I forgot Herb Ellis, Pat Martino, Pat Donahue,Oscar Moore, Emily Remler, GAbor Szabo, Alan Holdsworth was who I was thinking of, Teddy Bunn, Al Casey (who played with Fats Waller), and as Jerry mentions,
Van Epps and

Laureindo who I would consider less a jazz guitarist and more of a classic bossa player and classic guitarist.
Oscar Castro Neves who played with Brazil 66 might be overlooked in this department as well.

Joe Pass is the ultimate jazz guitarist and unless you like jazz a lot, what he does could be missed. His sense of harmony is impeccable.

Charlie Christian was not the first to use amplification but one of most innovative with the Benny Goodman sextet.

George Benson and Phil Upchurch
are swinging players.

Joe Pass might be considered to be at the apex of inventive improvisations and harmonic lines.

There is no number one since all of them have something unique to contribute and that is why they are well-known in the guitar world.

Guest, being 80 means you have perspective and have probably
heard more than most others on this thread.

As to the other styles of guitar playing, Doc is well-known but there are others who are less-known who are playing well today in this style.

The question arises as to what this has to do with a folk thread.
Most of what is called folk music today owes a lot to the sophisticated development of jazz. Jazz in a sense is a kind of
folk music that has a tradition-based history and is often handed down from player to player not unlike how folk players learn.

Jazz improvisation has a strong connection to folk music and has influenced folk performers indirectly. Many of the best pickers such as Doc Watson are improvisers having acquired a vocabulary of phrases and patterns over the years that adapt to different tunes much like a jazz musician.

Listening to folk or jazz players is subjective in that some are preferred over others for various reasons. But the important thing is to keep an open mind, listen for intent and when you learn to
play some jazz guitar, believe me, your appreciation for the skill of the jazz guitarist increases proportionately.

Frank Hamilton (who loves all kinds of guitar playing)