Best guitarist? No such thing.
That said, I love Paco, JohnMc, etc.
Saw John Mc. at the Chicago Theatre October, 2003--he played with the regrouped Shakti. What a freaking amazing musician! (all of them, really) They don't look at their instruments, they look inward or at each other as they play. and boy do they play, they speak to each other with the music, much improv. such joy.
Funny thing is the (not sold out!) audience was about half those who were into McG during the 70s and Indian fans of the other Shakti artists.
Paco I love. I saw him in Chicago's Orchestra hall. Wonder performance. But here's the flaw: the show was amplified as if it was held in your typical rock arena. That's right. Instead of thoughtfully leveraging the natural, wonderful, acoustics of the hall, they simply blasted the sound out of speakers.
When Paco played solo, and softly, I couldn't hear him directly, I heard the speakers. Funny thing was listening to the speakers interacting with the hall--hearing the hall, so-to-speak. This was possible due to the relatively low volume of his solo playing. It betrayed the missed opportunity. When all the musicians kicked-in, I needed to insert my -15db earplugs. No dynamics, not timbre, no humanity--just like listening to a very loud Bose system.
