Worst Guitarists of All Time

1. Lil Wayne

   

   Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. is an American rapper from New Orleans, Louisiana. He was discovered by Brian "Baby" Williams at a young age and signed to Cash Money Records, where he became one-quarter of the rap group Hot Boys. He later founded his own label, Young Money Entertainment, signing artists such... read more

   He's the worst and fake. I mean, I saw his guitar solos. Are those even real? They are lame jokes. I mean, he taps on the guitar and the sound is something else. If you show me someone picking a note with one finger and calling it economy picking, would you believe it? I wouldn't call him the worst guitarist, even if he can't play guitar. But why pretend to be something you can't do? He tries to become Eddie Van Halen!

   At least Kurt Cobain plays guitar, and those were real. It doesn't matter how good, bad, or overrated he is.

   Why are all these good guitarists on here? When you have people like Lil Wayne, Taylor Swift, and Nick Jonas on here and you don't vote for them, I have to wonder if you even know the difference between good and bad.

2. Nick Jonas

   

   Nicholas Jerry "Nick" Jonas is an American singer, songwriter, and actor, best known as one of the Jonas Brothers, a pop rock band he formed with his brothers Kevin and Joe. In addition to his music career, he has pursued solo projects and acted in television and film, including roles in Jumanji: Welcome... read more

   Guys, he is technically by far the worst on this list. He is absolutely talentless and has no purpose in anything whatsoever. Worse than Lil Wayne and Fred Durst. Also, what the heck is Kirk Hammett doing on this list?!?!?!?!?!? The guy who made this must have been drunk.

   If he's trying to be a bad guitarist, then he's doing good.

   His song and his guitar playing are just no...

3. Fred Durst

   

   William Frederick "Fred" Durst, born as Frederick Allen Mayne III on August 20, 1970, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, actor, and film director. He is best known as the frontman and lyricist of the nu metal band Limp Bizkit. The band was formed in 1994 and became a major force in the late 1990s... read more

   He is a good rapper, but Wes Borland is the rightful guitarist.

   He's not a guitarist, but he tried playing guitar once and he sucked at it.

4. Taylor Swift

   

   Taylor Alison Swift is an American singer-songwriter, born on December 13, 1989, in Reading, Pennsylvania. She developed a strong interest in country music around the age of nine after watching a Faith Hill documentary. Swift moved to Nashville as a teenager and, after signing with RCA Records, began... read more

   I don't understand why a bunch of girls pick up a guitar because of Taylor Swift's "music". All she does (or at least did when she was a country singer) is play four chords over and over and sing about every guy she's gone out with and broken up with. She's not that talented and doesn't even play guitar anymore.

   Taylor Swift is beyond talentless. I have never seen a more deplorable vocalist in my life.

   New Eddie Van Halen my ass. She sucks.

5. Justin Bieber

   

   Justin Drew Bieber (born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and record producer. He currently resides in Ontario, Canada, and is Christian. He is the son of Pattie Mallette, an author.

   Justin Bieber is best known for his songs "Baby" and "What Do You Mean?" As of mid 2025, 11 of... read more

   Baby: One chord at the intro, nothing else. This guy is a poser guitarist.

   Does he know what a guitar even is?

6. Kurt Cobain

   

   Kurt Cobain (February 20, 1967 - April 5, 1994) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician, best known as the frontman of the grunge band Nirvana. Founded in 1987, Nirvana achieved global success in the early 1990s, reshaping rock music with albums like Bleach, Nevermind, and In Utero. Cobain died... read more

   Kurt wasn't technically a good guitar player. He never did many impressive solos or musically diverse riffs, but his guitar playing perfectly matched the feeling the band was going for. His sloppy, distorted guitar screeches matched Nirvana's style and actually made their music sound more interesting and better. If they had a more technically skilled guitarist like Slash, for example, the band's music wouldn't have been as good or made as much of an impact.

   The thing about Kurt was that yeah, you could sit down with your guitar and play his songs without too much trouble, but it makes you go "why didn't I think of that?" He had an amazing feel for writing compelling guitar lines, technicality aside. There are plenty of bands that like to show off their music theory knowledge, but something just gets lost along the way sometimes.

7. Shawn Mendes

   

   Shawn Peter Raul Mendes is a Canadian singer-songwriter and model. He gained a following in 2013 by posting song covers on the video-sharing application Vine. Mendes later signed a record deal and released his debut album, Handwritten, in 2015, which included the hit single Stitches.

   This guy stinks. He sucks. He only plays acoustic. Have you even seen him on electric guitars before? Hell, I think he writes all those songs just to get chicks.

   Any one of his songs can be learned in under 60 seconds.

   I think I can play even better than him.

8. Billie Joe Armstrong

   

   Billie Joe Armstrong (born February 17, 1972) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and actor best known as the lead vocalist, primary songwriter, and guitarist of the punk rock band Green Day, which he co-founded with Mike Dirnt.... read more

   Maybe if he'd shorten his strap, his pick would actually catch all the intended strings. Quality is sacrificed for image, and his ego kills his talent even more.

   Sure, his solos are easy because as a child he didn't focus on being the best guitarist ever. He focused on being the best songwriter ever.

   I can't believe his solos are super easy. I played the solo in "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" in maybe under 1 minute!

9. Chad Kroeger

   

   Chad Robert Kroeger is a Canadian musician and producer best known as the lead vocalist and guitarist for the rock band Nickelback.

   He was married to Avril Lavigne from 2013 until their separation in 2015, and their divorce was finalized in 2016.... read more

   All he does is play basic chords that you would learn in the first month of guitar lessons (Photograph is a perfect example). He doesn't even have good note selection either: Burn It to the Ground would have sounded better if he hadn't gone from plucking the open E straight to plucking that string on the 15th fret.

   Why is Kurt Cobain above him? I'm not even a Nirvana fan, but it's not hard for me to realize they're nowhere near the worst! But Chad Kroeger sucks!

   Take a look at this trash guitar.

   Every time I play it I become a star.

   Oh wait, that was stolen!

10. Ed Sheeran

    

    Edward Christopher "Ed" Sheeran is an English singer-songwriter and musician. He was born on February 17, 1991, in Halifax, West Yorkshire, and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk. He's known for hit songs such as "The A Team" (2011) and "Shape of You" (2017).... read more

    Can't play. Can't even make a single good song.

    All he does is play three chords over and over while singing boring and generic love songs.

The Newcomers
11. ?

    Nils Lofgren

    

    His style is basically screechy noises that ruin beautiful solos. He's an insult to guitarists, and he's very pretentious.

12. ?

    Andy Timmons

    His solos are way too distorted and sound more like screechy noises than actual solos.

The Contenders

13. Joe Jonas

    

    Joseph Adam "Joe" Jonas (born August 15, 1989) is an American singer and actor. Jonas first rose to fame as a member of the pop-rock band Jonas Brothers, along with his brothers Kevin and Nick... read more

14. Marilyn Manson

    

    Brian Hugh Warner (born January 5, 1969), better known by his stage name Marilyn Manson, is an American rock musician, songwriter, actor, painter, multimedia artist, author, and former music journalist. He is the lead singer and only constant member of the band Marilyn Manson, which he formed in 1989.... read more

15. Noel Gallagher

    

    Noel Thomas David Gallagher is an English musician, singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is best known as the lead guitarist, co-lead vocalist, and principal songwriter of the rock band Oasis. After leaving Oasis in 2009, he formed Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, with whom he has released four studio... read more

    Since 30 years ago, he sounds like he has only a few days of practice and never improved a little bit. The worst guitarist ever, worst solos ever, boring, simple in the worst sense of the word... very low-quality music made for the masses... Oasis is the McDonald's of music...

    Graham Coxon, Jonny Greenwood, Keith Richards, and Pete Townshend are way better guitarists than Noel Gallagher. Also, he is an absolute idiot and treats everyone like garbage. Why anyone would like or support this person is beyond me.

16. Johnny Depp

    

    John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II (born June 9, 1963) is an American actor, producer, and musician. He has won the Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor. His role in a movie is often rather big. His character is often on the "loopy side" and his character being in a darker state... read more

17. Henry Kaiser

18. Kirk Hammett

    

    Kirk Lee Hammett (born November 18, 1962) is an American musician who has been the lead guitarist of the heavy metal band Metallica since 1983. In addition to playing guitar, he contributes as a songwriter for the band.

    Prior to joining Metallica, Hammett co-founded the thrash metal band Exodus... read more

    Whammett demonstrates what happens when you're taught by one of the best and don't practice your material. Kids, please learn from this!

    Seriously? This guy's solos are awesome!

19. John Mayer

    

    John Clayton Mayer is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Mayer attended Berklee College of Music in Boston but left before graduating. He moved to Atlanta in 1997 with Clay Cook, where they formed a short-lived two-man band called Lo-Fi Masters... read more

    Terrible guitarist. Even Lil Wayne plays much better.

20. Graham Coxon

21. Yngwie J. Malmsteen

    

    Yngwie Johan Malmsteen is a Swedish guitarist, songwriter, and bandleader born June 30, 1963, in Stockholm, Sweden. He's renowned for his neoclassical metal playing style. Malmsteen gained prominence in the 1980s with virtuoso albums such as Rising Force (1984).

    Doesn't play with enough feel, but he does do some impressive feats.

22. Jimmy Page

    

    James Patrick Page is an English musician, songwriter, and record producer who achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of Led Zeppelin. He's widely regarded for his innovative guitar techniques, production work, and influence across rock music genres. After Led Zeppelin disbanded... read more

23. Richard Benson

    He used to be good. Now, he seems to have lost all knowledge of music theory. As a guitarist, Richard Benson's guitar playing sounds like he's just slamming a bunch of random notes from different arpeggios, scales, and keys together, and playing them at lightning speed with no regard for musicality.

    A bad guitarist with no skills. All he knows is how to tap and make a guitar suffer. He sucks!

24. C.C. DeVille

    Just listen to his version of Eruption.

25. Hide

    

    Hideto Matsumoto, better known by his stage name Hide, was a Japanese musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is primarily known for his work as the lead guitarist of the heavy metal band X Japan. He also had a successful solo career before his death in 1998.

26. Elvis Presley

    

    Elvis Aaron Presley was an American singer and actor, widely dubbed the "King of Rock and Roll" and regarded as a pivotal cultural icon of the 20th century. His energetic musical interpretation and provocative performance style, bridging racial music traditions in a shifting era, both fueled his fame... read more

    I highly agree - he couldn't play guitar very well and just strummed along with the band. But he posed with a double-neck electric guitar, LOL. There are pictures on the net.

27. Brad Delson

    

    Bradford Philip Delson, born December 1, 1977, is an American musician best known as the lead guitarist of the rock band Linkin Park. He is also one of the founding members of the band. With Linkin Park, Delson has received multiple awards, including two Grammy Awards.... read more

    Not that bad, but very overrated. Just plays a few simple power chords and that's all.