Jump to content

Who Do You Think Are Some Of The Most Underrated Guitar Players.


Steely Dan

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 133
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

All metal pioneers...left out the obvious ones like Iommi and Rhodes:

 

Allen West & Trevor Peres

Chuck Shuldiner

Kerry King & Jeff Hanneman

Alex Skolnick

Adrian Smith & Dave Murray

K.K. Downing & Glenn Tipton

Dimebag Darrell

Marty Friedman

James Murphy

Dave Mustaine

Link to comment
Share on other sites

All metal pioneers...left out the obvious ones like Iommi and Rhodes:

 

Allen West & Trevor Peres

Chuck Shuldiner

Kerry King & Jeff Hanneman

Alex Skolnick

Adrian Smith & Dave Murray

K.K. Downing & Glenn Tipton

Dimebag Darrell

Marty Friedman

James Murphy

Dave Mustaine

 

I'd also add:

 

Rocky George - Suicidal Tendencies

Tommy Victor - Prong

Scott Ian - Anthrax

Pepper Keenan - C.O.C.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lindsay Buckingham? The light in the loafers version of the Mac has nothing on the original. See Green, Peter.

 

A lot of the players mentioned are not underrated but definitely overexposed. I'll go with previous poster with Mick Ronson - he was ziggy. Tom Morello and Vernon Reid as well (LC was short changed by the whole Black Rock Coalition typecasting thing - they were an explosive band - period).

 

Others underrated and maybe unknown are Don Rich, Waylon Jennings (picker and outlaw), John Echols and later Jay Donnellan of Love. The Reverend Horton Heat Jim Heath. And, Jimmy Nolen has to be the most sampled guitarist in Hip Hop history.

 

If you include pedal steel, then Sneaky Pete's work with effects on the first FBB Lp was epic. My fave of course has to be Steve Cropper.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The two I get off the top of my head are Lindsay Buckingham and Mike Campbell.

 

Lindsay Buckingham is from Fleetwood Mac for those who don't know and Mike Campbell is the Heartbreakers lead guitarist.

 

BTW, How Buckingham and Nicks ended up in FM is kind of interesting. After Bob Welch left the band they were looking for a new guitarist. Mick Fleetwood walked into a studio to talk to a friend who was mixing some stuff from the Buckingham/Nicks album and Mick asked who the guitarist was. It was Buckingham and Mick asked the friend if he thought the guy might be interested in joining Fleetwood Mac. His friend told him that he wouldn't come without his girlfriend (Stevie Nicks) most likely.

 

Fleetwood Mac never auditions people they want in the band they just invite them or people are recommended to them. (i.e. Bob Welch) So they decided to meet them for dinner. Mick and John told Christine that if she didn't want the girl in the band they would go in another direction. Christine got along really well with Stevie and as they say the rest is history.

 

Mike Campbell's best work is on songs like "Here Comes My Girl" great riff.

 

Too many draft posts this week I thought this might be a fun distraction. :thumbsup:

agree on Buckingham...dont know nuff bout the heartbreakers.

One of the greats in the punk/rock genre is the recently deceased Ron Asheton.Most probbly never heard of the guy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

two older guys who I feel never got their due as guitar players were Dave Alvin (of The Blasters) and Dave Edmunds. As for newer groups, I think Tad Kubler of The Hold Steady is one of the best out there right now.

dave Edmunds got lottsa respect---at least among the pros. And don't forget Peter Frampton---whose guitar prowess was overshadowed by that awful garbage he put out that was so popular in the mid 70s.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

dave Edmunds got lottsa respect---at least among the pros. And don't forget Peter Frampton---whose guitar prowess was overshadowed by that awful garbage he put out that was so popular in the mid 70s.

 

 

I had second row seats to see Bowie once, on the (wretched) Glass Spider tour. Unfortunately, for me, my seats were 2nd row, stage right, right smack dab in front of guitarist Peter Frampton. I have never been so repulsed watching a musician...

 

As long as we are throwing out guitar players that aren't really "underrated", I nominate Neil Young... great guitarist, great performer, and usually great songwriter...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

andres segovia, julian bream, john williams, christopher parkening, just to name a few

 

 

 

 

parkening

If we want to go into Jazz ...

 

Al DiMeola

 

Stanley Jordan

 

Stanley Clark (yeah, I know bass, but he us so good that it's freakish)

 

John McLaughlin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Under-rated ... hell ... I never know which one is playing ... Dave Murray and Adrian Smith of Iron Maiden.

 

My all time favorite band. I didn't mention them because the OP said "rock" only and I figured he didn't want metal.

 

But seriously, you can't tell them apart? Their styles are quite different. Adrian has the more structured solos with the wider vibrato, while Dave has the more Hendrix-y sound with less bite from using his neck pickup.

 

(I'm a total Maiden geek. I have a tattoo, play in a tribute band, etc :thumbsup: )

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ohmygosh who could ever forget the spanish spitfire and her coochie coochie...

 

charo

 

A very honest friend of mine says his uncle taught Charo to play guitar.

 

 

dave Edmunds got lottsa respect---at least among the pros. And don't forget Peter Frampton---whose guitar prowess was overshadowed by that awful garbage he put out that was so popular in the mid 70s.

 

Frampton is great!

 

Somebody mentioned the guys from AC/DC before and IIRC they never ventured beyond three chords on their songs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They did seem to drop off the map pretty quickly considering how big they were in the '80s.

Knopfler may have dropped off the radar but he is still on the map. Dire Straits is no more, but MK has put out several outstanding solo efforts along with an album of duets with Emmylou Harris. I'd say that they are the best of his career and that is coming from a huge Dire Straits fan.

 

It is impossible to say which guitarist is the best because so much of it is personal preference. IMO, it is almost as hard to say whether someone is underrated or overrated as a guitarist once they get to a high level of recognition. Personally I think Knopfler is very underappreciated. I think people recognize how well he can play a guitar. What is not always seen is how well he fits his guitar within the framework of a song. It is incredible. The way he uses his skill there is what I like most. You know at any time he can have his guitar take over a song, but on most he holds it back and leaves you waiting; especially as his career progresses. Early on songs like Sultans of Swing, Lady Writer and especially Telegraph Road have long and impresive solos. More recent stuff has fantastic guitar that threatens to break out into a solo, and sometimes does, but never totally overtakes a song.

 

We can argue whether any guitarist at that level of fame is overrated or underrated, but one area of Knopfler's skill that is very, very underrated is his songwriting. He is incredibly well read and has songs that reflect this on a multitude of topics. He writes about wars, third world dictators, regular people, and interesting figures like Ray Kroc and Sonny Liston. He writes from the third person and the first person. "Boom, Like That" is written from Kroc's perspective and is a very unique and song.

 

Everything fits in his songs, especially on his last few recordings. There are not really hard rock albums, although most have a song or two that remind you of DS. His latest album (about 18 months old) is "Kill To Get Crimson". My guess is if Bruce Springsteen had released this album that it would have won about 34 Grammys. Most people still think Knopfler is off the map. That's why I still say he is underrated as a guitarist but profoundly underrated as an overall musician.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...