I'm pretty familiar with much of Zappa's work and he's really a big part of what we call a 'guitar solo.'
Words like "feeling" and "art" (or even "like") have no place on my list. It's not that they have no place in music, it's that they have no place on my list. My list is, inasmuch as is possible, to remove all the criteria that is subjective and to rate them with metrics that can be quantified and established as approximate truths.
There is still some subjectivity, but I try to remove as much of it as I can.
There are artists on my list that I don't actually regularly listen to. There some that I don't even really like, such as Malmsteen. I admire his work as a technical feat, but I don't really care to listen to a great deal of his music - certainly not consecutively.
If you really want to understand, it'd probably help to read the articles. You can see this link:
https://playguitar.gq/guitarists-better-than-hendrix-the-complete-list/
That's most of 'em. There's a few that are missing, 'cause I haven't updated the list in a few weeks. I've been both busy and lazy.
AH Malmsteen - Do you like Joe Satriani and Steve Vai? I like Midnight by Satriani - Steve Vai, I like Tender Surrender and Bad Horsie - in fact I haven't listened to bad horsie in years. It's very chunky.
I think it was the black napkins that Steve Vai had to transcribe or something for Zappa.
Do you like Prince?
Satriani and Vai are both on the list, though I don't usually seek them out much, when I'm listening for pleasure.
Prince would probably have been a better guitarist, had he played just guitar. As it was, he played many instruments and excelled at none of them. It's a very different feat than what is required to make this list, and it's equally respectable.
When I'm done with this list, which could be a while, I plan on doing a "featured guitarist of the week" series. He'll be covered in that series, though it's a long ways out. I'll be working on this list for quite a while longer.
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