Rick Vito was influenced by this American jazz, country, and blues guitarist, songwriter, luthier, and inventor who was one of the pioneers of what?
Les Paul Lester William Polsfuss (June 9, 1915 – August 12, 2009), known as Les Paul, was an American jazz, country, and blues guitarist, songwriter, luthier, and inventor. He was one of the pioneers of the solid-body electric guitar. Paul taught himself how to play guitar, and while he is mainly known for jazz and popular music, he had an early career in country music. He is credited with many recording innovations. Although he was not the first to use the technique, his early experiments with overdubbing (also known as sound on sound), delay effects such as tape delay, phasing effects and multitrack recording were among the first to attract widespread attention.
Gustavo Assis-Brasil Gustavo Assis-Brasil is a Brazilian American jazz guitarist. Based in Boston, he is considered a pioneer in the study and development of the hybrid picking technique for guitar. In 1999 he received a full scholarship to get his Master's degree at Berklee College of Music and The Boston Conservatory. His main teachers were Mick Goodrick, Wayne Krantz, Ed Tomassi, Dave Fiuczynski, Rick Peckham, and Larry Baione. He has also studied with Charlie Banacos, and Prasanna. In 2005, Assis-Brasil released the book "Hybrid Picking for Guitar".