10 Rock Guitarists That Are Impossible To Imitate

At the start of the '60s, the idea of the guitar as rock's prominent instrument was just starting to happen. While you definitely had highlights of the time like Chuck Berry showing what you could do behind the fretboard, there wasn't a ton of wiggle room as far as where you could go on the guitar outside of blues imitations. Once we got a taste of the Beatles though, George Harrison blossomed into one of the most lyrical guitar players of them all.

Though never the flashiest of guitar players, Harrison's main focus whenever he took a solo always seemed to be on a melody line, which is evident in every solo break he made. Across both the moptop era and their classic period in the late '60s, you can practically sing the leads of almost every Harrison song, be it the weird sitar inflections on Norwegian Wood or the pure beauty erupting from a song like Something.

Along with broadening the playing field for guitarists, Harrison also pulled from new influences all the time, whether it was the country influenced sound of Chet Atkins on their earlier work or setting the template for psychedelic rock by infusing different Eastern influences into his sound. Even though he was known as the Quiet Beatle, you don't really to talk that much when you have licks that are this powerful.