In most polls about great guitarists you often see the same names: Hendrix, Vai, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Satriani, Santana, Clapton, to name a few very obvious ones.

What about guitarists who aren't named a lot in those kind of polls, but who do you consider great, but very underrated?

Heres my little list:

1. Richard Thompson
Singer-songwriter mixing folk, rock and roll and blues. Especially his solo's on his more raw ballads can be very mesmerizing, a very intuitive soloist, spirited.

2. David Hidalgo (Los Lobos)
Most people know Los Lobos for their novelty hit 'La Bamba', when this is one of the overall best groups coming from the USA in the last 30 years. They mix rock and roll, soul, tex-mex, cumbria, bluesrock and avantgarde pop in a very musical, convincing way. Hidalgo's solo's are mostly simple sounding at first, but always full of passion and soul, especially on the bluesy ballads of Los Lobos.

3. Nick Drake
For me personally the best acoustic guitarist in popular music. Incredible technique on the strings, but he uses it first of all to express moods and emotions, keeping in touch with the mystique of his music and the poetic lyrics he delivers.

4. Ty Tabor (King's X)
King's X is one of those bands that should have made it bigtime, but never really did breaktrough commercially. Their mix of powerriffs, beatlesque melodies and harmonies, and sometimes funky bassriffs echo's the powertrio-rock of Cream, and at the same time is predating bands like Soundgarden and Tool.
Alltough Ty Tabor is great at soloing, his main effort for me is his 'invention' of a very low tuned guitarsound, which he is expressing in riffs that are bluesy, melodic, and rocking at the same time.

5. Peter Buck (REM)
A mediocre soloist (he doesnt like playing those solo's also), but when it comes to creating 'jangling' riffs on his guitar he is the best, even surpassing the inventor of that style, Roger McQuin from The Byrds. His repeated, almost hypnotising riffs offer both energy and mystique to (especially the older) music of REM.

Prince (obviously)
Slash (Guns N Roses)

Paul Gilbert
John 5
Phil Manzanera

Prince
Robin Trower
David Gilmour

Stanley Jordan

Prince
Ernie Isley

Warren Cuccurullo

Riverpoet31 said:

Amen.

I'm also amazed that they never made a bigger splash.
They've got everything you'd want in a Hard Rock band.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

FREDDIE STONE OF SLY & THE FAMILY STONE!!!!!

Riverpoet31 said:

Yup - lovely guitarist and a lovely songwriter, too often overlooked.

Best guitarist in the universe is Jeff Beck, no doubt about it. Frank Zappa I think is wonderful, but he's someone you either like or you don't.

I wouldn't put Prince in a "great guitarist" list. Excellent guitarist, yes, especially his rhythm playing, but I don't think his omissions from these lists is unjustified.

JoeTyler said:

Zzzzzz...

As far as fretwankers go, Malmsteen has a lovely tone and one of the nicest vibratos in the business, and Vai has come up with the odd interesting track, but Paul Gilbert just sends me to sleep after the initial "Fuck me, that's fast" reaction - after that it's just picking exercises.



I don't rate him as a guitarist, but Roxy Music wouldn't have sounded the same without him. It's the Ringo thing - you could put Tim Alexander, Bozzio or Vinnie in there, but it just wouldn't have sounded as good.

peterfalconer said:

The truth can sometimes get you ostracized around here.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

Tito Jackson

peterfalconer said:

I agree.




I don't think he's better than Holdsworth or McLaughlin. Not by a long shot.




I agree.


LOL @ Tito Jackson.

Double post
[Edited 3/16/07 19:41pm]

The guitarists guitarist is Allan Holdsworth. Everybody from Yngwie, Vai, Satriani and especially Van Halen in the rock genre to George Benson, McLaughlin, Frank Gambale, Shawn Lane etc among the jazz and fusion guitarists knows that Allan is unreal and has many times said so also.

However mainstream people don't even seem to know who he is. To me he is one of the best guitarists if not the very best plus he is an incredible musician and composer.
[Edited 3/16/07 20:10pm]

Here are some song-oriented guitar players, not showy types

Alex Chilton--A great tone master who didn't show off, just played songs very well. Check out Oh My Soul

The Beatles--They wrote & recorded some of the greatest pop music ever, and their main instruments were guitars. And Abbey Road is even played well

Jack White & Kurt Cobain are overrated in some circles underrated in others, but they play very solidly. Kurt came up with crazy sounds & odd solos, Jack plays loud hard blues and is practically a one man band

Whoever plays in Radiohead (I think there are 2 or 3) is fantastic at creating textures & tones

Krytonite said:

this may or may not be a joke, but I saw him playing some jazzy stuff on some show, and I was really surprised that he can actually play.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again:

The most underrated guitarist of the modern Pop/Rock era is the late great Terry Kath of Chicago, circa 1969-1977...TK was a significant influence on Prince during P's formative years, and a true master in his own right. Terry was the engine that drove that incredible rhythm section on those great early Chicago records.

Terry was also a sufficiently soulful vocalist to be considered the "white Ray Charles." If you don't believe me, that's okay - just head over to YouTube and search for "Terry Kath" or "ChicagoKid1969" and check out the videos of "Introduction-1972" or "Make Me Smile".

Rhythm, lead, jazz, rock, blues, R&B, whatever - Terry could play anything and play it ridiculously good.

I always figured that if Clapton was widely considered one of the alltime greats, then Terry Kath was one level beyond that. I've never heard Clapton play anything that Kath couldn't have played at least as well if not better, but I've heard Terry play lots of stuff that Clapton couldn't touch. Ditto for any number of other "legends" of that generation...Page, Beck, Buchanan, etc.

"Eric Schenkman" of the Spin Doctors.
"Kenny Withrow" of Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians.

(I miss that jam-band sound)
[Edited 3/17/07 0:44am]

Ernie Isley


...and Tito Jackson...too many black guitarist are underrated! People are always making fun of Tito, he's actually my favorite out of all the Jacksons!
[Edited 3/17/07 1:03am]
[Edited 3/17/07 1:05am]

peterfalconer said:

Dude, I don't agree here; I have to admit that i don't like Gilbert's solo albums very much, but thanks to him, Mr.Big was easily the best mainstream hard-rock band of the first hald of the 90's, a perfect mix of virtuoso guitar and excellent songcraft. A shame that this band is so underrated today.
[Edited 3/17/07 5:51am]

theAudience said:

And don't I just know it!

The unbelievably good Phil Keaggy.

NDRU said:

good pick

Brian Carroll aka BUCKETHEAD..He can shred, funk and go abstract all at the same time. Dude can play anything.

Arthur Rhames. A killer guitarist who could also play sax and piano. He was kind of in the vein of Sonny Sharrock (another great). Rhames was a big influence on Vernon Reid.

Dr. Know - Bad Brains

theAudience said:

Favorite and greatest are two different things. I would never go so far as to say Prince is one of the greatest but he IS one of the greats, IMHO. He's also underappreciated as a guitarist because of his androgynous image, he's black (a lot of folks think Jimi Hendrix and B.B. King were the only black people to pick up a guitar) and many if not most of his most popular videos (Kiss, 1999, When Doves Cry) feature him singing and dancing.

People are often surprised that Prince can play guitar at all. That's why I wouldn't scoff at Prince being on that list.

Roger (Zapp)

bellanoche said:

Anyone who's heard Ernie Isley play, Certainly wouldn't say he's underrated. I don't think he's as well known as others.