EVH stood on the shoulders of giants, and created his own thing. When you put everyone in their own time, Beck was kinda the EVH of his, he plays without a pick, so when he shreds, it’s more impressive to me, and his vibrato work and tonal weirdness made him as different from Clapton as EVH was to say Iommi or Buck Dharma. Gilmore is a great feel player, but I always thought that his playing was great in the context of the great songs he was playing on.
I love Clapton. His blues and rock and work with Cream and The Beatles, Steve Winwood Crossroads and his versatility is almost unfathomable. Who wouldn't/didn't he play with? Rekindled the careers of so many half-knowns to the white world.
But Gilmour and that Pink Floyd GIANT guitar MONSTER sound that infiltrates your psyche is truly one-of-a-kind. I never did acid because of fear but listening to his music deeply, allows me a glimpse into that dimension.
I observed a strange event one time in my car playing Floyd and Gilmour. It was a bit of a poignant scene and verified to me the tremendous power of the emotion behind the Gilmour sound. I was driving two people who were extremely deeply, emotionally attached and in love with one another. They were foreigners and knew nothing about the music I was playing. At their destination, only one would return with me in my car and the other was assigned duties for quite a while at a distant location. Because of the length of the trip, much music was played and all really good tracks. About 5 hours into the trip, both were sleeping and Gilmour starts playing "Marooned," and a bit into it, both lovers "FELT IT," simultaneously, and broke out in tears and sobbing so uncontrollably that I had to shut it down and pull the car over to allow them to compose themselves.
Like I said a few posts up, "Gilmour...I can't even find words to do him justice."