Jim Harrington and Tony Hicks from Inside Bay Area has issued the following report:

What is it it about the guitar that holds the public's fascination above all other instruments?

Freud probably would have had an answer for that one, but we think ol' Sigmund had issues. We like to think it has something to do with the sheer power and expressiveness of the instrument more than anything to do with phallic imagery.

Whatever the reason, the guitar hasn't lost one iota of its appeal in the decades since Robert Johnson allegedly made a deal with the devil down at the "Crossroads." Correspondingly, there definitely hasn't been a shortage of lists ranking the best guitarists of all time. Some have been scribbled on napkins by fans, and others have been published in magazines.

In a likable twist, Guitar One magazine recently rated the "101 Greatest Guitar Solos." It's a great list, and we couldn't agree more with the high ranking of DAVID GILMOUR's string-bender in PINK FLOYD's 'Comfortably Numb' (No. 2, just behind JIMI HENDRIX's 'Machine Gun'). But we take issue with the Top 10 selections of the EAGLES' 'Hotel California' and LYNYRD SKYNYRD's 'Free Bird', since they are both actually duets, not true solos.

Now, we provide our own twist on the topic and take a gander at the Top 25 guitarists in Bay Area history. That tactic keeps our focus local, which makes our bosses happy and provides folks with a list worth reading. (Nobody needs to see another list with all the usual suspects — Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Trey Anastasio, etc.)

As you'll see below, the Bay Area has a proud and lengthy legacy of guitar greats that touches upon many musical styles, including rock, jazz and blues. It's hard to compare guitarists from different genres, since their games vary so widely, yet that's exactly what we're attempting to do here.

What makes a guitarist great? We judged our fret men and women based on four basic criteria. The first was sheer virtuosity, an area that the likes of JOE SATRIANI scored high on. The second was the quality (and, to some degree, quantity) of their overall bodies of work, which the Satrianis of the world didn't score so highly on. Third, we looked at whether a player was a stylistic pioneer who influenced other guitarists. Lastly, and most importantly, we made some tough judgment calls based on our own likes and dislikes.

To be eligible for consideration, the musicians had to record a significant portion of their best-known works while they were Bay Area residents. That helped weed out all of the great guitarists who may have lived in the Bay Area for a nanosecond. We also stuck with major artists, with due respect to the killer guitarist who plays on Tuesday nights at the pub down the street.

We hope you enjoy reading our list, and we'd love to see yours as well. Send an e-mail of your top Bay Area guitarists to
living@angnewspapers.com and we'll run your lists online.

The Top 25:

1. Carlos Santana - Santana possesses the most instantly recognizable sound and style of any rock guitarist in the Bay Area — if not the entire world. He's also proven to be as relevant in the 21st century as he was in the'60s. His fingers haven't lost an ounce of their potency.

2. Lowell Fulsom - During his time in Oakland, Fulsom pioneered what would become known as the West Coast Blues sound. He was also a highly versatile player, comfortable with R&B, funk and pop, and had an eye for young talent, stocking his bands with such promising rookies as Ray Charles.

3. Kirk Hammett - His guitar playing in Metallica anchored a rock revolution. His tone and ability make him the template for thrash lead guitar players, whether he's showcasing his dramatic neo-classical finger-picking or making like an overheated powertool in what was once one of the fastest bands in the land.

4. Jerry Garcia - One doesn't have to be a Deadhead to appreciate Garcia. Captain Trips boasted one of the truly signature sounds in all of rock, often recognizable with a single note. He was also capable of producing utterly mesmerizing leads.

5. Dave Meniketti - Meniketti is an oft-overlooked master of blues-rock who seems always to play exactly what a song needs. He's almost out of place working in hard rock. He's more of a throwback to the old blues players who used both voice and guitar to convey an array of feelings.

6. Jorma Kaukonen - As a member of Jefferson Airplane, Kaukonen defined psychedelic rock for an entire generation with his electric work on "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love." He's also a sensational acoustic guitarist, comfortable with folk, country and blues.

7. Neal Schon - Who suffered the most when Journey went from guitar rock to syrupy ballad band? Probably Schon, who came up as a teenager trading progressive, Latin-fused riffs with Carlos Santana. He simply adjusted and became the master of the weepy solos that made girls cry at the junior prom.

8. Joe Satriani - An incredibly influential guitarist, Satriani helped usher in a new era of instrumental, prog-rock and opened the door other greats like Eric Johnson and Steve Vai. He also taught guitar to three other guys on this list (Hammett, Charlie Hunter and Alex Skolnick).

9. Charlie Hunter - Hunter's work on his custom-built eight-string guitar, which allows him to pick both bass notes and guitar chords, truly has to be seen to be believed. Listening to the Berkeley High grad on record just isn't the same.

10. Brad Gillis/Jeff Watson - If Night Ranger had not focused on mass-market material, these guys could've been America's answer to the twin-axe attack of English metal. But like NFL All-Pros who happen to be teammates, Gillis and Watson could play with anyone in the game — because they first had to deal with each other.

11. Bonnie Raitt - While splitting her time between SoCal and Mill Valley for the last 16 years, this stellar slide player released some of the best work of her career, including 1994's "Longing in their Hearts" and 2005's "Souls Alike."

12. Freddie Stone - Stone may seem high on this list, if only because of the shadow cast by his big brother and musical genius, Sly. Freddie Stone nonetheless helped develop the chunky-funk that fueled bands like the Commodores and P-Funk in the'70s.

13. Neil Young - The Woodside rocker's style, especially as witnessed on electric, is hardly textbook. Yet, he puts more soul into his playing than basically anyone in the business.

14. Ronnie Montrose - Montrose was a giant in both sound and influence on subsequent hard-rock players. If not for band turbulence, he could've been one of the greats of American rock. There's no better air-jamming guilty pleasure than "Bad Motor Scooter."

15. John Lee Hooker - Although he recorded his signature work while living in the Midwest, "The Hook" had a renaissance period during his later years living on the Peninsula and released such fine efforts as "The Healer" and "Mr. Lucky."

16. Alex Skolnick - While in Dublin's Testament, he was possibly the greatest thrash player in terms of pure ability and technical mastery. He has since gone on to make a name in jazz-fusion and has played with Les Claypool, New Age pianist Dave Eggar and progressive holiday outfit TransSiberian Orchestra.

17. John Cipollina - The Berkeley native, who died at 45 from emphysema, was as important as either Garcia or Kaukonen in defining the San Francisco Sound in the'60s. Cipollina's guitar work, more than anything else, was what made Quicksilver Messenger Service's first two albums so great.

18. John Fogerty - Here is one of those guitarists who uniquely carved a niche with his own sound: bluesy, chunky Southern swamp rock that stood out like a midnight spotlight in the psychedelic'60s. Rolling Stone named Fogerty the 40th greatest guitarist of all-time; no arguments here.

19. East Bay Ray - Jello Biafra got all the press. But it was the guy beside him in the Dead Kennedys — East Bay Ray — who had the bigger hand in drawing up the blueprint for the second wave of American punk.

20. Larry LaLonde - It can't be easy playing second fiddle to Les Claypool, a man who certainly ranks as one of the top five bassists in Bay Area history. LaLonde, however, was a prime contributor in Primus' demanding prog-funk music.

21. Elvin Bishop - Bishop is a sneaky-great blues and slide player who lives the genre and understands the emotions that prompt the playing. He received his early education in the Chicago blues scene, moved on to the Bay Area after a stint in the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and played with everyone from B.B. King to Clapton to Hendrix.

22. Mimi Fox - In a four-star review of Fox's "She's the Woman," Down Beat magazine exclaimed that the CD is "everything jazz guitar is supposed to be." To that we'd like to add that Fox is everything a jazz guitarist should be.

23. Billie Joe Armstrong - The aggressively catchy riffs of Billie Joe Armstrong were the most important thing to happen to '90s rock next to Kurt Cobain. A thousand pop-punk bands owe him their chops. Though not the most technically gifted player, Armstrong is still pretty darned good. And it's what he chose to do with his playing that made such a difference.

24. Steve Miller - By the time Miller was 12, he was getting pointers from family friend Les Paul. Though his success in the' 70s was of the radio rock variety, Miller started as a blues player in the '60s and knows his way up, down and around a guitar. He's responsible for some of the most famous riffs of the time.

25. Bob Weir - One astute critic (probably Bill Walton) once referred to Weir as the Scottie Pippen to Garcia's Michael Jordan. And the Dead have the championship rings to prove it.

Source Inside Bay Area