-Well folks, I'll begin by thanking everyone for participating in the initial vote- we had a great response with much insightful commentary tossed in for good measure!! I had encouraged diversity, and that's certainly what we got here, with 167 different guitarists named.
-Now all the votes are counted and the brackets are set. There were a number of instances in the lower seedings where as final arbitror, I had to toss in a tie-breaker. In doing so, I didn't pick favorites, but instead tried to evaluate on diversity of styles, and percieved influence. Tie-breakers are indicated with an asterisk (*). Seedings are indicated in parenthesis.
-It had been suggested that I also post a list of the top 100, but that has proved impossible, with slightly over half (84) of the guitarists named being one-time entries, and a large number of others being only named twice. I will, however, post a "Top 25" in the coming days.
-So here they are, the top 32 "greatest guitarists" as voted by the CBS Sports Community, and the brackets-
Eric Clapton(1) vs. Kirk Hammett(32)*
Jimi Hendrix(2) vs. Ry Cooder(31)*
Stevie Ray Vaughn(3) vs. Chet Atkins(30)*
Carlos Santana(4) vs. Rick Emmett(29)*
Edward Van Halen(5) vs. Nancy Wilson(28)*
Jimmy Page(6) vs. "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott(27)*
David Gilmour(7) vs. Alvin Lee(26)*
Duane Allman(8) vs. Derek Trucks(25)*
BB King(9) vs. Roy Buchannan(24)*
Jeff Beck(10) vs. Dicky Betts(23)*
Joe Satriani(11) vs. Pete Townshend(22)*
Randy Rhodes(12) vs. Alex Lifeson(21)*
Mark Knopfler(13) vs. Chuck Berry(20)*
Steve Vai(14) vs. Robert Johnson(19)
Johnny Winter(15) vs. Slash(18)
and
Yngwie Malmstein(16) vs. Buddy Guy(17)
-Just a reminder to all that not having voted initially does not make you inelligible to vote in any of the coming brackets- all are welcomed...
-Thanks again to all who have already participated!! Cast your votes & lets all have some fun with the run-off!!
-The deadline for voting in Round 1 is midnight Thursday evening, EDT (June 12th).
