I've been influenced by many guitar players, from Hendrix to SRV, but one of the determining factors that had me take up the guitar was Mark Farner. Clapton, Page and Alvin Lee were also influential on the decision.

i got my first guitar at 10. didn't use it though, but already knew all the basic chords and how to hold a powerchord
the musician that inspired me to actually play it as a serious thing would be kurt cobain. i'm hardly influenced by him anymore, but i deeply respect nirvanas music

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former user radio_friendly_unit_shifter

Feb. 9,1964,two guitarists from Liverpool inspired me to become a lifelong musician and I've been an absolute music fanatic ever since.When Jimi Hendrix first hit my eardrums I had another musical Epiphany and went at the guitar wholeheartedly, practicing 10 hours or more every day.All in all between the 3 of them John,George and Jimi guided me down a path that led to the most important thing in my life,music,and I'll be forever indebted to them for that.

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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.

To your generation he is the guitar hero! In my time it was Jimi! By the way, my first good guitar I ever purchased was a brand new black Mustang. I still got it to this day! I read the book The Chosen Misfits, it tells the Nirvana story. Kurt was in alot of pain towards the end of his life. His heroin use was not just recreational, the guy was in great pain in his stomach. His woman use to look fine back then, he has a daughter also, it is too bad he did not hang on a little longer. Maybe medicine today could have helped with his ailment!

I think I've mentioned it before on here.





As a kid growing up in the 70's, after watching him on T.V. and hearing him play on those Kiss albums, I HAD to have a guitar. I had his posters and Circus Magazine pictures all over my wall.

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Noel Gallagher - never going to be considered a great guitarist (rightly so), but he is one of the best songwriters of the last 20 years, easy. i grew up in mid '90's england, it was all about oasis.

the song were easy to play, easy to improvise to, and sounded great. and my next door neighbour, who got me started, loved it aswell. many night were spent in his garage when i was 15 playing out of the tab book for "whats the story morning glory".

Chris Stein, Glen Tilbrook & Chris Difford, Johnny Ramone and Pete Green.

Those are the people that made guitar turn from a background instrument to something that made me go wild with a tennis racquet, jumping around the front room whilst the radio was on. As a kid.

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No no and no

Not gonna lie; Green Day is what made me BEG for what would be my forst guitar. The nit was AC/DC (the very definition of dumb, mindless rock. I also felt the need to compare everything I heard to them.. ), and then Nirvana.

I'd say Kurt was the first one that really had an impact on my playing. His songs were the first I actually bothered to learn all the way through, and it essentially introduced me to power chords. I didn't realize it at the time, but his song writing was also IMMENSELY influential on my own. From there I delved into harder and more aggressive music, perhaps most importantly hardcore punk. Oddly enough, I didn't really take much influence from it until AFTER I had branched out further; that said, the result was an ungodly fast strumming hand. From there, it was various "classic" alternative bands and more and more punk, which is where I kinda flatlined for a while. It picked back up again when I got into garage/garage-punk, mainly (and fairly recently; I'd say late October at the latest) John Dwyer's projects Coachwhips, Thee Oh Sees, and Pink & Brown. This is where that strumming hand really started coming into play... The nature of this music, a primal, rhythm centric wall of pure noise and energy, created this unending desire for me to push everything to the edge, right to the absolute brink of completely falling apart and completely exploding. And that's how I found myself where I am now; wanting nothing more out of my ability (which, not to toot my own horn, is FAAAAR beyond this, which is essentially punk rock's retarded cousin ) than to make as much noise as possible, as fast as possible, while shouting into a phone receiver-turned-mic until I'm blue in the face and all the oxygen in the world couldn't help me catch my breath.


That ended up being more a story of how I developed as a player rather than who influenced me, but still

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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

For me it was Clapton. I mean, after the Beatles, Clapton (in his Cream days) was incredible and really spoke to me.

I remember being something like 10 years old and hearing the famous signature guitar lick that opens "Sunshine Of Your Love" from an older sisters cranked up record player. I ran to my other sister's bedroom and picked up her nylon string guitar. Somehow, someway, I learned that I had an "ear" for music. I plucked out those famous notes without ever taking a lesson or knowing how to make a guitar chord. My sister came into her room and caught me red handed with her nylon string guitar. She yanked the guitar away and then started to beat the crap out of me!

For me, the first guitarist I took notice of was Clapton. Then it would have been Chris Rea and Mark Knopfler. I put these guys cos they were always 'described' as guitarists first and foremost. Ultimately, the Eagles would have been my biggest influence and it wasn't till I played guitar and 'went back' to them that I took notice of the guitars in all the other Eagles stuff. Bernie Leadon and Joe Walsh and Don Felder still blow me away with their grasp of the instrument, whether lead or rhythm.....

Then it just goes on and on and on........I heard Wilson Pickett's version of Hey Jude for the first time in about 20 years and Duane Allman's guitar on that made the hairs on my neck stand up. I raved to Mrs Wookee about it and she said, 'Evan, that sounds like how you play....'

You retain everything you hear and I realised that some of his licks in that have became part of my staple playing phrases without necessarily thinking about it....go figure........

As you progress though different artists will make you look at the guitar again and learn new stuff...for me Ben Harper, Andy McKee, Tim Reynolds, Dave Matthews and Warren HAynes(to name but a few) have caused me to 'go back' and take off in a direction I wouldn't have thought about ten years previous............

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speak slowly I'm a drummer too!!

And I proudly lack a stick or a kazoo up my arse...........

Mark Knopfler. And then I discovered he had a lot from Chet Atkins. So that's the two.

Cheers

David

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"Humans think they are smarter than dolphins because we build cars and buildings and start wars etc...and all that dolphins do is swim in the water, eat fish and play around. Dolphins believe that they are smarter for exactly the same reasons."

Another vote for Ace Frehley here. I saw him live with the original KISS line up when I was 7 years old. I was already a huge fan of his by that point and dressed up as Ace EVERY year for Halloween.

I listened to a lot of guitar players growing up but none of them made me want to PLAY guitar the way Ace did. To me that makes him a super valuable influence regardless of techique or ability. That said, I still think he rocks!!

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I grew up on Pete Townshend on one hand and Duane Allman on the other (not an obvious pairing...). But I think it was when I heard Mark Knopfler that I first thought; "Hey, maybe I could do that?"

If I practiced for the rest of my life I'd never be able to play like Duane. And in a different way there's things Pete does I've never been able to do. But I sort of can get my fingers around some of Mark's playing, if I try hard. My brain kinda gets it. A bit...

Cheers - C

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My uncles....I didn't, and still don't, have to look very far.

Interesting theme- forces me to think about 40 years back. It really took me by surprise when my uncle suddenly gave me his 11 year old Hofner arch top . He had noticed my interest for it , and had bought himself a nylon str , which suited his style better. Kind man! I was not really inspired of someone special - just wanted to find out how this guitar worked ! I had been playing the piano for several years , and was determined to make the guitar do what I wanted it to do. At that time I was also getting more into the Beatles ,despite they already had split. So I think George Harrison, must have been my first inspiration . But - that would not have happened without my uncles generosity

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A-man