VonEvilstein

Guitar in the 80s - almost a Golden Age, really.

First off, I want to take this opportunity to dis Kirk Hammet. In spite of his phenominal ability, his playing always sounded too thought-about, too clinical, too "pre-processed". In fact, the only lead stuff of his I really liked, was back on the original Garage Days (Creeping Death 12") - here, it souded like he was just relaxing, not worrying too much about structure, or showing off.. and it was great.

As for great guitarists of the period...

Gary Holt and Rick Hunnolt (Exodus) was the finest team in all of metal. Rick followed the classical/metal approach: fast, very melodic. Gary just made the guitar scream an wail in ways I never heard anyone else manage - this guy played whole solos without any actual notes in them: amazing stuff. And they were fast, heavy and tight as anything.

Alex Skolnick did some amazing stuff in Testament - a true pinnacle of sweep picking brilliance can be heard in "Over the Wall". Fast, heavy and tight, once again.

Slash, you gotta give credit where credit's due, revitalized the whole rock = blues (but louder and sleazier) school of playing. Sure, he was never up there on technical merit, but he sure could Rock and Roll with the best of them.

Adrian Smith and Dave Murray, anyone?

Vernon Reid, as has been pointed out, did some kick ass playing in Living Color. That was one hell of a band on all fronts, really.

Although he peaked in the 90s, one cannot overlook the late, great, horribly underrated Criss Oliva, of Savatage. His style of playing, coupling some very melodic lines with a lot of aggression, and above all control, still give me goosebumps. I was really pissed off when he died!

Angus Young needs to be mentioned. Others have elaborated.

Billy Duffy (the Cult) was a big influence on my lead playing, and through him, Hendrix. Simple rock guitar, at its best, and we all know (or do now) that Von E. loves that crap!

And as for rhythm guitarists...
Dimebag Darrell, James Hetfield, Mike Clark and Scott Ian stand head and shoulders above the crowd.

Oh, and I love Mark Knopfler's playing, too - just about the only non-metal guitarist who does it for me.

And an extra special thanks to those two smelly, dirty looking guys who kept the flag flying for really dirty, smelly and generally badass and sleazy guitar playing: Phil and Wurzel, of Motorhead.

Dr. Retard

What about Michael Angelo from Nitro? Every solo was a gratuitous gift from the glam gods.

You know a solo's good when it sounds like a turkey gobbling.

DarkBronzePlant

I wasn't counting Eric Johnson as part of the 80's guitar hero genre. If he's a part of it, then he wins, hands down. I would venture to say that he is, overall, the best guitarist ever. Period.

DarkBronzePlant

If we're talking about rhythm players, then we have to at least mention Alex Lifeson from Rush. Though he was a slightly-above average soloist, his rhythms are what really make him stand apart (hell, they'd have to, since Geddy (bass) and Neil (drums) were really the soloists of the band!)

Of course, I never know whether to count Rush as 80s. They were big in the 80s, but also the 70s, and the 90s, and are gearing up to be so again in the, well, whatever decade we're in now.

Equal_Mark

Adrian Belew. The most famous unknown guitar virtuoso of all time.

Kim o' the Concrete Jungle

Yeah, I wasn't very fond of hair-metal either. Which is why I'm going to annoy everyone and say...

Roland S. Howard

Neilium

A lot of great players have made the list on this thread. Of course the best of them outlasted the decade. Some of them will be forever associated with their decade; for example, the ace in my list, Johnny Marr, will always be the guitarist in the Smiths, regardless of any comeback attempts.

Scotty Moore's big box Gibson and slapback echo will always be 50's, electric sitars and Roger McGuinn's 12-string Rick will always be 60's, funky wah will always be 70's. So what was the 80's guitar sound? What came with the 80's but never survived beyond 1990?

My vote? The over-processed, chorus pedal skank of Andy Summers. I don't think anyone plays like that anymore, not even Andy Summers.

Chime in. What's your vote? What piece of kit did you spend all your money on in '83, only to ditch it at the pawn shop New Year's Day, 1990.

-Neil

Wyz_sub10

No one's mentioned Steve Stevens yet, or Andy Taylor. Duran Duran's style didn't really show off Taylor's talent, but you can see it a little more with the Power Station [edited thanks to DBP...it's been a few years] album.

DarkBronzePlant

Power Station.

Hey, I still use chorus! Mostly only when I play clean, though; I'm beginning to once again appreciate the nothing-but-balls-out-distortion sound. And never to the extent that Andy Summers did, where his guitar started sounding like an out-of-tune organ. It actually took me awhile to realize that that was actually a guitar on Murder By Numbers!

Iamthebeerking

Ah yes. I'm only able to post about once a week or so, but here's a man (Wyz) who knows the subtleties (sp?) of a fine guitar player.
Steve Stevens-This is the guy who made Billy Idol acceptable to the metal, pop rock, and pop punk genre. Without him "Rebel Yell" would have been an afterthought. A great guitar player AND a showman. For anyone who hasn't caught the solitary Atomic Playboys CD/album/cassette, you're missing something.

Andy Taylor-While many considered this cat some 13 year old teenybopper's wet dream---the fact is that this guy can/could play. Just listen to the squeals at the end of Powerstations version of "Banga Gong". T-Rex wasn't dead and they certainly wouldn't have scoffed at the remake. Taylor was a goddamned good guitar player.
The more input that arrives at this thread the more I'm convinced that guitar playing reached it's height in the 80's. Maybe I should get my girlfriend to put on the flapper shoes. That way her and I could dance the Charleston...
I'm not that old, but...