James Burton's tele on Gram Parsons' Grievous Angel.

I always get chills from Phil Manzanera's guitar playing. 801 Live is the most studio sounding live recording I have ever heard, and it was made in the late 70's. Simon Phillips, Brian Eno are also amazing on that record. I first saw Adrian Belew when he toured with Zappa, and he left me stunned. Same thing when Adrian plays with King Crimson. I forget to breath and become oxygen deprived.

Steve Gaines, 'nuff said.

i think kurt rosenwinkel has my all time favorite guitar tone. not only is he one of the greatest guitar players in the history of the instrument, particularly in 'jazz' oriented stuff, but he gets this amazing tone by singing every note he plays, dead on as far as pitch goes.  
if you've never heard him play, you're doing your ears a great disservice.
austin

Ry Cooder and Manuel Galban on Mambo Sinuendo.

I'll add Steve Kimock and David Lindley. I love that clean Fender-like tone.

Should have had Bill Frisell on my previous post as well.
 
Peace
Tom
 
(Message edited by tom_z on November 19, 2006)

Not sure what my all time favorite is but I have always enjoyed Brian May's tone...

(wow, Kurt Rosenwinkel and Bill Frisell, two names I never expected to see on this forum! I'm not sure how I'd rate them specifically on guitar tone, don't think about that much other than liking theirs, but as musicians and composers, these are the two guitarists I would put at the top of my personal list today, possibly with the nod to Rosenwinkel for his creativity, but that's a tough call.)

I love Jimmy Page's solo in Tangerine.  The fuzz is a great contrast to the rest of the song (great bass line, too).

Bob; I get a big smile on my face any time I see Gram Parson's name show up in a thread!

Right on, Dave - me too.
 
Rick

Favourite guitar tone? Dave Gilmour on pretty much anything but especially Another Brick... and Comfortably Numb. Peter Green on anything at all. A great deal of Thin Lizzy, particularly Scott's stuff; Dancing in the Moonlight springs to mind. Andy Latimer (Camel) on Lunar Sea on Moonmadness(I love that solo so much!); Huw Lloyd Langton on Live '79 by Hawkwind. Ritchie Blackmore when he switches to his neck pickup and probably loads more; John Frusciante gets some lovely fragile tones. Oh, Bill Connors on Stanley's Life Suite.

AC/DC- High Voltage and Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
Grateful Dead- Everything has amazing guitar tones
Dream Theater- A Change of Seasons
Ozzy Osbourne- Goodbye to Romance

I'm with bigbadbill on his Gilmour and Andy Latimer picks. Wow, someone besides me and a couple friends remember Camel!  
 
Robert Fripp's so-distorted-it's-silky-smooth sound in the opening section of Starless from Red (and many other places over the years).
 
The late Jimmy Honeyman-Scott of the original Pretenders on Kid
 
Gary Moore pretty much anywhere; Jimmy Page on Achilles' Last Stand,  Ritchie Blackmore on the original studio version of Highway Star.
 
Carlos Santana on all of Caravanserai.  Steve Hillage in his Gong days.
 
Man there's lots of great stuff on this thread.  Obviously Alembicians have good taste.
 
Paul