Vote for the greatest rock guitar riff of all time

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In our December 2024 issue, Guitar Player will celebrate the 50 greatest rock riffs of all time – as chosen by you

A guitar player plays a Telecaster-style guitar
(Image credit: Yuliia Zatula/Getty Images)

In a couple months' time, Guitar Player will celebrate the 50 greatest rock riffs of all time as chosen by you, our readers. This definitive list will appear in our December 2024 issue, along with a deep dive into every riff’s history and musical construction.

We’ve also assembled a who’s who of guitar greats who’ll share their favorite rock riffs and tell us the stories behind some of their own creations.

To help you get started, we’ve assembled some of our favorite riffs of the past 60+ years. Pick as many as you’d like from the list below, but remember – only one entry from each artist will make the final cut.

Don’t see one of your favorites here? Send an email with your picks to GreatestRIffs@yahoo.com by August 10, and let us know what we missed.

And be sure to pick up the December 2024 issue of Guitar Player to see which riffs made the cut!

Christopher Scapelliti
Christopher Scapelliti
Guitar Player editor-in-chief

Christopher Scapelliti is editor-in-chief of Guitar Player magazine, the world’s longest-running guitar magazine, founded in 1967. In his extensive career, he has authored in-depth interviews with such guitarists as Pete Townshend, Slash, Billy Corgan, Jack White, Elvis Costello and Todd Rundgren, and audio professionals including Beatles engineers Geoff Emerick and Ken Scott. He is the co-author of Guitar Aficionado: The Collections: The Most Famous, Rare, and Valuable Guitars in the World, a founding editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine, and a former editor with Guitar World, Guitar for the Practicing Musician and Maximum Guitar. Apart from guitars, he maintains a collection of more than 30 vintage analog synthesizers.