(Above: Ian Goble as a member of the DTs | Monica Topping)

Well, shit! That was a close one! Plenty of worthy six string-shredding nominees this week, for sure. We were particularly touched by Tex Green’s nomination of his late father Eldin Green — “Shred in Peace pops.”

In the end though, there could be only one. Just edging out “favored” veteran local guitarist and teacher Ruben Diaz … Ian Goble. Over the years, Ian has played in bands The Smashed Glass, AM Beers and The DTs, to name a few. You may have noticed he received some praise in the comments below from his his former English teacher and fellow vote getter Steve Irwin of The Delta Nationals:

“Ian Goble was a student of mine too, and I believe he could out-play me when he was seventeen,” remarked Irwin. Go out and enjoy a victorious weekend, Mr. Goble.

PREVIOUSLY: All Past Humboldt Approved Winners

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Original post: And here we go. The Lost Coast Outpost‘s big, pointless popularity contest Humboldt Approved returns this week with a mission: to complete Humboldt’s ultimate power trio. We’ve got our drummer. We’ve got our bass player. Now all we need to know is which local axe slinger delivers the riffs that fill your ear holes just right? Specifically, in your opinion, who is Humboldt County’s best guitar player?  

You decide the “best” parameters. Do you prefer purveyors of Yngwie-esque arpeggios from hell? Restrained, tasteful, put-you-to-sleep-in-a-good-way acoustic finger pickin’? Electric egg beater flamenco gimmickry? Your call, HumCo!

As we always do the weeks we stupidly delve into categories with which emotions may run high, LoCO will remind you that the results of this poll are unscientific at best and you really shouldn’t put a lot of stock in the results. Art, as we know, is subjective. Besides, winning some silly county-wide poll isn’t a big deal and doing so could never be used to promote oneself anyway. Just use this opportunity to honor some deserving local sound maker. This poll is very important.

To make sure your vote counts, please read and follow these rules:

To vote, look through the comments of this Humboldt Approved poll. If someone has already nominated the answer you would give for that week’s category, click the upvote arrow. If you don’t see your desired Humboldt Approved answer nominate it in a comment for others to upvote. (Please be careful to not duplicate answers; redundant answers will be deleted and potential associated upvotes will be lost.) Feel free to make your case by replying to/cheering on the answer you love most, but again the number by the arrows on the initial nomination is what counts.

You can vote for as many nominees as you deem worthy but, of course, the more you do that the more watered down your initial vote becomes. That’s math.

We reserve the right to delete superfluous/lame comments that make the voting/comment section hard to sift through. Please try not to get offended when your comment battle reply is deleted. We’re trying to do something here.

While many weeks we look for two winners — one winner from the metropolises of Eureka and Arcata, and one from Humboldt’s smaller communities — due to the nature of this category, this time we’re gonna limit it to one. Voting closes next Friday at noon and soon after a winner will be declared.

Alright, now give some guitarist the spotlight for once.

(Above: Winner of Humboldt Approved Best Guitar Player 2037.)