very true on michael hedges…discovered him in college…if were gonna throw out some from other genres heres a few:
jazz: joe pass, (ive never heard anything like what joe pass can do…blew my mind instantly when i heard him…which was quite recently), kurt rosenwinkel, pat martino, julian lage…
classical: julian bream, john williams, jason vieaux, gabriel bianco
fingerstyle (ill admit i dont know much about these guys but from what ive heard, pretty damn impressive …): tommy emmanuel, andy mckee
fusion: allan holdsworth, guthrie govan, al dimeola…guthrie really isnt fusion but i wouldnt even know how to classify him…
back to rock, but dual attack rhythm sections:
rammstein: richard kruspe/paul landers…IMO the best written rhythm in metal
iron maiden: adrian smith/dave murray
judas priest: kk downing/glenn tipton
ding! more useless info relating to the beginning of this thread.
guthrie wrote a “how to play…” style article for guitar techniques magazine, on the subject of Eugenes trickbag no less. There’s audio somewhere on youtube, attributed to vai, but its actually Guthrie playing from the CD included on the magazine cover.