Top 10 Clean Guitarists
These guitarists have very clear and warm tone when they play. Unlike those guitarists who use rough picking, crazy dive bombs etc. I have especially created this list for those guitarists. Cause even good guitarists like Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page or Eddie Van Halen can't have clean tone all the time.
Shawn Lane was an American musician who released two studio albums and collaborated with a variety of musicians including Ringo Starr, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Reggie Young, Joe Walsh, Jonas Hellborg and many others. Jazz fusion guitarist. One of the cleanest shredders.
Eric Johnson (born August 17, 1954) is an American guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist from Austin, Texas. Best known for his electric guitar skills, Johnson is also a highly proficient acoustic, lap steel, resonator, and bass guitarist as well as an accomplished pianist and vocalist. He frequently uses numerous pedals and effects but always have clean tone when playing. Plus he is fast.
Mark Freuder Knopfler is a British singer, songwriter, guitarist, record producer and film score composer. He is best known for being the frontman of the British band Dire Straits. He doesn't get shabby. Or should I say he can't get shabby? No matter how fast he gets he still have clean tone in his songs. Cause, " A pick is the biggest amplifier of a guitar" And that's when you decide to leave picks.
David Jon Gilmour is an English singer, songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. He joined the progressive rock band Pink Floyd as guitarist and co-lead vocalist in 1968. Lots of pedals, whammy and effect uses. But always have clean tone.
Jason Eli Becker (born July 22, 1969) is an American neoclassical metal guitarist and composer. At the age of 16, he became part of the Shrapnel Records-produced duo Cacophony with his friend Marty Friedman. They released the albums Speed Metal Symphony in 1987 and Go Off! in 1988. Cacophony broke up in 1989 and Becker began doing solo work, having released his first album Perpetual Burn in 1988, also through Shrapnel. He later joined David Lee Roth's band and recorded one album with him, A Little Ain't Enough. ...read more. Sweep picking makes clean tone. That's why a lot of songs with sweep picking sound clean. But when he became sick, his songs didn't get always clean. He had his clean tone songs before his 20.
Joe Pass was an American jazz guitarist of Sicilian descent. He is considered one of the greatest jazz guitarists of the 20th century. Like Mark Knopfler he also plays with his fingers. That's why he has clean tone. He is quite fast though. For his time.
Michael Angelo Batio also known as Mike Batio or MAB, is an American heavy metal guitarist and columnist from Chicago, Illinois. Fastest clean guitarist.
Martin Adam "Marty" Friedman is an American guitarist, known for his tenure as the lead guitarist for heavy metal band Megadeth which spanned nearly the full decade of the 1990s, as well as Cacophony alongside Jason Becker until 1989. Friedman has resided in Tokyo, Japan since 2003, where he has hosted Japanese television programs such as Rock Fujiyama and Jukebox English. Tornado of Souls, Hangar 18 are pretty clean solos in thrash metal. He says he doesn't sweep pick. I don't know how he manages to play his arpeggios. Is it alternate picking or sweep picking. But he stays clean.
Warm clean tone when he taps on his guitar.
Glenn Raymond Tipton is an English Grammy Award-winning guitar player and songwriter. He is most commonly known as the lead guitarist for English heavy metal band Judas Priest. He doesn't do dive bombs like KK Downing or wah-wah pedal. His playing style is very clean. His sweep picking solo in the "Painkiller" is a good example of it. But even without sweep picking he gets pretty clean. Victim of Changes for example.
Eric Patrick Clapton is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, once as a solo artist and separately as a member of the Yardbirds and Cream. He has also been a member of Derek and the Dominos.
Stephen James "Steve" Howe is an English musician and songwriter. He is best known as the guitarist in the progressive rock group Yes.
Matthew James "Matt" Bellamy is an English musician, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer. He is most famous for being the main vocalist in alternative rock band "Muse".
Allan Holdsworth was a British guitarist and composer. He released twelve studio albums as a solo artist and played a variety of musical styles in a career spanning more than four decades, but is best known for his work in jazz fusion.
David Howell Evans, better known by his stage name the Edge, is an Irish musician and songwriter best known as the lead guitarist, keyboardist and backing vocalist of the rock band U2. Especially his riffs.
Brian Harold May is an English musician, singer, songwriter and astrophysicist, best known as the lead guitarist of the rock band Queen. I would add him soon. But forgot. Anyway thanks for adding him. Yeas, spread your wings is very clean.
William Thomas "Tommy" Emmanuel is an Australian guitarist, songwriter, and singer, best known for his complex fingerstyle technique, energetic performances, and the use of percussive effects on the guitar. He is an acoustic guitarist. That's why I didn't add him higher. Cause acoustic guitar actually makes soft/clean sound. But I believe his playing style is very clean and even if he had played them on electric guitar still he would have had clean tone.
Riley B. "B.B." King was an American blues singer, electric guitarist, songwriter, and record producer.
John Peter Petrucci is an American guitarist, composer and producer. He is best known as a founding member of the progressive metal band Dream Theater. Compared to his level of skill, John Petrucci is relatively unknown in the modern music industry.
John Anthony Frusciante is an American guitarist, singer, producer and composer.He is best known for his time with the Funk Rock California based band the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He was also part of the Mars Volta, Swahili Blonde, Ataxia and more.