Investigation: Who is The Fastest Guitar Player in the World?
I had no idea that the subject of who holds the title “Fastest Guitar Player in the World” was such a controversial one.
Yesterday, an anonymous reader e-mailed me a link to this story on Truth in Shredding, which contained videos of this (non-metal) musician Vahid Iran Shahi, who claims to be “the fastest guitar player in the world,” with the ability to play Nikolai Rimsky-
…except that there’s no shortage of other guitar players on the web who claim the same title. In fact, according to The Guinness Book of World Records‘ official YouTube channel, as of last October, the disputes have actually caused them to totally shut down the category for the time being:
“This record category is currently rested due to the fact that the quality of performance (i.e. clarity of individual notes etc) is dramatically reduced at these speeds. Unless the performance is flawless, it is not a record. We are currently consulting music experts in order to re-open this category.”
This notice appears under a video of Italy’s Vanny Tonon playing “Bumblee” at 340 bpm in 2011:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=zfeTAz2b-9o
Less than a year earlier, Guinness recognized American guitar teacher John Taylor (who apparently counts Iron Maiden, Helloween, and Slayer amongst his favorite bands) as the world’s fastest shredder. Here he is playing the same piece of music at 600 bpm:
Then there’s Australia’s Taylor Sterling, who gets the piece up to 999 bpm…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DMyM7ARJUI
…and America’s Daniel Himebauch, who played “Bumblebee” at 1300 bpm last year…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=VHIxxH7_g9U
…while Sasan Razgahi, from Tehran, Iran, gets up to 4000 bpm (holy hell):
And, amazingly enough, this is just a SMALL SAMPLING of musicians currently seeking the title; in fact, it’s been in dispute since at least March of 2011.
Alas, it doesn’t seem that an answer to the question will be forthcoming any time soon. Which is silly; clearly, this can be easily settled by a good old fashioned cage match, the way all of Man’s difference ought to be settled. I mean duh. Get it together, Guinness!
