Stratovarius Community

Petrucci is overrated. His solos aren't as great as everyone said they are. On the other hand, his compositions are very good. If you think Petrucci is awesome take a closer look at what Romeo does in his solos. It will clear things up for you. Tolkki said himself he is not a technical player. I believe he is technical to an extent. He has some awesome phrasing and bad ass solos. I prefer Tolkki over Petrucci any day. I like Romeo for being very creative in his playing. He has some real cool sounding shit. Technically Michael Romeo is one of the best metal guitarist out there. I have favorite guitar players, not really a number one. So Tolkki and Romeo are both in there. But who is better? Romeo!!!

Well, I have just listened a few of romeo's solos, so I can't compare him with tolkki and petrucci, who are the guitarrist of my two favourite bands, strato and dream theater, personally I think that petrucci exceeds on skills on his solos, wich are amazing and very very difficult, I love his solos... he plays the most difficult solos in the most difficult band... drem theater has the most complet and difficult compositions... I dunno how they can play that on stage! anyway... portnoy, petrucci and ruddess are genious so... but talking about tolkki... even though his compositions are not as complex as dream theater's... I love them, complex doesn't mean better necesary... I think tolkki is the number one metal composer, if not, the number 1 power metal composer for sure... he knows how to use the melodies, he is the most expressive with his compositions and with his solos as well... petrucci is just a member of a band... tolkki is much more than this... dream theater can survive without petrucci... strato can't without tolkki... he is not just a single member, he has composed more than 100 songs and he is still original, I admire him as a composer, even he is a very good player on stage... tolkki is more than a guitarrist, so I cant compare him with petrucci, If we talk only about guitar skills I will say that I prefer petrucci 1000 times... if we tak about who is best musician... tolkki 1000 times... thats my opinion!

come on you guys its a given.
tolkki is the greatest of all metal.

Technique :

Petrucci
Tolkki
Romeo

For me :

Tolkki
Petrucci/Romeo ( hard to say :S )

Others not in order :

Dave Murray ( fuckin solo maker )
Joe Satriani
Adrian Smith
Steve Vai
Angus Young
Jimmy Page
Dio ! He's good to hear !


Good ones but only for creativity :

Alice Cooper's guitarist ( simple but good to hear, have some hard stuff )
The Beatles ( made so much Classics ! )
Nirvana : Kurt Cobain ( very easy, cool to hear )


Bassist?!

Steve Harris,
John paul jones ( led zepp )
geezer butler !
John Muyng
Stu Hamm ( ho so great with joe satriani )
Thomas Miller ( Symphony X )
Michael Lepond ( new one with symphony x )
A lot of best... i wanna sleep now, i can't think more than this !

I prefer a great slapping and quick-technique long bass solo to a short and quick guitar solo, but there's a lot more great guitarist than bassist, it is why i like to play bass, but guitar is equal to bass for me, both are important !

Most underrated: Paul Gilbert btw

ROCKDOG777 wrote:IT IS IN MY OWN OPINION THAT PETRUCCI IS THE TOP OF THIS SHORT LIST FROM A LONG LIST OF GREAT PLAYERS TOLKKI IS = LY GREAT IN HIS OWN RIGHT AS FOR ROMEO I DONT KNOW MUCH ABOUT HIM

You know, I have caps lock too..

Tolkki is king.

Brian May.

Slash..?

From a purely technical standpoint, there's a guy named Michael Angelo Batio that does things that I've never seen anyone do. Back in the 80's he was in a band called Nitro that never really went anywhere. Now he does solo stuff. He's definitely the fastest and flashiest guitar player I've ever seen. To put him into perspective, when this guy started attracting attention, Yngwie started saying things in interviews like "Oh, it doesn't really matter how fast I can play! It's the songwriting and melody that counts!"

And that's very true because Batio's songwriting is mediocre at best. For best melody/songwriter, I'd pick any one of the guitarists mentioned above before I'd pick him.

But one thing cannot be denied: Michael Angelo Batio is a superhuman fretboard-shredding machine. If you're a guitar player and you're interested in virtuoso technical ability check out this video: http://www.angelo.com/html/mp3___video.html It's the first one at the top. It starts out a bit "slow" (haha) but keep watching. You probably won't believe your eyes.

For me none of the above..

but look below

YNGWIE MALMSTEEN

well....malmsteen was the first to compose songs with amazing solos...when he started most of the guitarplayers was doing only instrumental songs...i think that malmsteen have created a different style

Hooo Shit this Michael Angelo

I have to say that i don't like Yngwie... the first you see it, WOOW amazing, but if you listen very well, it's kind of cacophony, he seems to play everything except something intelligent !

I'm not a guitarist, but for me Tolkki is the best... this is one think I like strato the most. But tohers can play good as well.

I'm a guitarist. I know these things. Yes, Tolkki is great. He is one of my top influences in guitar. BUT, Romeo is better than Tolkki. Tolkki admitted this himself. It really doesn't matter who's better to me.

Petrucci.........just that

Hi lads,

I saw Steve Vai on stage a while ago, and got a whole new view of what can be done with a guitarr. Unbelievable! Not a match to Tolkki, though, as the musical area is so different...

On the other hand we shouldnt think that a good player has to be very technical or complicated... Toni Iommi rocks for example and Sabbath´s songs arent precisely an example for high technical standards, still they have more meaning than the standard Vai/Malmsteen fretboard-wanking

Jaakko wrote:Brian May.

Yes. He is one favourite of mine. He and Tolkki. And Malmsteen's gonna be the third imho... I'm listening to his songs nowdays.

Timo, Timo and Timo Tolkki. What about Emppu from NIGHTWISH, it's good, not much as Tolkki but still good!

I think in stratovarius they all worked together to make the music sound great but thats just what i think

and Hansen? turilli? maY? Olbrich? blackmore?

FakeTolkki wrote:ok petrucci is great and can play extensive complex songs...but PETRUCCI ARPPEGIOUS???? cmon petrucci is good in many technics but he cant make arppeggious....listen to dream theater and you will know that he doesnt do any arpegiou....the only time i saw him making an arppegiou on the metropolis 2000 show he made the dirtiest sound ive ever heard....he is a great guitar player but i dont like exercise musics like.....first part ill do panananananada papa....an there goes the other parts just by mixing the order of the scales....by all this ill say it again...TOLKKI RULEZ!!!!!!!!! but malmsteen is better anyway.....

I think you should listen to Change of Seasons and Images&Words album. You can heart lots of arpeggious.If you watch Petrucci's Rock Dicipline Video you see how he make different arpegious.

And whos the best ? I think,

Petrucci is the best for me. All strange sounds, sweep pickings and him progressive materials are very creative things. And ofcourse Tolkki(emotions, baroq materials, speed all of these he has), Malmsteen, Ritchie Blackmore(without him we can't listen lots of band. He is god!) , Rhandy Rhoads(RIP), Marty Friedman, Jason Becker(with Friedman he played in Cacophony was the perfect speed-thrash band also him solo album Perpetual Burn is very good albums), Joe Satriani,Steve Morse. Every guitarist has different styles. So it's difficult to choose one of them. But for me first one : PETRUCCI !!!

Jason Becker kick ass! :uzi:

I like a lot Tolkki, but I have to recognize that in the most of his compositions he does always the same... only fast scales and fast alternate picking, that's why I preffer others like Marty Friedman, Becker, A. Smith, Vai, Satriani, Gilbert, Vinnie Moore and a lot of moooore.

Anyway for me, Tolkki has created the best compositions of Melodic or Powermetal

This is becoming stupid because there is no best.

indeeed...everyone has his own different opinion...

Not one of the smartest threads, but I as a guitarist I have to answer this...

Petrucci
Romeo
----
----
----
Tolkki

Got the point? Tolkki isn´t really a top3 guitarist technically, but he still is one of my fav musicians. Tolkki has done some great solos, but his soloing is a bit too "limited".

edit: so this was only "who´s the best of these three". Who´s the best in the whole world? Well then it goes something like this:

Vai
Malmsteen
Van Halen
Moore
----
Petrucci
----
a hundred others =)

Someone mentioned Paul Gilbert... He really can play his ass off too!

john petrucciiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!