Top Ten Clean or Acoustic Guitar Riffs

Great guitar riffs don't necessarily need distortion, sometimes even an electric guitar, and these riffs prove it right!

The Top Ten

1 Snow (Hey Oh) - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Yeah its very clean.

2 Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin

3 One - Metallica

4 Paradise City - Guns N' Roses

5 Dream On - Aerosmith

6 Every Breath You Take - The Police

7 Wake Me Up When September Ends - Green Day

8 Nothing Else Matters - Metallica

9 Soothsayer - Buckethead

Its mostly a solo(s) than riff. The opening and chorus part kinda clean. But it has unclean/heavy parts too. Especially the lick at 8:00. That is quite harsh.

10 Tears In Heaven - Eric Clapton

The Contenders

11 Little Wing - Jimi Hendrix

12 Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd

13 Dust in the Wind - Kansas

14 Sultans of Swing - Dire Straits

He parted his riff in many sections. Different lick after each verse. What I call "broken licks".

How can this one be forgotten?

15 Jumpin' Jack Flash - The Rolling Stones

16 A Hazy Shade of Winter - Simon and Garfunkel

17 Pride and Joy - Stevie Ray Vaughan

18 Hopelessly Devoted To You - Olivia Newton John

19 Cemetery Gates - Pantera

20 Buried Alive - Avenged Sevenfold

21 Ramblin' Man - The Allman Brothers Band

22 To Live is to Die - Metallica

The most beautiful and underrated Metallica acoustic guitar intro.

23 Painkillers - Brian Fallon

24 Iris - Goo Goo Dolls

25 Remords Posthume - Nocturnal Depression

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