Is there a "great" guitar player?

[Yousef]

Ever heard of Michael Romeo?
He is a guitarist for the band Symphony X, and he writes the majority of their songs, which include orchestras.
The song " The Odyssey " will show how much of a good guitarist and songwriter he is.
Check out this video of him

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PG2804ggsI0

At timestamp 0:40, he plays a legato/tapping/string skipping lick, that is shredtatstic but sounds very musical. That impresses most people I show it to, and I have not heard anyone who can play it as spot on as he can.
Here is also another impressive video of his though the sound quality is not amazing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPi5hNiO_H4

He also has one of the most impressive " Betcha can't play this " for guitar world, though I can't find it on youtube for somereason.
Joe Pass is amazing and has had his own signature Ibanez guitar, tell that to all those people who say Ibanez is just for shredders.

[sebotas86]

hey jairic have you seen a dude on the store playing double hand tapping and building the church in its hole extension?, come on man vai is unbeatable.
If i shall colaborate to this shredder topic i might say the insane john 5, great material of him.

[Analog_Kid]

If you'll allow me to interject some music off the path of Shred, and even guitar, here are a few interesting players in general... if you're looking for things that very few people can do:

Michael Manring - fretless bass:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yDay...eature=related
In this piece, he's playing a Zon Hyperbass. This isn't really the flashiest kind of thing he does but it's amazing, none-the-less. Not to mention that it's a wonderful composition. The camera is a little shaky at the start but it goes still quick enough.

Jeff Schmidt - fretless piccolo bass:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF4sJHBIYEo
Jeff's intonation is outstanding, considering what he's doing. I just got his new solo album and it's worth checking out. Nothing but bass.

Michael Hedges - acoustic guitar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29CMR...eature=related
The techniques the late Michael Hedges used are what caught people's attention but it's the compositions that matter. As he stated several times, the unorthodox techniques he played with were just the means to an end to get his musical ideas to translate, in full, to the acoustic guitar.

Andy McKee: acoustic guitar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt1fB62cGbo
McKee is part of the new breed of acoustic players picking up where Hedges, unfortunately, left off. He has an amazing sense of rhythm and a great ability to use every physical aspect of the guitar itself. This is his solo cover of Toto's "Africa".

[TequilaKing]

Allan Holdsworth

[andy7jem]

I've always loved this song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTC7k...eature=related

I just noticed one of the comments....
"if god could play guitar, it would sound almost as good as this" Brilliant

[jallen]

I see a lot of guys with Strats at the stoe and don't ever see anyone try something like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x_IV...eature=related

Maybe you're just bored of speed? Maybe you should look beyond playing fast?

[MelodyMan]

You know, I never really checked out any Jeff Beck...and watching that...wow. So beautiful.

[Martyr Machine]

I know, I know, Satch, Vai, Malmsteen, Gilbert, blah blah blah blah blah, they all bring the same bag, sometimes cool tunes with mildly impressive licks.

...what? None of those players are even remotely similar in style. Are you sure you've actually listened to them? Or have you just heard a solo or two from each of them and concluded that all of them are "mindless shredders"?
That said, the obvious suggestion would be Shawn Lane...

Gray Pianos Flying
Get you Back

[OLIE_ROCKS_THE_80'S]

Uli Jon Roth!!! Just watch!!!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=nmDTO3XUGZ4

[Eco]

If your not impressed by the shreaders, have a look at some of the more feely players like Rory Gallagher or Jeff Beck, they're not the same shreading sort of players you mentioned.

I listen alot to John Petrucci, Michael Romeo and Joe Satriani, i think they all have a great style.

Michael Romeo reminds me alot of Shawn Lane, not just his playing but his whole attitude when he talks about music.

[supermau]

Warren Haynes is a great guitar player who also writes great songs. Not a shredhead however.

[quiksilverdew]

Originally Posted by Eco

Michael Romeo reminds me alot of Shawn Lane, not just his playing but his whole attitude when he talks about music.

I've always felt exactly the same way!

[jairic]

There are a couple of things I have realized. Satch, Vai, etc, don't make albums solely for the purpose of expressing their skill alone. I always kind of looked at it as if they recorded them with the premise that it was the best they could play. A little while ago i stumbled across a video of Vai messig around, and at one point he played faster than i've ever heard anyone play.
another thing is, (as a few have mentioned) shred can get dull, so i think a large part of it was I was wanting to see somegreat guitar players that could be great without just playing fast.
I was sorry I made this thread at first because a lot of people got mad at me,but now I'm glad that I did becuase I've found some great performers to listen to, (analog kid posted some awesome stuff that wasn't even shred guitar) so it was worth I guess. So thanks to everone who contributed to the thread and gave suggestions, much appreciated!
Jake

[quiksilverdew]

^Please link this video hahaha

[OLIE_ROCKS_THE_80'S]

Originally Posted by jairic

There are a couple of things I have realized. Satch, Vai, etc, don't make albums solely for the purpose of expressing their skill alone. I always kind of looked at it as if they recorded them with the premise that it was the best they could play. A little while ago i stumbled across a video of Vai messig around, and at one point he played faster than i've ever heard anyone play.
another thing is, (as a few have mentioned) shred can get dull, so i think a large part of it was I was wanting to see somegreat guitar players that could be great without just playing fast.
I was sorry I made this thread at first because a lot of people got mad at me,but now I'm glad that I did becuase I've found some great performers to listen to, (analog kid posted some awesome stuff that wasn't even shred guitar) so it was worth I guess. So thanks to everone who contributed to the thread and gave suggestions, much appreciated!
Jake

Steve Vai can be very very fast if he wanted to. Think about it, he covered Yngwie's gig in Alcatrazz when shred was still young and he did it well.