The Greatest Shred Guitar Virtuosos of All Time

Sweep picking, two-hand tapping, and mach-speed arpeggios — the players who redefined technique.

Shred got a bad reputation it never deserved — the technique was never the problem, the songs were. We ranked the virtuosos who used the technique to actually say something, from Malmsteen's neoclassical fury to Vai's alien phrasing, and the brief was the virtuoso, not the technique — the player who used the technique to make music, not the player who used the technique to show off. The best shredders aren't the fastest. They're the ones whose solos you can hum, and the ones on this list are the ones who proved that technique and music are not opposites.

The technique is the part that makes the list make sense. Shred — the sweep-picking, two-hand-tapping, mach-speed-arpeggio approach to the guitar that emerged in the early 1980s — is a technique, not a genre, and the technique was invented by a handful of players who took the Eddie Van Halen vocabulary and pushed it to its logical extreme. The technique was never the problem — the songs were, and the shredders who used the technique to write songs are the ones who have endured. The list is the one that ranks the virtuosos who used the technique to make music, and the ones whose solos you can hum.

The 1980s are the part that made the technique a movement. The decade that gave us the shred guitar — the sweep-picking, two-hand-tapping, mach-speed-arpeggio approach that every guitar virtuoso since has been descending from — is the decade that turned the technique into a movement, and the decade that the ten players on this list all came up in. The 1980s shred scene was the thing that turned the guitar solo into a sport, and the thing that made the technique a movement. The ten players on this list are the ones who used the technique to make music, and the ones who have endured.

10. Paul Gilbert — Mr. Big, Racer X. The shredder who taught the genre to be a song, and the one who defined the pop-adjacent shred format. Gilbert's playing is built around the alternate-picking speed that would define the format, and the songwriting that would define the genre. He's here because he taught the genre that a shred solo could be a song, and that a song could be a shred solo.

9. John Petrucci — Dream Theater. The shredder who taught the genre to be a prog, and the one who defined the prog-adjacent shred format. Petrucci's playing is built around the sweep-picking speed that would define the format, and the prog songwriting that would define the genre. He's here because he taught the genre that a shred solo could be a prog, and that a prog could be a shred solo.

8. Vinnie Moore — solo. The shredder who taught the genre to be a neoclassical, and the one who defined the neoclassical-adjacent shred format. Moore's playing is built around the sweep-picking speed that would define the format, and the neoclassical songwriting that would define the genre. He's here because he taught the genre that a shred solo could be a neoclassical, and that a neoclassical could be a shred solo.

7. Tony MacAlpine — solo. The shredder who taught the genre to be a jazz, and the one who defined the jazz-adjacent shred format. MacAlpine's playing is built around the sweep-picking speed that would define the format, and the jazz songwriting that would define the genre. He's here because he taught the genre that a shred solo could be a jazz, and that a jazz could be a shred solo.

6. Jason Becker — Cacophony, solo. The shredder who taught the genre to be a classical, and the one who defined the classical-adjacent shred format. Becker's playing is built around the sweep-picking speed that would define the format, and the classical songwriting that would define the genre. He's here because he taught the genre that a shred solo could be a classical, and that a classical could be a shred solo — and because his ALS diagnosis, which ended his playing career in 1990, is the part of the story that makes his work so devastating.

5. Randy Rhoads — Ozzy Osbourne, Quiet Riot. The shredder who taught the genre to be a metal, and the one who defined the metal-adjacent shred format. Rhoads's playing is built around the classical-informed speed that would define the format, and the metal songwriting that would define the genre. He's here because he taught the genre that a shred solo could be a metal, and that a metal could be a shred solo — and because his death in a plane crash in 1982, at 25, is the part of the story that makes his work so enduring.

4. Steve Vai — solo, David Lee Roth. The shredder who taught the genre to be an alien, and the one who defined the alien shred format. Vai's playing is built around the two-hand-tapping and whammy-bar work that would define the format, and the alien songwriting that would define the genre. He's here because he taught the genre that a shred solo could be an alien, and that an alien could be a shred solo.

3. Joe Satriani — solo. The shredder who taught the genre to be a melody, and the one who defined the melodic shred format. Satriani's playing is built around the legato speed that would define the format, and the melodic songwriting that would define the genre. He's here because he taught the genre that a shred solo could be a melody, and that a melody could be a shred solo.

2. Eddie Van Halen — Van Halen. The shredder who invented the technique, and the one that every shredder since has been descending from. Van Halen's playing is built around the two-hand-tapping that would define the format, and the songwriting that would define the genre. He's here because he invented the technique, and because every shredder since has been, knowingly or not, descending from him.

1. Yngwie Malmsteen — solo, Steeler, Alcatrazz. The shredder who defined the genre, and the one that every neoclassical shredder since has been descending from. Malmsteen's playing is built around the sweep-picking speed that would define the format, and the neoclassical songwriting that would define the genre. He's here because he defined the genre, and because every neoclassical shredder since has been, knowingly or not, descending from him — and because his solos, despite the speed, are the ones you can hum. The best shredders aren't the fastest. They're the ones whose solos you can hum. This list is full of them.