Lyrical, Melodic, Tuneful Guitar Players

[wire-n-wood]

I'm looking to discover new (to me) guitarists who have a vocal quality to their playing... guitarists that make you want to sing their solos. So I'm not looking for the most skillful chops or the fastest shreds, but for beautifully melodic guitar solos.

Springing to mind, there's David Gilmour, Mark Knopfler, Brian May.

Who else makes the guitar sing?

[Swain]

Jeff Beck.

[tonejunky]

I've posted this before, but wth.. it probably hasn't been heard enough:

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[TrevGrooves]

Kurt Rosenwinkle, Trey Anastasio, John Scofield, Chuck Garvey; to name a few.

[Triangle]

Another vote for Derek Trucks
Its almost unfair how how vocal his lines are.
Close your eyes and try not imagine an old black woman blues singer instead of him playing. Skip to ~4:50 if you really can't sit through six and a half minutes of awesome
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[tnvol]

Steve Lukather. Amazing player and incredibly lyrical and soulful with more chops than you can stuff in a dump truck.

[Rockledge]

A guy named Mike Alsup doesn't get his due. He is the guy that played guitar for Three Dog Night. They are a rock era band , had a lot of very catchy hit songs.
But their albums were quite good and the guitar work was often very melodic.
Never Been to Spain has one of my favorite guitar leads.

[PVH5150]

Gary Moore. I hum this solo every time I hear it.

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[Lespaulsignature 74]

Leslie West

[musicofanatic5]

Jerry Garcia

[DanHorse]

check out Airbag, Bjorn Ris is a very DG like player, as is Bryan Josh with Mostly Autumn.

also try:

Riverside
Porcupine Tree
Camel

Granted these are all groups but i love them for the melodic guitar parts.

[Elev8]

Steve Rothery of Marillion.
May not be your cup of tea style-wise, but your description is exactly how I have/would describe his solo playing. Soaring & melodic.
He's one of my favourite players. There are literally dozens of his solos I'd like to link here as examples, but these are a few faves.

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[6Tones]

Chet Atkins .

[facesfan]

Knopfler would have to be número uno. Clapton,George,the husbands in law,RT at times,Terry Clements, Gordon Lightfoot's lead player.Mr. Richard Betts made his SG and LP sing.

[blueslover16]

+1 on Derek Trucks

[Clifford-D]

Steve Kimock

[Bass-Dawg]

Leslie West, Carlos Santana

[rob2001]

He's known as a shredder but I love John Petrucci for his melodic playing. Sure he can blaze, but when he does slower melodic stuff his phrasing and note choice resonates with me.

[Probos]

David Gilmour
Ty Tabor

[suckamc]

Guthrie, of course, has a stunning ear for melody. So does Yngwie, despite what people CHOOSE to hear from him. Like others have said, Derek Trucks and Ty Tabor. Jeff Beck, obviously.

But ESPECIALLY Pat Metheny.

[Elev8]

Probably would add Michael Schenker, Brian Robertson & Randy Rhoads to this list too.

[rwe333]

Lotsa great players mentioned...

When they decide to play melodically, Jan Akkerman, Ulrich Roth and Neal Schon are wonderful. Paul Kossoff of Free is stunning on slower tunes like "Be My Friend", "Oh I Wept", "Moonshine" and "I Love You So".

Hard to fault the beautiful playing of jazzers like Jim Hall and Ed Bickert, or the acoustic work of Richard Thompson and Bruce Cockburn.

[CharlyG]

Leslie West
Carlos Santana
Mark Farner
Sir Paul
Gary Moore on slow blues
Bill G
Alvin Lee on slow blues
BB King
all come to mind for me

[Kitten Cannon]

Believe it or not, I think John Mayer deserves a mention here... the solo in this song is a very good example, and this was early in his career - I think he's only gotten better:
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But my #1 choice would be Jim Campilongo. Here's a less often cited example of his tremendous lyricism as a player (having PSG behind him doesn't hurt of course :)):
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[smallbutmighty]

Two of my favorite melodic guitar players:

Neal Schon
Joe Satriani

[aliensporebomb]

The amazing Terje Rypdal:

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And this is the track that got me into Rypdal in the first place:

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And watch him play his custom 8-string Fender Stratocaster at 0:40 in this video: So lyrical:

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[MGT]

Definitely Michael Schenker!!

[zzzezums]

garcia, kimock, knopfler, gilmour.

[9fingers]

Got to send pluses for Jeff Beck & Dickey Betts when it comes to sheer melody.

[tiktok]

Steve Rothery of Marillion.
May not be your cup of tea style-wise, but your description is exactly how I have/would describe his solo playing. Soaring & melodic.
He's one of my favourite players. There are literally dozens of his solos I'd like to link here as examples, but these are a few faves.

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Total Agreeance.

[m1911]

Man, I've always thought guys like Duane Allman, Dickey Betts, Toy Caldwell, Steve Gaines, Mick Taylor, Eric Clapton, and Peter Green to be as Melodic as you'll find.
I think many times the more technical players like Eric Johnson lose it (or maybe just me) when they try to do too much changing keys, and hammering out machine gun fired notes.

I've heard it argued that some people put down players using primarily Pentatonics, and the other side would say that guys play that way because it's the closest resemblance to the human voice and similar to what a singer might sing......which "usually" (sould be) is MELODIC.....
Just my 2 cents....

[tonejunky]

^ Duane Allman is one of the most moving and inspiring 'melodious' lead players there has ever been.

And here's a classic song with a beautiful instrumental melody by a different well-known guitarist:

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[Sandy Cheeks]

Lot of jazz guitarists: Jim Hall, Bill Frisell, Pat Metheny, Ed Bickert.

[mrpinter]

Mike Campbell, of Tom Petty's Heartbreakers, comes to mind: here is a sample. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZK_7yoM2T0&feature=related)

[Carlo]

George harrison

[flea]

Tommy Emmanuel, John Mayer, and Keith Urban are three that come to mind with me. That covered in rain solo is still probably my favorite solo of all time. All from a two chord song, shattered my perception that you had to write a lot of chord changes into a song for it to be good.

[Swain]

Ronnie Earl.

[NeedJesus081]

Robben Ford, Larry Carlton for blues/jazz fusion.

[tsar nicholas]

Graham Coxon!

[steveRB]

Even Richard Dawkins believes in Steve Rothery....

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[PVH5150]

Steve Rothery of Marillion.
May not be your cup of tea style-wise, but your description is exactly how I have/would describe his solo playing. Soaring & melodic.
He's one of my favourite players. There are literally dozens of his solos I'd like to link here as examples, but these are a few faves.

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Thank you for turning me onto this band. Excellent stuff.
And they're touring the States in 2012. I might have to go see them.

[russ6100]

One has to wonder if the list of guitarists posted would be any different if the question would have been "Who are your favorite guitarists?" instead of asking for the most lyrical, melodic etc..

melodic = "material I like"
lyrical = "material I like"
tuneful = (see melodic)

:rotflmao

[Wagster]

Andy Timmons
Eric Johnson

[deeohgee]

Bill Frisell
Johnny Marr
Grant Green

[Rockledge]

Leslie West when he was doing Felix Pappalardi songs.
Man, he did melodies on a guitar that could have been melody lines to nursery rhymes, simple childlike melodies that just take you apart.
The live version of "Long Red" is fantastic. All the lead guitar parts to Nantucket Sleighride are pure genius.

[Fenderesq]

Mick Taylor; Dickey Betts; Wayne Perkins; Marc Ford; Matt Rae; Brian Setzer.

[Elev8]

Thank you for turning me onto this band. Excellent stuff.
And they're touring the States in 2012. I might have to go see them.

No worries :D
They burned bright for a short while in the early-mid 80s. "Kayleigh" is by far their most popular track... responsible for the conception/naming of many baby girls :) but they were only really ever a niche band. They have maintained a fairly solid & fervent base of fans however.

Coming to them new, I'd have to advise the lead vocalist/lyricist/stylist Derek Dick (aka "Fish" owing to a legendary fondness for alcohol) left the band in 1988. He was replaced,and they continued, but their sound & general direction changed a bit as a result.

I like both lineups but prefer the former. All the songs I linked were from that era. If you see them live next year, it'll be the new guy, so will be quite different. Rothery will still be awesome, of course :)

Youtube is your friend to check out the current incarnation, or I think someone else linked one on this thread already.

:)

Fish also went on to a solo career, with guitar duties mainly handled by Frank Usher http://www.frankusherguitars.co.uk/

[tapeworm]

Joe Bonamassa.

:hide

[whaiyun]

Keith Urban for sure! Love his melodic sense. A natural!

[dlguitar64]

Lot of jazz guitarists: Jim Hall, Bill Frisell, Pat Metheny, Ed Bickert.


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[Allen in San Jose]

Dann Huff, Andy Timmons.

Both of them can shred their butts off, but they're always melodic and always lyrical (and certainly tuneful!)

[Windup 43]

Steve Rothery of Marillion.
May not be your cup of tea style-wise, but your description is exactly how I have/would describe his solo playing. Soaring & melodic.
He's one of my favourite players. There are literally dozens of his solos I'd like to link here as examples, but these are a few faves.

yLcOqfpS1_4
C0e042ZZnCw
Ny04UI3IkPI
WeMAEzvcwao Nice, big fan too since the early 80's.

[Frank Prince]

Though primarily known as a shredder, I'd have to add John Sykes to the list.
The lead guitar breaks on Is This Love are achingly melodic and lyrical, and he also created some beautiful melodic textures with the rhythm parts on that tune.

He hit the sweet spots on a couple of other Whitesnake ballads and some Blue Murder stuff as well.

[Uli Jon Blackmore]

Gilmore and Uli Jon Roth for the harder players, Knopfler for the economic, less gainy players. Schon for the pop rockers.

[GulfportBound]

B.B. King
Mike Bloomfield
Wes Montgomery
Peter Green
Robby Krieger
Albert King
Eric Clapton
Charlie Christian
Grant Green
Shuggie Otis
David Gilmour
Paul Kossoff
Les Paul
Hank Garland

. . . to name a few . . .

[Rockledge]

Lindsey Buckinghams solo albums always have beautiful melodies on them. The guy just has a feel for catchy but creative melodies.

[clintb]

+1 on Marillion. Their "Childhood's End" album is a classic in the prog world. I would say it is one of the few "perfect" albums I own.

If you like Marillion, check out these other keyboard-heavy bands with melodic guitar:

Steve Hackett - with 1970s Genesis, but especially on his solo albums.
Genesis - "Firth of Fifth".
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Check out this play list on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW_7YyKawbw&feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=AVGxdCwVVULXfjpbK1lYAoEaGpKGFB2kEi

IQ - another band that came out around the same time as Marillion
Here are a couple sample tracks:
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Their "Subterranea" album is another album that I would say is pretty much a perfect album.

Camel (Andy Latimer)
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He also plays flute:
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