Where does jimmy page rank as guitarist? he started with blues!?

Jimmy Page's status as one of the great guitarists was etched in stone years ago. He's still a great blues player, not to mention what he can do with acoustic guitar, "Black Mountain Side", for one). He played tons of sessions before joining The Yardbirds, and got a lot of acclaim for his playing. When Zep was formed, his guitar playing level raised even higher. Songs like "I Can't Quit You, Baby", "Dazed and Confused", and "How Many More Times" were bluesy and "heavy" at the same time. His playing level stayed high, especially on "ZOSO", "Houses Of The Holy", and "Physical Grafitti"....there's too many great songs on those albums to namecheck them all. On "Presence" he not only played blues and rock, but got downright funky on "Royal Orleans". He was a thinking guitarist, who had a great understanding of dynamics and rhythm. He also knew how to use the studio, with his guitar parts produced and arranged perfectly. That's one of the reasons Zeppelin sounded so huge on the radio.
So, where does he rank? Pretty damn high.....
1. Hendrix
2. Page
3. Beck
4. Clapton
5. Buchanan
6. SRV
7. Johnny Winter
8. Peter Green
9. Rory Gallagher
10. Alvin Lee

At the top !!!

he is up there

As they say, the only time Robert Plant isn't the most famous person in the room is when Jimmy Page walks in.
Technically he is very good. He is innovative, first electric guitarist I saw using a violin bow!! His music strays away from standard 4/4 timing to (I think) 7/4 and 7/8 time in places, you can't tap your feet to it!!
Also, he was definitively the FIRST person EVER to play Stairway to Heaven!!! That has to put him way up there.
Only one player to stop him being number one.. Jimi Hendrix........he rewrote all the books and has to be number one across all categories.

Jimmy Page is still one of the best British-blues Rock guitarists with Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck. Most of the British guitarists did listen to the blues and they used the music to turn it into Rock music.

Hes up there with the legends!

As one of the best. It was Jimmy Page that started my interest in the blues many years ago.

I remember reading a particular rock article decades ago that in the rock sphere, only Hendrix, Clapton and Beck are ahead of him.

After day-in and day-out hours and hours and years and years of heartfelt study of love, I came to loosely grasp the makeup of why.

Hendrix--according to virtually every relevant and coherent
guitar-affilitated source--has remained universally Top Banana. Clapton, of the living Blues-Based guitarists in
rock reigns because of the impact of his playing Vocabulary.
Beck is impossible to nail down, because he strays in a most chaotic and unpredictable form, yet his stuff is grounded unmistakably within the blues. He has always been a pure bluesman whenever called upon / it was needed / he sees fit.

Before I address Page, let me state that there've always been
staunch fans of other equal or "even better guitarists" (paraphrasing Page himself, there) who spit nails in their kindest moments toward their seeming seething campaign
against him.

Sure, some of the world's finest musicians have gone tragically unsung (I swear, I meant not the pun). Certainly, some guys like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Steve Howe (of Yes), and David Gilmour have etched their absolute performances in History. We like to imagine Page even has owned some of it in his personal stacks.

Then there are the hundreds of axemen in every genre it seems, who became true madmen of acrobatics who succeeded in defying motion laws just to make music
which crushes, crunches and rocks with flurries of thousands of notes per minute.

But in several key interviews, Page boiled it down to one thing: Emotion.

THAT is what he works with.

If you have the luxury, study his influences in the same immediate time-structures as you listen to Page's stuff. Namely Scotty Moore (Elvis's first guy) and BB King, though make no mistake--Page has lifted from many more. AND--keep in mind, there's considerably more than his exemplary work in that ever-famous band he was in.

His studio work includes some with the early Kinks, Donovan,Tom Jones, a few spots with the Rolling Stones, scores of others. He composed and performed the soundtrack for the film, "Death Wish II."

It's out-of-print, but you can get it: Find a copy of "Tangents Within A Framework," by Howard Mylett. It covers everything.

Carlos Santana said of him, "He has everyone down on sense of composition." That quote is over a quarter-century old.

For me, I think the effect of Page's magic is due immensely to the truth within his diversity. It's what he does with less--he takes a solitary mustard seed and can paint a town yellow.
Page's blueswork is among the absolute purest, if you really listen. I don't say that because I'm a fan. I'm a fan because I can say that.

Ask guys like Joe Walsh, Billy Gibbons and Joe Perry what they think of him, how his stuff has influenced theirs.

Keep rockin'.

I definately think he's up there...he's undoubtedly one of the most influential guitarists in rock. However, I think its his style is what made him great. He basically fused delta blues with british rock and middle eastern music. No one's really done that before or since. I think as a guitarist he's over-rated for his chops. He's an excellent rhythm player. But he sure is a sloppy lead player. What made him great was his style (which I love), and his songwriting skills. Apart from that, he's overrated.

Jeff Beck said this guy was the greatest ever.

Jimmy page, knows it too, but probably wouldnt admit it.

I'm talking about the greatest blues/rock guitarist that ever lived, the late, great Roy Buchanan.

Technical perfection itself, but each note crying, or moaning, or screaming with it's own emotion.

If your not affected by Roys blues, you got no soul.

He is definitely one of the most popular guitarists in the world. As to saying he started with blues, Led Zeppelin IS a blues band - NOT a heavy metal band. Its just just that Led Zeppelin was the heaviest blues band that the world had ever seen, which is why some people called their music "heavy metal". Metallica is heavy metal - Led Zeppelin is the world's heaviest blues.

Page started out as a studio musician. studio musicians are usually better than the ones you see in mainstream bands.

page played with clapton in the yardbirds if that's anything to guage it on. page was also one of the only guitarists of his time that wasn't intimidated by clapton.

he'd be in my top ten.

I've listened to some of his stuff whether the blues tracks or Zeppelin or Coverdale-Page. I like Stairway and other Zep tracks and he is in the top 10 at least but he isn't one of my favorites off hand.

he is good, Syd Barret was better. Syd was the first to use the bow on a guitar. post Hendrix eraof guitarist he is one of the better ones(jimmy) early in his career. Towards the later part he kind got washed up and uninspired. If you want to check out a new cutting edge guitarist you should check out the stuff Omar Rodriguez Lopez is doing. Its some very innovative stuff. He new solo album NO BIZONET=NO BUFFALO is cutting edge. A definite revivalist of the free form era.

I have to agree with RSX4NOW.

Jimmy Page ---- #2
Jimi Hendrix ---- #1