The 1980s was full of amazing guitarists. They were standing upon the shoulders of giants. If you did not see part 1 of this series you can see it by clicking here. That entry covers the origin of the guitar and steps up through various older time periods. As with the first, I can guarantee I will leave out some great guitarists. This is a journey I am laying the path for. If I forgot someone you like, please note that does not mean I did not like them as well.

1980s

The 1980s were very formative years for me. I became more and more interested in music. In fact, it more than anything else would become a driving force for my life for decades. This ran neck and neck with computer programming. It was also in the late 1980s that I myself became a guitarist. At that time I was very much into heavy metal, but that didn't stop me from listening to a lot of other styles. I have zero doubt that such interests do shape the flavor of my path some.

Punk

I want to make a shout out to Punk Rock. This became a big movement during this time. I don't know of a single guitarist from this period that was known for guitar virtuosity. It was a powerful and influential style of music. It was however, going in the direction of eschewing virtuosity. It was not unusual for a punk rock song to be performed solely with one or two chords. That does not mean it does not have it's place. It certainly does and it was partially responsible for the inception of my favorite style of the era (speed/thrash metal). Yet I will not be featuring any punk guitarists as I don't know of any that really pushed the guitar into unseen territory.

Eddie Van Halen

Eddie Van Halen - 1955-
Eddie Van Halen is famous for popularizing the two handed tapping technique. Using this technique you could make a solo that sounded beautiful and extremely complex, when in reality it was actually far easier to perform than normal. I used to do some of these types of licks as a party trick in the late 80s and early 90s. I could play stuff that was super difficult and no one would notice. I'd start doing a simple two handed Van Halen style tapping that I learned the first week I ever started playing guitar and heads would snap and party goers would flock at my feet. Some people consider Eddie to be one of the greatest guitarists ever. They'd think differently if they knew how simple this technique is to perform. It does sound great though and it has forever changed the landscape of guitar.

Yngwie J. Malmsteen

Yngwie J. Malmsteen - 1963 -
Yngwie Malmsteen lit the guitar world on fire when he arrived on the scene. He would spearhead a new style dubbed neo-classical. It was a metal/rock style melded with the classical influences of Paganini, and other classical composers. It featured lightning fast guitar. There are some unique things about Yngwie. He is a master of sweep picking, and what is known as the sweeping arpeggio. This features very prominently in his music. He is also known for playing on Fender Stratocaster guitars with scalloped frets. He was very influential in how aspiring guitarists wanted to play for awhile.

Joe Satriani

Joe Satriani - 1956 -
Joe Satriani was a football player when he heard Jimi Hendrix died. He put down the football and picked up the guitar. He is one of the best guitarists I am aware of. He is obviously a great teacher of the instrument as well as three of his students grace this section of the blog with him. He taught Kirk Hammett, Steve Vai (in the early years), and Alex Skolnick. I was blown away the first time I heard Satriani. I was listening to his debut album Not of this Earth which was very suitable for what I heard. He went into a studio and recorded drums and all things using the guitar. It would later be remastered. Satriani had a sound that incorporated techniques from all others, and also had these amazing fluid sounds due to his technique with the tremolo/whammy bar. I simply remember hearing the titles on Not of this Earth that had no vocals and the title of the song totally would fit the style I was hearing.
Hordes of Locusts

Satch Boogie

Steve Vai

Steve Vai - 1960-
Steve Vai has performed with a lot of people, and been in some movies. His technique is very unique and his skill is unquestionable. He started guitar lessons with Joe Satriani, but he went his own way. Which is as should be. He is featured in the movie Crossroads as the evil guitarist Jack Butler that loses the head cutting duel at the end of the movie. The interesting part of that is that the piece that the movie uses to defeat Jack Butler was actually composed and performed by Steve Vai. I guess you could say he beat himself. :) He is known for playing Ibanez guitars that are usually quite extravagant with handle grip holes and such. I used to practice the hell out of that ending classical section, I never could get it close to that speed. It is said it took Vai a week of practicing how to look like he messed up.
Crossroads - Guitar duel - a scene any guitarist should enjoy. Vai is extravagant like that live. The blues parts I believe are by Ry Cooder.

I Know You Are Here

George Lynch

George Lynch - 1980 to 1998
George Lynch was the lead guitarist for the band Dokken. For awhile he was a force to be reckoned with, but it did not remain that way for long. He is skilled and influential though and did have a window where he was one of the greats.

Eric Johnson

Eric Johnson - 1954-
Eric Johnson is a formally trained prodigy who focuses on his own form of blues. I believe he became even more popular in the 1990s, but he got his start in the 1980s. He is quite skilled at sweep picking and string skipping (intentionally missing strings when sweeping) and incorporates them very well for a sound totally unique to him. I saw him perform front row live in Denver with Satriani, and Steve Vai for the first G2 Tour.

Stevie Ray Vaughan

Stevie Ray Vaughan - 1954 to 1990
I always consider SRV to be kind of the torch bearer for the sound started by Jimi Hendrix. I don't consider him the experimental soul that Hendrix had so I can't say I've seen SRV really take it to new places. He was without a doubt though a master of all things blues and he could sound very much like Hendrix, and other blues masters. He was quite skilled and has a very devoted group of fans for a reason.
Pride and Joy

Voodoo Child - performing a Jimi Hendrix piece

Randy Rhoads

Randy Rhoads - 1956 to 1982
Randy Rhoads was something else. He changed the sound of heavy metal and the way guitarists play. He was killed in a small passenger plane crash. Before that he started in Quiet Riot and then moved on to become amazing and well known as Ozzy Osbourne's first guitarist when he went solo from Black Sabbath. He was a master of the lick, the power chord, and was studying classical guitar heavily before his death. He influenced MANY guitarists that came after him. He was a very bright flame that for a brief period in time seemed to out shine most others and then was gone. Randy Rhoads is also why Ozzy has had so many great guitarists. The people who came after Randy had to be able to play his parts.

Kirk Hammett

Kirk Hammett - 1962 -
Kirk Hammett started in the band Exodus and then replaced Dave Mustaine on the band Metallica right before they went into their studio to record their debut album Kill 'em All which was originally going to be called Metal Up Your Ass. He would start studying with Joe Satriani at around the time they were working on their 2nd album Ride The Lightning. While not necessarily the most technically mind blowing of the lot of guitarists presented here, he is very skilled and he does have a sound very unique to him. His combination Tremolo/Whammy bar combined with Wha Wha pedal and fast licks has a very unique and distinctive sound. He was influential on a lot of guitarists including ME. In fact when I started playing guitar there was no guitarist I listened to more than Kirk. I do want to give a shout out to James Hetfield for the rhythm style of Metallica. It did alter the musical landscape. Songs that previously were exciting by other bands could in some cases put people to sleep after seeing Metallica live. This by the way is the band I was referring to when I said Punk Rock did have an influence. They are where the speed of Metallica comes from, yet mixed with skilled metal chops.

Dave Mustaine

Dave Mustaine - 1961-
Known as the first lead guitarist of Metallica that was replaced with some infamy by Kirk Hammett just before the first album Kill 'em All was recorded. You can hear that the first album of Metallica has solos that sound very Mustaine like. Mustaine went on to form Megadeth and had written some amazing pieces of guitar work over the years. Some of the best come in the 1990s and 2000s, but he too started in the 1980s. This song came out in August 1990, but it is one of my favorite Megadeth songs in terms of guitar. There were plenty of good Megadeth songs before the 1990s. This song also features Marty Friedman who is another great guitarist from the 1980s.

Alex Skolnick

Alex Skolnick - 1968 -
Alex Skolnick is the guitarists of Testament when it first started and he has performed as a solo act, and as part of Trans-Siberian Orchestra. He left Testament for awhile in pursuit of Jazz and other musical paths. He eventually returned to Testament. He has performed with many other acts such as Rodrigo Y Gabriella live on stage since they are known to be Testament fans and perform some of his works.
Skolnick wrote a lot of guitar technique articles in Guitar and other magazines. He is another student of Joe Satriani. Alex Skolnick is another master of sweep picking and sweeping arpeggios. He was very influential on me and I still consider his guitar tone on albums like New World Order to be some of the best tone ever recorded.
Trial By Fire - MTV Style Video

Practice What You Preach - MTV Style video

Him doing the solo from Practice What You Preach - 2013

I didn't include any of his Solo or TSO stuff which is not metal, but is brilliant. It all happened after the 80s. Check it out if you have time.

Paul Gilbert

Paul Gilbert - 1966-
Paul Gilbert did not influence me much other than I kept hearing about him and Racer X all over the place. He was one of those prodigies to arise out of the guitar institutes that were springing up at the time. He was usually spoken of in the same breath as I'd hear about Jason Becker, Nuno Bettencourt or Marty Friedman. He was also famous for playing a guitar solo with an electric drill as one of the required pieces of equipment to perform it.

Vernon Reid

Vernon Reid - 1958-
Vernon Reid blasted onto the scene in the late 1980s with the band Living Colour and their hit song Cult of Personality. He was known for his jazz influences and fondness for using chromatic riffs (not conforming to standard scale patterns). He is quite skilled and has a unique sound. I kept encountering him in all of the various guitar magazines I subscribed to at the time.

Conclusion

I am going to stop here for this blog post. It is quite long already. If there are votes and interest I will continue where I left off and do another post starting with the 1990s.

EDIT: I thought of a few honorable mentions I forgot at the time.

Slash

Slash - 1965-
Guitarist for Guns N' Roses heavily rooted in blues style solos. He is considered by many one of the greats. I do not usually remember him because while he was truly excellent at the blues style solos, it was things I'd heard from the greats of the 60s and 70s but with a lot fancier sound production than was available back then. So I didn't really hear anything new from Slash. He is however, a master of that style of sound and did influence a lot of people so deserves to be listed.

Leo Kottke

Leo Kottke - 1945-
Actually began before the 80s but continued into them and had a truly unique sound and style. He deserves not to be left out. He is most definitely not metal, so might appeal to some of you that don't care for the choices I made above.

Al Di Meola

Al Di Meola - 1954-
This is another great non-rock and metal guitarist that I forgot about that actually began pre-1980s and he deserves to be mixed with the greats. It also gives some other styles differing from what I've offered so far.

Part Three

Part three has been published HERE.