I gave up on trying to play guitar at any sort of professional level years back. If Jack Benny had played guitar instead of violin....yeah, like him.

However I'm primarily a bassist by choice and have been since 1968. Early influences are important. They were Noel Redding, Donald Dunn and James L. Jamerson plus someone I didn't even know at that time but have grown to know and admire just as much as the rest. The then unheralded Carol Kaye was playing bass on more records than all the others combined.

So I was hacking along having went through the Mel Bay books of the day, a Ventures "Play Along With The Ventures" LP that was for guitarists on one side and bassists on the other with a nifty instruction booklet that came with the LP. No lessons, because there were no bass instructors around the rural county where I grew up. I was in the school band for the last 7 years of public school where I played woodwinds and percussion. So I had some musical training but for some reason I was not relating anything I learned in school band to bass. Then about 1972 I dove into Carol Kaye's "How To Play Electric Bass" and at that point it all started to click for me, after FOUR years in the wilderness I found a method I enjoyed that challenged me to learn to apply sound music theory to electric bass. Later I bought her cassettes and after that her VHS tapes and I have some of her DVD's now.

So I'd say Carol Kaye was the greatest influence upon me as a bassist, but for some reason to me I sound more like Duck Dunn. Go figure. I'll never be as good as him, but since I only play finger style I don't think I'll ever play anything much like Ms. Kaye either. But other than her insistence on using a pick, her methods are structurally sound. For some reason it seems to me that players that start out on electric bass primarily play finger style while guitarists (like Ms. Kaye) who convert to electric bass more often than not are pick style players.

to many to name; from steve albini to jeremy neale. i try to have a wide range of influence, but really i just play/sound like whatever my feelings tell me.
i'd say guitarist 'taught' me to play, often when i'm watching live videos of numerous artists, i watch there picking hand, see if i can spot any movements that i can gradually work on, even andy woods, proguitarshop demo person on YT, he's influenced my picking work a heap.

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riley

look up steve albini. you wont regret it. god of noise rock and math rock

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riley

Steve "god" Albini
D. Boon
Buzz Osborne
Bubba Dupree
Greg Sage
Joey Santiago
Duane Denison
J. Mascis

Off the top of my head, some guys that have influenced my playing and overall way of experiencing music.

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Favorite bands:

Melvins
The Jesus Lizard
Cows
Big Business
R***man
Minutemen
Flight
Minor Threat
Big Black
Shellac
Karp
Scratch Acid
Wipers
Pixies

Me deep influences are the ones I spent the most time trying to emulate as a kid: John, Paul and George, EC, Paul Simon and James Taylor, Martin Barre. But now, when I play my own stuff, the guy people most often tell me I sound like is Larry Carlton. Which would make sense because he's the guitar player I've listened to the most.

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Jim Bordner
Gravity Music - www.gravitymusic.com
Composer, producer, Egnater Artist

For me it would have to be John Frusciante. I could listen to his music and watch interviews with him all day, he also seems to have a much deeper (or different) understanding of music to anyone else i've ever seen. I just generally love what the man does with a guitar.

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"Blind faith in your leaders, or in anything, will get you killed" - Bruce Springsteen

Hard question for me. I think of it more like admiration and inspiration. When I really want to be inspired, I like to watch Steve Vai videos. Although I sound nothing like him. I just really admire what he does and it inspires me to pick up a guitar and noodle around a little.

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Inspired by Clapton and sound like Me

I have been influenced by many guitarist (the list is too long to enumerate) but through the years I have developed my own style and sound.
But I was once compared to Carlos Santana which I humbly took as a great compliment.

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Nashville Tele, Gretsch DuoJet, Gibson LesPaul, Silverface BandMaster (AB763), Mustang Floor, Macbook Pro (OS X 10.12), Logic Pro X, Apogee Duet (Firewire), MOTU 828 MKII.

It was John Lennon and George Harrison who inspired me to pick up guitar and become a musician but it was Jimi Hendrix who got me face and eyes into it.The main influence on my playing style is definitely Hendrix,I use the same scales and note patterns that Jimi did as well as his 3 step bends so his influence is definitely obvious.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

I sound most like the guy that did the lead for the song "On The Cover of The Rolling Stone". Beautiful!

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'10 American Deluxe HSS Sunset Metallic
'10 JA-90 Thinline Telecaster
'15 Music Man JP-15 Blueberry Burst
'07 Les Paul Standard Faded LCPG #82
'14 Carvin ST300
'12 Carvin CS424S
'66 Guild Starfire IV w/Bigsby
'14 Warmouth Partscaster Daphne Blue

That's my story in a nutshell, too.

I just listen to whoever and whatever and try to put my own spin on it. I love SRV, Clapton, BB, Mayer. Its all good.

Influenced by many, sound like no other.

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Too many to post some very relevant others unknown, a few forgotten
Sound like No one Else Thankfully...Though the wifey does often say
" That does not sound like Blues..!!!..?? It has too many notes.
To which I reply..." Good... there is silence for accents though...
What was that rhyme..... " Pentatonic ...Pantomime.."

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "