]

Paco de Lucia will always be The God of Guitar as far as I'm concerned. :-)

True. Paco was the undisputed master of feedback.

[Macca]

Some of my favourite guitar players are not really known primarily for their guitar playing. Neil Young, or Frank Zappa e.g

[magiccarpetride]

Just a ridiculous question.

Got nothing against Santana, got a few of his records. But still utterly ridiculous to even ask.

Well, here is what I'm getting at: much as absolutely adore Hendrix and think that his first three studio albums contain what probably is the most perfect electric guitar ever recorded, listening to some of his other stuff... well, I don't know how to put it, but it tends to get tedious.

For example, last night I was listening to the double LP "Hendrix in the West". Well, nice as it is, it contains too many of horrendous bum notes. Hendrix was often totally out of it, and tended to play a lot of garbage. Also, when he loses his muse and starts playing gibberish, the only way he tries to recover is to switch to making meaningless shitty noise. That's not very encouraging, considering he is the ultimate god in the guitar pantheon.

Meanwhile, in many decades that I've been following Santana's playing, he never managed to screw up his live playing. Yes, as he was getting older, the initial fire and fury started to subside (which is to be expected), but I have never ever heard Santana play a bum note. He is at worst just playing correctly, never thrashing the guitar the way Hendrix did way too many times.

And as the final argument, I quote Prince (another phenomenal guitarist) who said that yes, Hendrix may be the best, but Santana's guitar playing is prettier

[magiccarpetride]

Both, plus a huge amount of others.

The question that used to be asked was Hendrix or Clapton ?
My answer : Both

No way. Clapton is just too boxed in, always playing the same stuff. Hendrix was a mind-blowing innovator.

[Macca]

And as the final argument, I quote Prince (another phenomenal guitarist) who said that yes, Hendrix may be the best, but Santana's guitar playing is prettier

I think Prince nails it. And yes I agree he was a top player himself when he wanted to be.

[magiccarpetride]

Some of my favourite guitar players are not really known primarily for their guitar playing. Neil Young, or Frank Zappa e.g

Yeah, as I mentioned, my favourite guitar player is George Harrison, who is generally more known for his songwriting/sitar playing skills.

[Andy831]

No one has mentioned Alvin Lee

[MikeMusic]

No one has mentioned Alvin Lee

Saw him play live a few times. Wonderful.

As were so many other geetarr players.

[Andy831]

Very hard to choose the "best" Mike I agree with you on that.

There are also the Acoustic boys too the likes of Davy Graham, Micheal Hedges, Andy Mckee, its an endless list really, and I enjoy them all, and as a curve ball how about Kaki King to give the ladeeez a shout too

[mightymonoped]

Music is a such a subjective thing, trying to find "the best" (even "your" best for that matter) is a bit like trying to nail a blancmange to the wall.