I have always heard the following names mentioned among the best of
all guitarists of the modern era:

Andres Segovia (classical)
Carlos Montoya (flamenco)
Roy Clark (country, but classically trained)
Eric Clapton (rock)

Is there any way to evaluate the relative virtuousity of these four
musicians, notwithstanding their widely different genres?

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Clarification of Question by nautico-ga on 04 Mar 2004 20:03 PST

I'm not asking about style or creativity, but about technical virtuousity.

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Clarification of Question by nautico-ga on 05 Mar 2004 07:28 PST

It's obvious there's no authoritative answer to this
apples-and-oranges question, but I enjoyed all your comments. Question
closed.

What? No Yngwie Malmsteen? ;-)

This might interest you:

http://www.rollingstone.com/features/coverstory/featuregen.asp?pid=1917

"Rolling Stone" didn't like Yngwie either. Pfui.

Another "Top 100+" list is here:

http://www.leftandright.us/archives/000499.html

Aha. Yngwie made it to #89 on that one. That's progress.

The best for me, because his creativity - not his virtuosism -, is
Daniel Ash from Bauhaus and Love & Rockets.

What about Sonny Sharrock?  For those who have never heard of him, you
might have heard his theme to Space Ghost Coast to Coast(?!)  But
that's just one of the many kinds of sounds he played in his too-brief
life.

I'd forgotten about Les Paul. I remember watching and listening to him
and Mary Ford when I was a kid. He was a real groundbreaker and highly
skilled. In the years that have elapsed since his heydey, style has
been closing in on technical virtuousity as a determinant of standing
in the pantheon of guitarists.

I'll have to go with the second list posted by Pink, since Bonnie
Raitt is on that one (#58).

Googlenut

Yngwie Malmsteen

As a loyal fan, I am just supporting Pink.

(Never heard of him/her ... But probably an Okie.)

I don't think there is any practical way to evaluate their relative
virtuosity.  Perhaps you could do a biomechanical analysis of the
difficulty of various finger movements and the precision with which
they are performed, but that seems to be missing the point somehow. 
The question seems like asking whether a champion sprinter is a better
athlete than a champion weightlifter--they're just playing different
games.

nautico --

I agree with efn-ga's comment, but special recognition for virtuosity
should go to Django Reinhardt, who could do absolutely amazing
technical feats with only two good fingers and a thumb on his
strumming/picking hand.

markj-ga

The guitar is such a flexible instrument that Kerry King of Slayer can
make it sound like an entirely different instrument to bluegrass
picker Norman Blake. Both however are stunning guitarists.

Going purely on technical virtuosity, the greatest guitarists are
going to be part of the heavy metal genre and its more extreme
subgenres. The sheer speed and technique required to play much of the
thrash, death or black metal catalogue has to be incredible just for
someone to join in. Those at the top of the crop are masters of their
instruments like nobody else on earth.

One of the subgenres of heavy metal is devoted to instrumental
guitarwork. These are the Paganinis of our age. Steve Vai is probably
the most notable names here, because of his sheer versatility. Not
only has he released a lot of experimental solo work but commercial
material as part of David Lee Roth's band and stunt guitar work for
Frank Zappa.

Yngwie J Malmsteen is a superb player but he goes over the top most of
the time. He remains important nonetheless, as do artists like Joe
Satriani, Tony MacAlpine, Vinnie Moore, Jason Becker and many others.
Also, while The Great Kat is certainly not to everyone's tastes, there
is no denying that her sheer talent is astounding.

Out of the heavy metal genre, names like Danny Gatton, Roy Buchanan
and Bill Frisell may be obscure but they are regarded as some of the
greatest ever. I'd also suggest for different reasons people as varied
as Jorma Kaukonen, Julian Bream, Django Reinhardt, Chet Atkins,
Reverend Gary Davis, Jeff Healey, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Blind Willie
McTell... the list goes on and on.

And there's always that guy called Hendrix.

I don't see Laurindo Almeida's name on the list, so he'd be my
nomination.  Personal favorite is Mark Knopfler.