Best Living Guitar Players?

[Catfish]

Pete Townsend is a great songwriter, but a shit guitarist, sorry.
I saw him play about 6 yrs ago at the House of Blues.
He rocked pretty hard.

[yossarian]

It's difficult to make an accurate list given the activity and inactivity of some and different genres but here is my list:

Prince (yea thats right! he's an amazing guitar player)


No need for the justification re: Prince, IMO. The dude is simply brilliant all around and can play the hell out of a guitar.

[art'n'sue]

It's difficult to make an accurate list given the activity and inactivity of some and different genres but here is my list:

Steve Vai (our modern day Hendrix)
Joe Satriani
Eric Clapton
BB King
Eric Johnson
Dave Meniketti
Gary Moore
Paul Gilbert
Jason Becker (despite his disability he still records)
Dave Evans (the Edge)
Tom Morello
John Frusciante
Jeff Beck
Carlos Santana
Brian May
Mark Knopfler
Angus Young
Ritchie Blackmore (personal favorite)
Yngwie Malmsteen (even though he can suck live, owes his career to Blackmore)
Van Halen
Tony Macalpine
Dave Gilmour
Tony Iommi
Marty Friedman
Uli Jon Roth
Michael Schenker
Alex Lifeson
Robin Trower
Slash
John Mcglaughlin
Allan Holdsworth
Keith Richards
Jimmy Page
Jerry Cantrell
Alvin Lee
Joe Perry
Prince (yea thats right! he's an amazing guitar player)
Adrian Smith & Dave Murray (cause they work together all the time)
KK Downing and Glenn Tipton (personal favorites)
Alex Skolnick (metal and jazz)
John Sykes
Ted Nugent
George Lynch
Frank Hannon & Tommy Skeoch
Dave Mustaine (when he wants to...)

Of course these are guitar players in my realm of music expertise. There are greats in Jazz and blues as well that should be mentioned.

Nice list
Additions:
John Petrucci (Dream Theater, has to be one of the top 3 today)
Steve Morse (Dixie Dregs, solo, new Deep Purple blows away Blackmore)
Buck Dharma (Blue Oyster Cult)
Rik Emmit (Triumph)
Matthias Jabs (Scorps)
If you have John Mcglaughlin and Allan Holdsworth you have to have
Al Dimeola


Overrated (if I know them):
Slash (pisses me off when he makes those frickin guest appearances on stage in LA, ruined a good Sammy Hagar show the last time I saw him)
Keith Richards
Joe Perry (love old school Aerosmith but I think Brad Whitford is better)

[RealMadGunner]

If you have John Mcglaughlin

He has some awesome indian-fusion stuff .. His band is called 'Shakthi' or something, if i'm not wrong ..