Guest List: Twelve Foot Ninja's Rohan Hayes Presents His 12 Favorite Guitarists

Below, guitarist Rohan Hayes from Australia's Twelve Foot Ninja lists his 12 favorite guitarists.

Twelve Foot Ninja will be touring North America with Periphery, Born Of Osiris and Dead Letter Circus.

The bonus edition of their latest album, 2012's Silent Machine, will be released in the US October 15. It's available now for pre-order at Amazon.

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For more about Twelve Foot Ninja, visit their official website and Facebook page.

Here are Hayes' 12 choices, comments and album recommendations!
Charlie Hunter

An absolute nut case on the eight-string guitar. Amazing feel and technique. Recommendation: Bing! Bing! Bing! and Prawn Song.

Guthrie Govan

Obvious choice. Possibly the best electric guitarist out there at the moment. The guy can do anything.

Wayne Krantz

I love Wayne's tone and weird fusion concepts. Makes me want to eat fairy floss and practice. Recommendation: Long to be Loose and Transformation (Tal Wilkenfeld)

Joe Pass

Another advanced freak in jazz guitar. Recommendations: Virtuoso and For Django

Lenny Breau

Lenny inspired me to pick up the nylon-string guitar and emulate Bill Evans' "piano cluster chords" along with a long list of other things. His technique reminds me of Russ' amazing skill in spreading Vegemite on toast: so smooth and effortless. Recommendation: Cabin Fever and The Genius of Lenny Breau documentary.

Pat Martino

Pat has an incredible story (check out Here and Now). It was Pats Linear Expressions book that inspired a lot of those tasty melodic jazz lines I use in improvisation and opened the door to new perspectives on guitar improv. Recommendations: Cream or Undeniable.

Pat Metheny

The dude's a fuckin' musical pioneer. Check out Orchestrion.

Fredrik Thordendal (Meshuggah, Special Defects)

Fredrik and Marten Hagstrom (in my opinion) are the most innovative guitarists in today's heavy world and are just generally exciting as fuck to follow. Recommendation: Sol Niger Within (Special Defects), Nothing and Koloss (Meshuggah)

Stephen Carpenter (Deftones)

Just shit yeah! Recommendation: Any Deftones album.

Dimebag Darrell

Probably the very first guitarist I got into, which led me to love the guitar through dudes like Tommy Emmanuel, Tom Morello and Mike Einziger. I first heard "Cemetery Gates" when I was 7 in my parents' lounge room. It did something fucked to my brain.

Tommy Emmanuel

Arguably the most impressive acoustic guitarist in Australia (alongside of Doug de Vries). Recommendation: Center Stage DVD

Steve Lukather

Tasty player and outstanding songwriter. Gotta love Toto! Recommendation: Toto IV and the Falling in Between DVD.