I quite like Brian Patrick Caroll, AKA Buckethead. The dude's epic.

Sweet no?

Greatest:
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Good:
Tuck Andress
Joe Satriani
and I don't know...

Worst:
Richard Benson (just check something on youtube)

Smegma and the others, Stevie Ray Vaughan didn't know so much scales and shit, but he could make amazing things with the little knowledge he had.

best
George Harrison
worst
That one Jonas brother

well that is the idea. who do yout think is the best.

allso on the tab part. there are kinda few pro guitarists out there that can really read sheat music and most of them neer the less preffer tabs becouse its easyer.

indeed hendrix (r.i.p.) was a great guitarist.

forgot about the shadows guys. what they play isnt that difficult but its how they play it. with sooo much skill :P (songs arnt really much fun but if u look at it from how its played thyre gods of guitar)

lolno. just because he didn't read scale charts off the internet, it doesn't mean he didn't know what he was doing. SRV had an incredible talent for picking out the right chord, for example, which he picked up from years of playing and listening to music. Maybe he wouldn't be able to attach a name or label to half the stuff he did, but that doesn't mean he didn't know how to construct a progression or melody.
All the people who go round waving ultra-technical fine points of music theory and pointing out how to form 300 kinds of altered chords are usually the guys who know the least when the instrument is in their hands, since reading about something in theory is no substitute for experimenting and actually playing.


also @ the dragonfag bashers - I hate dragonforce. I hate power metal. I hate it when people grow super-long hair and dress up in chains to look br00tal. It's sad, really.
BUT
Dragonforce came to play a small gig 10 minutes form my house a few weeks back, so i thought.. 'eh, may as well go see if they can actually play after all', and went to see them. They can play all their songs just fine, they keep in time pretty well and anyone who actually likes their crap wouldn't be disappointed by their live show. However this does not change the fact that they make shit music with crappy lyrics that all sounds the same, and frankly look ridiculous.

tl;dr: they CAN actually play (their own songs, at least).

Although not really recognised in classical guitar work, Randy Rhoads was one of the very best metal guitarists ever.

Let's divide this...

I won't name any best all-around guitarists, that's pretty relative. But technically, Michael Angelo Batio, Jason Becker are definitely up there... Yngwie Malmsteen, Marty Friedman, Steve Vai... you have lots of stuff to name. But definitely, either MAB or Jason Becker take the cake.

On a far less technical note, I like listening to Stevie Ray Vaughn a lot.

Best guitarists that tend to get overlooked (IMHO):

Eric Johnson (really incredible technical guitar, listen to Ah Via Musicom to understand what I'm talking about)

and

Alex Lifeson (I think that's spelled correctly), guitarist for Rush.

Good:Chuck Schuldiner of Death(Made an album while he had a brain tumor),John Petrucci of Dream Thearter(Looks and plays like jesus) Michael Ackerfelt of Opeth (Spelt Completely wrong)
Bad : Herman Li(Thinks he's good because he picks fast even though both of the guitars above pick faster)

I forgot to mention eric johnson, he's a pretty cool guy. But no ones mentioned jimmy paige :/

No ones even mentioned joe perry, and joe perry is a great guitarist, and he has a great attitude, he's not stuck up thinking he's the best and what not. I mean come on, his signature guitar has a picture of his wife on it.