Most Underrated Guitarist?

[Jimi Dean Barrett]

To balance the chi of this forum, how about a thread of most consistently overlooked and underrated guitarists?

Anyone who answers "ME!" will be shot!

The criteria: They have had to been signed to a record label. Independent or major label.

So... I'd nominate James Dean Bradfield from the Manic Street Preachers. He really is the engine room of the band but all the press talk about is missing guitarist Richey Edwards who didn't actually play anything on the records apart from barre chords mixed low during their live performances.

I'd also like to nominate Steve Hillage. He's been really overlooked but some of his solos were wonderful. And of course for "Fish Rising".

And I'll come rushing back to this thread when I remember others! (This is the problem of underrated guitarists, they get drowned out by people (Who don't even know about this forum) going on about the Becks and the Claptons.

[The Gunner's Dream]

In my opinion, Mike Oldfield is one of the most underrated guitarists of all time. He has incredible technique, but what over-rides that is the fact that he is one of the only guitarists I can think of that doesn't approach the guitar as a guitar. He truly makes it his own instrument, and the sounds he gets are truly amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJjGTxoXtSI

0:00-2:25 for an example of his acoustic playing
5:45-6:20 to hear his really strange, unique electric sound
22:10-22:50 he does something awesome on electric at 22:30
36:43-37:05
49:30-51:00 at 50:24 is one of the best guitar sounds I've ever heard
These are just a few examples of Mike Oldfield's amazing guitar playing.
I also suggest watching the run he does at 2:46 of this clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdCw2gIyRvc

His picking and vibrato technique are unmatched.

[my breakfast.]

I find Oldfield's electric guitar playing too upfront. That "unique" tone is pretty much a fuzz pedal straight into the mixing desk with some of the really harsh treble removed.

His bass playing on Kevin Ayers' Shooting at the Moon though is pretty special:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE2u8DFr1_8

Really like that tone (Precision bass, flatwound strings, too much neck relief making the notes 'slap' slightly) and that really busy bassline is awesome. Infact I love his bass playing on everything I've heard... just not his guitar playing so much though he is definitely talented.

[The Gunner's Dream]

How do you get that sustained, almost violin-like sound from your electric guitar?

It's an involved process. I go from the guitar into a treble booster, then run that signal into a little battery-powered Vox amplifier. I turn it up and get a bit of distortion off of that. Then I connect the output of the Vox into the microphone input of a Teac stereo recorder. I overload this mike input and then take the output and route it into a very old graphic equalizer on which I have all the middle frequency bands boosted. Then I run the output of that into the Teac's other channel's line input--to bring the signal down to the right level. So, now that I've got it at the right level, I plug this into the desk (mix board). But it's still not finished yet. From the desk, it goes into the Kepex (a sophisticated studio noise gate), which cuts out all the horrible noise when I'm not playing. Then the signal goes into another graphic equalizer, which I use to really get the final sound I want. I leave all the settings on the other stuff the same all the time. If I want to change the sound, I'll do it with that second graphic equalizer. Then the signal is sent to a limiter to stop all the big peaks.

I think you should listen to those extracts from Amarok in my first post. His guitar playing (and particularly his sound) evolved a lot since the "Tubular Bells" days.

[nosaj]

Brian Setzer!!!!!

[Jack Wolf]

Robby Krieger of The Doors.

He had a very unique style all his own.

[Hudini]

For one, Adrian Smith is pretty underrated. When people talk about Iron Maiden, they always bring Dave Murray in front and if someone actually mentions Smith in a "best guitar player" list he's usually listed only as "the other half" of a guitar duo, while in fact he's much better (both technically and imagination wise) than any other guitar player that has played with Iron Maiden, only a lot less flashy. People also seem to be forgetting about his solo works and works with Bruce Dickinson at the end of the 1990s, which feature better guitar solos than most of Iron Maiden stuff from mid-1980s on.

[danielcaux]

Some friend told me, around the time it was released, that Brave New World was great because Smith was in it again, and he was the better player. Since then I always try to tell who is playing what solo in any Maiden song. Are Murray solos those that sound more liquid-fluid-elegant and Smiths' those that sound more fiery-crunchy-chaotic ones?

But yeah, Murray always get the accolades in magazines and press reports.

[dreamsalone]

I think Alex Lifeson from Rush, he apparently won some awards back around 1983, but they were kind of shitty awards. He is bloody good, actually, I admire his talent quite a bit.

[Hudini]

Are Murray solos those that sound more liquid-fluid-elegant and Smiths' those that sound more fiery-crunchy-chaotic ones?

I don't know if I'd classify them like that, really, but there is a difference. Murray's solos are the fast ones with lots of really fast trills, Smith's solos have more things going on. They've been utilizing three lead guitars since 2000, leaving Janick Gers who originally replaced Smith in 1988 as the third guitarist, and his solos are also pretty inspirational. I'd say he's also pretty underrated, being a great guitarist himself while everyone always glorifies Dave Murray and occasionally "the other half of the duo", Adrian Smith. Hell, even I did it, completely overlooking his presence in the band in my post above.

[wiped]

Agree with Adrian Smith ... was going to post it too until I read Hudini's post.

From Metal/Rock circles I'll also add :

Frank Hannon
Chris DeGarmo

[olzen]

Steve Hackett. While he's fairly respected in prog circles, I don't think he gets enough credit. The man literally invented tapping, and he's probably the only one who can use it without sounding like a complete wanker.

Also, while Frank Zappa isn't underrated per se, I think a lot of people know more about Zappa the satirist than they do of Zappa the guitarist. He was definitely a genius on the guitar, though. Listen to the original vinyl release of "Sleep Dirt" for proof.

[Hudini]

Agreed on Chris DeGarmo and Steve Hackett. I was also going to write something similar about Zappa. I think a lot of people don't take him for serious as a guitarist, mostly because he did a lot of goofing around that made people think he can't actually play guitar, while in fact he was a brilliant guitar player. I once read an interview with Steve Vai (who IMHO completely deserves his credit as one of the best guitar players in the world today) in which he said he had a very tough time passing the audition for Zappa's band in the early 1980s because he couldn't keep pace with Frank constantly changing time signatures during the improvisation he was supposed to jam to (did someone say "Have you got it yet"?!). Zappa was a genius, and the fact that a lot of people still fail to understand or appreciate him the right way only confirms it.

[moom]

Hackett gets a vote from me as well. Don't care for much of his 80s work, but his indescribable input in Genesis and fantastic solo albums such as Spectral Mornings and Out Of tunnel's Mouth, where he shows that not only an old dog still has life in it, but also ability to surprise.

And I wholeheartedly agree with Hudini on Adrian Smith. You can't have a prog-metal band that mashes two (now three) guitars into one mofo of a soundscape without one musician being of lower level than the others.
Same goes to Metallica. People usually say "Kirk Hammett" when they say "Metallica guitar solos" or (something like that), but maybe do not even know James Hetfield writes and performs much of them.

[thefinalcut]

Brian May
Steve Hackett
John Frusciante
Johnny Greenwood
Johnny Marr
Pete Townshend
Dave Davies
Mick Ronson
George Harrison
Noel Gallagher