Seven YouTube Guitarists Worth Following

There’s two ways we could approach assembling a list of the best YouTube guitarists.

The first and most obvious would be to just create a list of the most popular YouTube guitarists right now, based on subscriptions. It’d be the heavy metal version of a celebrity magazine’s “Top 10 Red Carpet Stars of 2020” story. That’d be boring.

The second way would be to fill it with mostly unknown guitarists who don’t have a following yet but are killing it. And that would be really boring, too, because while a small handful of people would find it interesting and they might go and check out a couple, it’s likely the whole thing would be overlooked. It’d be like if instead of recommending you try the Jimi Hendrix slot game on Casumo.com, we directed you towards a Nickelback cover band version.

So how about we combine the two? Cherry-pick a few highly popular YouTube guitarists you’ve already heard of, and then also include some that you likely haven’t. That way everyone is happy, and if you leave a comment like “WHY DIDN’T YOU MENTION ________ HE’S GOT A MILLION SUBSCRIBERS,” please address your eyes to the first paragraph and kindly fuck off.

Without further adieu, here’s the list.

Jared Dines

Jared Dines is perhaps the most popular guitarist on YouTube with over 2.8 million YouTube subscribers. He was recently on the cover of Guitar World magazine’s June issue, and has a tendency to include legendary guitarists in his videos such as Trivium’s Matt Heafy, with whom Dines does actually share a real life friendship.

In any case, Dines is known for his humorous approach, shredding skills (as showcased in his “Shred Wars” videos where he challenges other YouTube guitarists), and a strange obsession/rivalry with fellow YouTube guitarist Steve Terreberry.

What else is there to say about Jared? He occasionally asks his subscribers to roast him, so we’ll take a stab at it: Jared, you look like an only slightly-reformed emo kid, you practically have a trademark on the YouTube Sigh (“heyyyy guys, I have some news to share….”), and your incredible guitar skill does not excuse the fact that Linkin Park got you into metal, because Jesus effing Christ.

Steve Terreberry

It’ll make some folks cringe to have to include his name, but you can’t argue with 2.01 million subscribers. Stevie T is like if you crossed Jim Carrey’s The Mask with Blippi, the goofy made-for-children YouTube personality, and you added in a dash of Steve Urkel. What we’re saying is that Stevie T is like the culmination of all the goofiest, most cringe-worthy personalities you can think of, but the guy can really, really shred.

If we judge him on his guitar-shredding abilities alone and not the fact he continually frustrates super-srs metalheads with his camera antics, then yeah, he deserves to be on this list. And, again, he has 2.01 million subscribers, so CONGRATULATIONS STEVIE. Have your cookie and stop doing those things with your face.

Tyler Larson (Music Is Win)

Tyler Larson holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the prestigious Berklee College of Music, and runs the Music is Win channel which currently has over 1.04 million subscribers. Tyler is pretty well-known on the guitar scene, having tons of endorsements from companies like PRS Guitars, Peavey, Dunlop, and too many more to list.

While he isn’t famous for playing in any one particular band, he’s definitely famous in the NAMM circuit. Like any Berklee music graduate worth their salt, Tyler offers a “Guitar Super System” online training course for aspiring guitarists, and it’s only $10 a month. We can’t vouch for the efficacy of his course, but he seems like a pretty chill dude in his livestream videos and clearly knows his stuff.

Chorom Hahm

“Who the FUCK is Chorom Hahm??!!” you’re thinking. Well, we warned you in the intro there’s be a few lesser known guitarists here. And Chorom Hahm is kind of a “Where are they now? Oh, there they are!” story.

Hahm rose to almost-fame around 2008 with the most incredible guitar cover of Guile’s “Rush of the Wind” theme from Street Fighter, along with other video game-inspired guitar covers, under the account of some guitar school in Korea. Horny internet boys were quick to note her visual beauty, but she was talented as hell as well, destined for YouTube greatness. And then she just disappeared.

For years, people wondered who that beautiful woman playing video game theme covers on her guitar was, and all sorts of conspiracy theories flooded the comments that she died.

Fast forward to 2020, and she’s finally resurfaced with her own channel. She’s as talented as ever — even more so — and the horny internet boys are still fapping in the comments.

Ola Englund

Ola Englund, guitarist for The Haunted and Feared, has his own videos that consist mostly of gear reviews such as his “Will It Chug?” series, where he tests the chugging ability of guitar amps. Ola is as much a shredder as he is funny, and it’s entertaining watching him try to get beefy chugs out of different amp setups.

He also does some hilarious weekly FAQ videos where he shamelessly plugs his Solar Guitars company with Swedish charm, and unapologetically professes his love for the late Dimebag Darrell. He’s an all-around kickass guy that we’d love to have a few beers with and try to get him to give us some free Solar Guitars.

Cole Rolland

Cole Rolland is like the metal guitarist version of Boyce Avenue’s vocalist Alejandro Manzano, in that Cole is an extraordinarily attractive man who probably gets laid just on looks alone, but then he does incredible covers of other people’s songs and you know there’s no hope for the rest of us. 

Cole doesn’t ever sing, he just really shreds. Boyce Avenue’s Alejandro Manzano doesn’t shred guitar, he’s just a good singer. So if Cole Rolland and Alejandro Manzano ever form a band together we all may as well just give up.

Nik Nocturnal

With “only” 251k subscribers, not much is known about Nik Nocturnal except that he’s an incredible guitarist who can cover guitar solos in less than 24 hours of bands releasing albums. Trust us, he’s done it. The guy needs more subscriptions.

He’s also a very talented mixer and producer, creating his own backing tracks that sound amazing. And he’s also Canadian, so he’s probably a very nice dude.

Closing Words

There you have it. Seven YouTube guitarists worth following. Are there tons of others that could’ve been mentioned? Of course, but if I didn’t please everybody, kindly know this wasn’t meant to be a fucking encyclopedia of guitarists who somehow got famous on the internet without even being in bands. Okay? Christ, if it pleases you people, here’s some more names to go check out, many of which you’re likely already familiar:

• Rob Scallon
• Sarah Longfield
• Ryan “Fluff” Bruce
• Charlie Parra del Riego
• Danny Page
• And thousands others, like seriously anyone with a guitar owns a YouTube channel in 2020 whether they can play well or not.