Ah..the 80’s. Big hair, spandex and the ADA MP-1 ! Here’s a quick list off the top of my head for what I consider to be the top ten hair metal guitarists. The list is in no particular order.

Van Halen
The guy who single-handedly changed rock by taking the California hot rod approach to rock guitar. One of the first to popularize the use of the Floyd Rose and two handed tapping.

Reb Beach
Thanks to Beavis and Butthead Winger has been singled out as the reason for the death of hair metal. The fact is all members of Winger were pretty damn good musicians. Check out this video of the band performing Seventeen live. Reb Beach once endorsed a brand of amps called Kitty Hawk which were supposed to be the cats ass.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXU0gAnvfzk&feature=related

Warren DeMartini
Guitarist for Ratt. Created some of the best riffs ever like “Lay It Down”. Seemed like he used Laney amps a lot back in the day. Had a very liquid style of lead playing similar to…

George Lynch
The one word that I have heard most people use to describe George Lynch’s playing style is “slippery”. In his early days I seem to remember George using Aria Pro guitars but later switched to ESP’s. Lynch used a certain purple Marshall Plexi that he would borrow Aspen Pittman of Groove Tubes.

Nuno Bettencourt
Nuno displayed a complete mastery of shred guitar and a knack for arranging and producing. Unlike other bands of the era Extreme’s album Pornografitti featured in your face production with minimal reverb. Pornografitti is a great album that I consider across breed between Van Halen and Kansas. And please don’t think it’s all about “More Than Words”. I liked “3 sides” but was really disappointed with “Waiting for the Punchline “. It seemed like they were jumping on the low tech grunge bandwagon.

Brad Gillis
Guitarist for the band Night Ranger. Previously he had played with Ozzy. Check out the video for Sister Christain and tell me Brad doesn’t make the best faces ever for the solo.

Yngwie Malmsteen
I’m not sure if Yngwie is known much outside of guitar circles. Yngwie combined crazy speed picking in a neo-classical style. I have to admire the guy for sticking with a strat for so many years instead of a typical shred axe like an Ibanez.

Vito Bratta
I don’t think Vito has ever played a bad note in his life. You can sing along to most of his solos. They were mini compositions within the song. Vito was another ADA MP-1 user.

Steve Vai
Vai is one of those rare breads that have complete mastery of technique and theory. A graduate of Berklee Steve Vai had several solo albums and also played with more commercial acts like Whitesnake and David Lee Roth. Vai has a very vocal style on guitar and sliding down into notes are one of his many signature techniques.

Paul Gilbert
There were a crap load of guitarist that put out records with Shrapnel Records. Paul did play for a few years with Billy Shehan in Mr. Big and had one wimpy ass radio hit with “To Be With You”. A real monster player of the era. I like Gilbert because he doesn’t take himself too seriously.