Best Acoustic Guitar Players Of All Time?

Joe Pass plays only acoustic guitar on at least one album, (Songs For Ellen).

Pat Martino has recorded acoustic guitar on a couple of albums that i know of, (All Sides Now, and Starbright).

Not saying either one is primarily an acoustic player, (I wouldn't have thought to list them)... i did miss the jab that was aimed at Jax 2 for picking Joe Pass. I guess Marco could jump you for misspelling Hellborg.

I didn't read through every post here as it is a rather dated list. I was happy to see many of the stalwart players, especially John Fahey (leading to Leo Kottke and Robbie Basho--where is the latter?). But there is a glaring omission on the British side: Davy Graham who pretty much defined the direction British fingerstyle would take for a generation. Bert Jansch (not mentioned anywhere) and John Renbourn both acknowledge this. Paul Simon's version of Graham's Angi (on Sounds of Silence) was perhaps the first highly popularized fingerstyle piece on American shores. All of Davy Graham's studio recordings have at one time or another been re-released and 2012 saw the release of the 3 disc Lost Tapes set with some previously unreleased work although not real high on the sonic quality side. There's been a number of archival releases of DG performances as well. He passed away in the last year or two and left behind an incredible body of work.

Nice list. I agree with you on Michael Hedges. One of the best concert experiences I have ever had was watching Hedges play "Low Spark of High Heeled Boys" on the guitar. I would add Harry Manx to the top 5 on your list. He does some phenomenal things with acoustic instruments.

Norman Blake. Sean Persinger. Richard Thompson. Chris Proctor. Richard Leo Johnson.

In terms of originality, I'll mention another of the neglected female players, Kaki King.