Guthrie Govan is an English guitarist and guitarteacher, known for his work with bands such as The Aristocrats, Asia, GPS, The Young Punx and The Fellowship, as well as his solo project Erotic Cakes.
More recently, he worked with Steven Wilson and Hans Zimmer.
He is a well-known guitar teacher and collaborates with the British magazine Guitar Techniques, the Guildford's Academy of Contemporary Music, the Lick Library and the Brighton Institute of Modern Music.
Govan was named "Guitarist of the Year" in 1993 by Guitarist magazine.
Combining his unparalleled engineering skill with mastery of almost all styles of music, Guthrie is able to play in a comfortable traditional jazz combo style as well as a deadly shred style.
Govan is known for his virtuoso command of the guitar, due to both his technical ability and proficiency in various styles. A 2006 interview hailed him as the "virtuoso's virtuoso" and said of him, "Guthrie Govan is recognised by his peers as possibly the scariest guitarist alive. Combining an unparalleled technical ability with a mastery of almost all styles, Guthrie is comfortable comping in a traditional jazz combo as he is performing death-defying 'shred' guitar. Coupled with some seriously funky grooves and an encyclopaedic knowledge of popular music styles, a wonderfully developed slide style and improvisational abilities to match anyone, he may just be the most complete guitarist out there".

Govan's earliest influences were Jimi Hendrix and Cream-era Eric Clapton; as such he describes himself as coming from a "blues rock background".[2] While he is "wary" of 1980s technique driven guitar music ("shred") he cites the imagination of Steve Vai (as well as Frank Zappa, with whom Vai played) and the passion of Yngwie Malmsteen. Jazz and fusion elements are an important part of his style: he cites Joe Pass, Jeff Beck and John Scofield as pivotal influences in this respect.[3] He also admires a lot of modern guitar players with different styles such as Derek Trucks and Alex Machacek.