Top 10 Shred Guitarist Pioneers
Well who is the creator of shred-guitar is a very debatable topic. If you keep arguing about it then it can take this topic back to 18th century. But these guitarists are often considered as the pioneering shred guitarists of all time. Their techniques match with modern/pure shredders and they influenced pure shredders like Yngwie Malmsteen, Paul Gilbert, Steve Vai etc.
Richard Hugh "Ritchie" Blackmore is an English guitarist and songwriter, best known for his work in the hard rock/metal bands Deep Purple and Rainbow. He was ranked number 16 on Guitar World's "100 Greatest Metal Guitarists of All Time" in 2004, and number 50 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" in 2011. In 2016 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of original members of Deep Purple. He was both fast and technical of his time. He has some great shredding (proto-shredding) songs like Highway Star, Child In Time, Burn, Gates of Babylon, Stargazer. Especially his shredding on Highway Star. He influenced guitarists Yngwie Malmsteen. That's why I think he should be on top.
Yup, in a good mood Blackmore was the man. Just listen to kill the king - speed metal meets 1977. Also some good parts of jazzy scales and arpeggios as early as late 60's. He is untouched as a father of shred. A bit inconsistent (I've seen some poor live preformances), but pure genius most of time
Al Di Meola is an American jazz fusion and Latin jazz guitarist, composer, and record producer of Italian origin. A lot of people have stated him to be the father of shred-guitarist. Well I cannot say anything for sure but he had some fast arpeggios and alternate picking in the 70s.
John McLaughlin, also known as Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, is an English guitarist, bandleader and composer. Pretty similar like Al Di Meola. He also used some great techniques.
He's been called the father of sweep picker. I have checked some of his songs. Hard to believe they are from 50s.
His did some crazy techniques on his acoustic guitar.
Jimi Hendrix (born November 27, 1942 - September 18, 1970) was an American rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter.
Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most influential electric guitarists in the history of popular music, and one of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes him as "arguably the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music". Hendrix is consistently ranked on lists of musicians who died too soon. He was pretty fast and influential.
Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen (January 26, 1955 – October 6, 2020) was a Dutch-American musician, songwriter, producer, and inventor. He was best known as the lead guitarist, occasional keyboardist and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen. I added him here cause he already started to shred from the 70s and a pure shredder.
Uli Jon Roth is a German guitarist, who became famous as the Scorpions lead guitarist, and is one of the earliest contributors to the neoclassical metal genre. Like I said on the last list, he did some crazy stuffs with his vibrato bar. Later he developed more in shredding.
Lester William Polsfuss, known as Les Paul, was an American jazz, country, and blues guitarist, songwriter, luthier, and inventor. According to many people he used different techniques in the 50s.
James Patrick Page is an English musician, songwriter, and record producer who achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of the rock band Led Zeppelin. On last. He wasn't very fast but some of his songs were very influential. Especially his solo in Heartbreaker. A lot of shred guitarists were inspired by him. Steve Vai was. Eddie Van Halen invented tapping (his own style) watching his solo in the mid section of Hearbreaker.
Django Reinhardt is a famous guitarist in the genre of jazz. He lost 2 of his fingers in a fire but carried on with his playing. He later inspired Tony Iommi, the original guitarist of Black Sabbath, to continue playing after he lost his fingertips in a factory accident. His guitar is an acoustic gypsy. ...read more.
Richard Anthony Monsour, better known by his stage name Dick Dale, was an American rock guitarist, known as The King of the Surf Guitar. Not sure about Dick Dale though. Like the visitor said Miserlou predates everyone on this list. Yeah its very fast, but its not much technical. There were even much more technical solos before Dick Dale. Especially in the Spanish classical guitar. Ravi Shankar (Sitar player) learnt few techniques from his guru (teacher). And he was quite fast. So, I don't think Dick Dale predates everybody except guitar inventors.
by the way, invention of guitar has a long history. There were guitars before guitar. You know what I mean.
Brian Patrick Carroll, known professionally as Buckethead, is an American guitarist and multi-instrumentalist who has worked within many genres of music.