Another tasteful, lyrical guitarist , with his own distinct sound.

Highlight: Album - The Wall. Track - Another Brick in the Wall pt2.Forget the lyrics if it's not your thing, just a superb sonic landscape - brillianty engineered. The solo in ABW is superb, the timing sublime, and the re-amped sound is a classic which he wrings for all it's worth. The source of my use of multi note bends.

Link to guitarist example

Flashy and technical yes, but underpinned with superb rhythm, writing and improvisation construction. His playing is not about playing through scales or patterns, it's always melodic and on the edge, epitomising what good rock music is about. From him comes my basic picking technique and penchant for fast triplet licking on single notes (a la Eruption).

Highlight: Album - 1984, Track - Hot for Teacher.Simply a tour de force of rock guitar playing and composition, superb songs with amazing solos, and an amazing sound. Hopt for Teacher has it all - the drum set the scene, smockin' riff, Roths swaggering vocal and then a solo of superb construction and timing and all delivered with an easy smile!

Link to guitarist example

Like many, many others, my inspiration for taking up guitar - Apache just floored me as a ten year old. Hank's playing is beautiful, and melodic and they had some fantastic tracks which set the way for rock music to follow.

Highlight: Album - 20 Golden Greats. Track - Apache.This is the album and track that started my interest in the guitar and the sounds you could make with it. All the classic tracks are on this compilation showcasing his tasteful understated style. Introduced me to damping and double note harmonising, the middle 8 is pure rock.

Link to guitarist example

The guitarists guitarist, innovative, edgy, a master of extracting every nuance from a performance. His use of harmonics and the tremolo arm to create pure lyrical lines is sublime. His use of his fingers for picking also lead me to experiment more in this area.

Highlight: Album - Guitar Shop. Track - Where Were You.Not a duff track on it, whilst covering a lot of musical ground - every track takes you somewhere new. Where Were You is just stunning, the pseudo operatic lead lines bring tears of joy to your eyes!

Link to guitarist example

Straight from the blues, the best extended soloer Writer of some of the great riffs, and a cornerstone of the development of Rock music.

Highlight: Album - The Song Remains the Same. Track - No Quarter.I saw this in the cinema and it was several days before my jaw un-dropped. Incredible intensity and huge soundscape from the foursome. No Quarter picked primarily for the fluid picked line at 5:11 on the video link - simply incredible soloing (even if edited in some places) taking the songs on extended flights into new places, but always keeping the lelodic blues laden hooks.

Link to guitarist example

Re-ignited my interest in guitar instrumentals and gave me an outlet for the music I was writing that didn't seem to sit well with vocals. A supreme technician and theorist but these are only used to enhance the music. His instrumentals stand out as they are 'proper' songs suffused with melody, not simply chrod sequences as a springboard for technician soloing over.

Highlight: Album - Surfing With The Alien. Track - Surfing With The Alien.Still his best for me - not a bad song on the album, his technical prowess, songwriting and blues/rock influences all on display. Title track picked at random really simply as it was the first track of his I heard, so sits similarly to Apache for me.

Link to guitarist example

His song writing as much as anything is a big influence for me - experimental and superbly crafted.

Highlight: Album - Love Over Gold. Track - Telegraph Road.It amazes me that Private Investigations is deemed a failed experiment by Mark, it is an individual testiment to his playing style and songwriting pushing the boundaries. However I have picked Telegraph Road as that epitomises what I love in his plaing, a song full of dynamics, crafted from beginning to end

Link to guitarist example

Mean, moody and magnificent when on top form. Constructs superb solos that take the song to new places, fantastic tone, obviously known as a speed king, but melody and tone ever present. Writer of some of the great rock riffs, making great use of double stopping.

Highlight: Album - Bent out of Shape. Track - Drinking With The Devil.Geat sound, full of great songs and Ritchie on fire. Perfect Strangers runs this a close second but I feel BOOS is stronger overall album.

Link to guitarist example

Stinging blues with texan boogie thrown in. From him comes my use of pulling up on a string with right hand and letting it slap back into the fretboard to get a real snap to the attack.

Highlight: Album - In Step. Track - Testify.This album is chock full of great songs and great playing, but in this instance the track I have picked is testify as this was my first exposure to his playing, and I was blown away his timing and use of changing tone really drives the song along.

Link to guitarist example