The 10 Best Guitar Albums Ever Made, Voted by Guitarists
This past week, we asked 100+ guitarists what they thought the “Best Guitar Album Ever Made” was.
And let me tell you.. reading through those answers was a blast. People were PASSIONATE about this topic.
We sat there with our coffee one morning going through every single one, and it ended up turning into a whole afternoon conversation.
So we tallied up the votes, and here’s what 100+ guitarists picked as the best guitar album of all time, counting down to #1.
#10: Robin Trower – Bridge of Sighs
Trower came up through Procol Harum, then went solo and made this album in 1974, and it’s the one everyone talks about when his name comes up.
Most people compare it to Hendrix, but slowed way down and soaked in fuzz and Univibe. The title track is a slow burn with a huge tone. If you’ve never sat through it, this is your sign to listen to it tonight.
Check it out on YouTube here:
#9: Steve Morse
Steve Morse was a guitarist’s guitarist, and the responses we got were all over his catalog including High Tension Wires, Southern Steel, and his Dixie Dregs work. The spread or answers tells you how deep he runs.
Morse fuses country chicken-pickin’, classical precision, and rock muscle into one style, and his alternate picking is incredible.
Check out High Tension Wires on YouTube below:
#8: Yngwie Malmsteen
We all knew Malmsteen would show up in this poll, am I right?
Rising Force (1984) basically invented neoclassical shred and dragged Bach and Paganini onto the fretboard at warp speed.
“Far Beyond the Sun” is his calling card. Harmonic minor, sweep arpeggios, etc. etc.. You can find him exhausting or you can worship him, but every shredder who came after owes him a nod.
#7: Allman Brothers – At Fillmore East
This is the live record people evangelize for. It was recorded over a few nights in 1971, with Duane Allman and Dickey Betts trading twin leads and Duane’s slide soaring over the top.
“Whipping Post” and “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” are absolutely incredible. This is the gold standard for what two guitars and a live crowd can do together.
#6: Jimi Hendrix
Nobody could agree on which album, but Jimi Hendrix came up over and over. Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold as Love, Electric Ladyland.. they all had votes.
When someone’s entire catalog gets votes, you’ve gotta include ’em. Hendrix took feedback, the whammy bar, and the line between rhythm and lead and rewired all of it. Everyone guitarist is still playing in the world he helped build.
#5: Jeff Beck – Blow by Blow
This is a personal favorite around here. Blow by Blow is an all-instrumental fusion record from 1975, produced by George Martin, and it somehow says more without a single word than most albums say with them.
“Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers” is the dealmaker. Beck plays mostly with his fingers, working the volume knob and bar until the guitar sounds like it’s crying.
#4: Randy Rhoads – Diary of a Madman / Blizzard of Ozz
The emotion behind these albums felt different, and Rhoads earns it. Two records with Ozzy, Blizzard of Ozz (1980) and Diary of a Madman (1981), and he was killed in a plane crash at 25. RIP.
Rhoads was classically trained, so he regularly combined classical phrasing to metal in a way nobody had before. The riffs everyone knows are “Crazy Train” and “Mr. Crowley.”
What Rhoads did in such a short window is mind-blowing.
#3: Van Halen
Van Halen’s 1978 debut is the one with “Eruption” on it, and those hundred seconds reset the instrument for a whole generation.
Eddie’s two-handed tapping and the warm brown sound sent every guitarist in the ’80s scrambling to either copy him or run as far in the other direction as they could. Decades later it still sounds like the future.
#2: Steve Vai – Passion and Warfare
This is the one album our audience actually agreed on. Specifically Passion and Warfare (1990), which is Vai’s instrumental masterpiece after his runs with Zappa and David Lee Roth.
As we all know, “For the Love of God” is the centerpiece, and it’s a technical monster with seven-string reaches and whammy dives. But it’s the feeling underneath all that that keeps players coming back to it.
#1: Joe Satriani
And here we have it.. Satriani takes the top spot, with votes spread across half his discography.. Surfing with the Alien, Flying in a Blue Dream, Crystal Planet, and The Extremist.
Satriani made instrumental rock that had hooks you could hum, taught both Steve Vai and Kirk Hammett along the way, and built a career on melody first and shred second.
When this many records by one guy show up, that’s legendary.
A few that just missed the cut
We had several other responses that just didn’t quite make the top 10, but we felt they were important enough to name as honorable mention:
– Leo Kottke – 6 & 12 String Guitar
– Robert Johnson – The Complete Recordings / King of the Delta Blues
– AC/DC – Back in Black
– Boston – first album
– Pantera – Vulgar Display of Power / Cowboys From Hell
– Megadeth – Rust in Peace
– Bill Boehm – “Bill Boehm greatest guitar album of all time.”
– Mark Bickel – Dreams and All That Stuff
– Steely Dan – The Royal Scam
– Def Leppard – High ‘n’ Dry
We loved seeing the variety, from Delta blues to thrash metal to fingerstyle acoustic.. the spread was incredible!
So there you have it.. 100+ guitarists weighed in to give us the top 10 best guitar albums ever made.
What do you think? Do you agree? Disagree? Let us know!
