I cant think of anyone Joshua. Probably tons and tons of good ones, but really succesfull? That cant be many.
One reason behind that is that the industry (and it is an industry) is tailored towards the youth market, so anyone over the age of about 25 (and, sometimes, worryingly well below that) doesnât interest the big promotors, svengalis, and radio stations, unless you already have an established audience.
However, it is possible even if the odds are stacked against you. Seasick Steve is an example, who got his break in the mid 50s.
Mind you, he had been a musician and working in the music industry for nearly 40 years before that.
Cheers,
Keith
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Yep. I think you are 100% spot on @majik
Sea sick Steve is an excellent example⌠but as you said⌠he had picked up a an instrument before his 50s 
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The trainers at my old job used to stress the value of constant learning by pointing out thereâs a difference between having 10 years of experience, and having one year of experience repeated 10 times 
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Life = Genetics + environment
For learning guitar, effective practice is the biggest environmental factor.
Some folk are genetically more (or less) suited to learning musical instruments than others, but thereâs not much point focusing on that, as thereâs nothing you can do about it.
So itâs back to practice⌠
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Well it should not become a 
, just 
50âs? How about 30âs? Iâve never heard of Seasick Steve (mentioned down-thread), so maybe that proves the point. Leonard Cohen was 33 when his first album came out, but he was an established poet already and had been playing guitar (sort of 
) for 10-15 years already.
Come to think of it, I doubt that many people are professionally successful in anything if they only get started on it in their 50âs.
Hole in one, if you want to get good get on your bike and get your a55 into gear and get on with practicing!
Thatâs the only way to get good - you need to be able to play anything on autopilot because itâs so familiar to you.
I figure I have 30, maybe 35 max, years to play guitar at the very most optimistic. To do that I would need to still be playing at around 90 yo. Possible, but very possibly not possible.
During those years I may achieve similar hours of practice to Eddie Van Halen from 10 to 13 years old, or Mozart by the time he was 5, if I work hard at it.
We are talking different worlds.
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So everyone will peak at some point.
To be EVH you need the physical ability to move your hands/fingers that fast and accurately.
A 90 year old wont be doing that.
You also will need 10 hours a day practice.
A 90 year old is unlikely to be doing that.
Whilst âgit gudâ isnt so much about talent, I think âgit greatâ somewhat is. Be it creativity or physical ability. It still requires the dedication but there are some people who are just better.
Interesting conversation. Talent? Focused effort? Nature? Nurture. Who knows the combination.
Plenty of players here whose current trajectory will see highly accomplished guitarists after 10 years.
It seems to me in the end though that the real success in any endeavour is the joy in actually doing it.
Cheers, Shane
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Sorry for some bad news but Justin did a video about neuroplasticity and said we are wired to soak up information more easily up to the age of 25-26. So you will need to do even more practice.
But the good news is you can re-trigger the learning state by doing some frustrating balance-based exercises.
When I was first starting, I sometimes looked at lesson videos by a guy who called himself âThe Riff Ninja.â In one lesson, he said âI play 8 to 10 hours a day. If youâre only going to practice an hour and a half, two hours a day, youâre wasting your time. Youâll never get anywhere.â
That was the last one of his lessons I ever watched. I knew I wasnât going to get that obsessive about it at my age. And I also have accepted that Iâm not going to even be good, much less great. But I keep plugging away at it.
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Becoming an artist that finds the best way of expressing him/herself in ways best for the message, through a song that surprises yet feels at home so dearly.
That doesnât take years.
It takes more than that; burns ânâ tears
Youâll have to learn to make the instrument the extension of yourself to broadcast what is within you. âBeing a great guitar playerâ is a means to an end but not a goal.
So before worrying when you will be good or great.
WHAT do you want to ACHIEVE?
(before owndering how :D)
Itâs cool that the WHAT changes over time, that is only natural and healthy but the HOW will evolve with that.
So you as us what you need to be good at in 10 years?
Hard to tell now mate. 
How much technique to conquer is all up to you.
you can be MORE than proficient in 5 years.
Donât blame me if you lose interest somewhere along the way because you suddenly feel none of it matters.
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Well in that sense, nothing really matters but having a purpose in life makes it worthwhile. Indeed, if I am able to express myself where the guitar an an extension, thatâs it.
However, I also saw Paul Davidâs courses for beginners, advanced and experienced players and how players get stuck on certain levels and his courses are there to âget out of itâ. Sure, also marketing but that also means that if you plan your learning wisely you can move on a certain pace and get somewhere in a certain amount of time.
So if thatâs the case, itâs also in a way answerable what one can expect after 5-10-20 years
Whatâs proficient in your eyes?
Those plateauâs are a real thing, most of the students I had some sessions with knew basic chords, were advancing to get more lfuent in E shape barreâs and are looking for ways to start to express themselves and break away from copying. They wanted to feel the flow of a song instead of just reading the chords of the the paper. They wanted to in the zone of the rhythm so they could vary their strumming when they wanted to instead of the same pattern the whole song.
Proficient?
Making the guitar sound how you hear it in your head.
At a certain point youâll have muscle memory and automatisms that follow each other and form combinations that surprise even your conscious self. Than you know youâre on to something!
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I think we all have periods of consolidation/stagnation
Trick is to push on and try / learn something new I think, there is always something more.
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Geef je ook in Nederland les? 
Uiteraard | of course 
Interesting. Where in the Netherlands?