Got the urge to type something, and I'm taking a page from Ultimatums book.

Without further adeu, here they are.

James Hetfield-Metallica
When I was a wee lad, Metallica was all I knew. My manager threw albums at me left and right, and I soaked it all in, so it was natural for me to start with the riffing chops that James has. The man has....well had.... one of the heaviest, most effective use of the palm mute. My hats off to him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m99ybtk4QNs

Kerry King/Jeff Hanneman-Slayer
Granted, these guys suck at solos. I mean when you solos are used as a joke with guitarist around the world, you're pretty bad. But there's no denying that they have mad riffing chops. If it wasn't for their War Ensemble, I would've never gotten past tricky riff patterns.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2e47wBWTV8

Speaking of tricky riff patterns
Jon Nödtveidt-Dissection
He's the reason why I eat up picks like there's no tomorrow, and my eventual jump to sharp picks. If I have to point an obvious influence to my tremolo (Speed) picking and finger dexterity, it'd be him (and not Abbath/Demonaz).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c3L0bqUnao

"Dimebag" Darrell Abbott-Pantera
Pretty obvious, but Dimebag put some cleanliness to my playing, with him playing some tight riffs throughout the madness. His playing motivated me to play groove oriented music, becoming more relaxed while playing with others, and quite honestly, my guitar hero.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=td-v6vG2Xhs

Stevie Ray Vaughan.
...BUT WAIT!!!! I thought Dimebag was your hero.
Yeah, but this man, is my god. Never has anybody cheered me up just by listening to him. When I think of Stevie, I think of not just a man, but a force, a model of a player, who should play with what different paths he can take musically live, instead of one. Never does he stick with the same solo, it's like everytime you see a different part of him, be it sad or happy. I always though you can tell a musicians mood by listening to what he's playing, since they're playing from the heart, and there's no denying that Stevie always played from the heart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY3lsfxGAaU

Nice list Shredder. Definitely some good players with great chops in there.

I could have guessed this list from you, minus Nödtveidt, but still a nice list. Have you uploaded any of your guitar work, Shredder? I would be interested.

Well not really. I'm pretty personal with my material. I'm a perfectionist so I usually don't show others what I'm composing. I do have this one piece that I do want to record, and a friend of mine has one of his compositions that we've been meaning to play, or at least youtube it.

It's okay. God knows I'm bad about this stuff with anything I do. I stop drumming if I lose my timing by even the smallest fraction of a second, so I can't even get anything that I would want to record, haha.

Yeah, I'd do like five takes just cuz I missed one note. We've been thinking about youtubing The Somberlain since we have that one nailed down.

You should try. Either way, it should have a positive outcome. Either you go on your way to learning to avoid extreme perfectionism or how to perfect, haha.

Cool list, Shred.

Glad to see SRV in there with the shredders (well, not sure they're all shredders).

One of my big influences is someone probably only a few folks know: William Leavitt. He wrote the guitar books in the Berklee school of music training series.


BTW -- the finals of guitar instrumental battle are up. Have you voted?

No I haven't. I was leaning towards Sexual Harassment or Death.