Overrated guitar players.... Underrated guitar players...

[Bronco]

Underrated:

Doug Rappoport: Guy has classic style with a modern attitude and has a great touch and can shred, but still be musical.
Steffen Schackinger: Good melody and tone.
Ian Thornley: Excellent slide player and can rip, yet plays and writes the part for the song.
Pete Thorn: Great musical skills for writing great melody and cool riffs. Can punch in some unexpected shred lines and make it work.

Haven't heard Schakinger, but based on the other three (which I completely agree with and was going to mention but you did first) I will definitely check him out.

Yeah, Mick Mars is what he is, but I always thought he was perfect for what the Crue needed him to do. He always stayed within his ability, played what was right for the song, and live anyways, had CRUSHING tone. I've always put him in the 'underrated' category, if for no other reason that he never really was given any credit in the first place. In my view, he was never 'overrated'; just pretty much ignored altogether. I mean, I've never heard anyone cite him as an influence, and he was rarely on the cover of a guitar magazine (except maybe to hype a new album release?). Hell, he's certainly not an influence for me, but I always enjoy hearing what he has to play.

Oh and Greg Koch is criminally underrated...any time I hear that guy play, I have to go pick up a guitar. Keith Scott (Bryan Adams) as well.

 

[marshallmel]

Overrated:

Dave Navarro
Eric Clapton
Tom Morello
John Mayer


Underrated:

Rob Caggiano
Dan Huff
Mark Kendall
Dave Meniketti

 

[chasintonez]

Underrated:

Rob Caggiano
Dan Huff
Mark Kendall
Dave Meniketti

Dan Huff is a really monster player from back in the day. Good Call

 

[Mad Axe]

I always thought Ron Jarzombek was really unique, underrated player.

 

[John 14:6]

Underrated:

Lincoln Brewster.

 

[Speeddemon]

Underrated:

Dave Meniketti

Totally forgot him! Great call!

 

[nevusofota]

Underrated:

Lincoln Brewster.

^^this. I always forget about him. The solo for Today is the Day is killer.

 

[SpiderWars]

Underrated:

Doug Rappoport: Guy has classic style with a modern attitude and has a great touch and can shred, but still be musical.
Steffen Schackinger: Good melody and tone.
Ian Thornley: Excellent slide player and can rip, yet plays and writes the part for the song.
Pete Thorn: Great musical skills for writing great melody and cool riffs. Can punch in some unexpected shred lines and make it work.

Haven't heard Schakinger, but based on the other three (which I completely agree with and was going to mention but you did first) I will definitely check him out.

Yeah, Mick Mars is what he is, but I always thought he was perfect for what the Crue needed him to do. He always stayed within his ability, played what was right for the song, and live anyways, had CRUSHING tone. I've always put him in the 'underrated' category, if for no other reason that he never really was given any credit in the first place. In my view, he was never 'overrated'; just pretty much ignored altogether. I mean, I've never heard anyone cite him as an influence, and he was rarely on the cover of a guitar magazine (except maybe to hype a new album release?). Hell, he's certainly not an influence for me, but I always enjoy hearing what he has to play.

Oh and Greg Koch is criminally underrated...any time I hear that guy play, I have to go pick up a guitar. Keith Scott (Bryan Adams) as well.

Schackinger is def way underrated since he is relatively unknown (at least here in the US). Totally agree on Greg Koch. He can make me laugh with his wacky style more than any other.

 

[psychodave]

Even though he has passed on Chriss Oliva from Savatage..The Dungeons are Calling...Power of the Night...and many more,,I love my RR and EVH and Jake and many others,but IMO Chriss was just kickass ! There are more but off the top of my head..

Criss is one of my favorite players. He was the total package. Tone, feel, speed and originality. I believe he was also one of the first players to use drop D and drop tuning for guitar.

 

[ElectricVoodoo]

Underrated:

Carl Fiadino. "copilot"

 

[chasintonez]

Jeff Kollman is another monster player that you don't hear much about, but the dude can rip.

 

[Exo-metal]

Andy Laroque, Tommy T. Barron now were talking guitar

 

[Crunchity]

Jeff Kollman is another monster player that you don't hear much about, but the dude can rip.

Glad to hear someone else also mention him...and he always has KILLER tone, a long time fav of mine.

 

[romanianreaper]

Yeah, Mick Mars is what he is, but I always thought he was perfect for what the Crue needed him to do. He always stayed within his ability, played what was right for the song, and live anyways, had CRUSHING tone. I've always put him in the 'underrated' category, if for no other reason that he never really was given any credit in the first place.

You know what, that is a really good point, especially about the tone. Most bands with that full tone struggle to do it with one guitarist. I you listen to Mick's solos they don't sound like any other guitarist. I mean look at the slide he played on "Without You, Talk Box solo in "Kickstart My Heart", or the awesome solo in "Too Young to Fall in Love". Definitely not a shredder and fit what the song needed.

I think one other point is that he was so overshadowed by all of the drama and pretty boy looks of the other three members that he just got forgotten. He is one guy I'd love to meet in person. There is no B.S. with him, he is hilarious, and really humble. You can tell he is cool.

 

[Valtyr]

underrated -
Steve Hackett
Very melodic player, also was fretboard tapping in Genesis years before EVH

 

[kunos]

These kind of threads tend to end in flames because people miss the basic meaning of the words.

To be "overrated" simply means to get more credit that somebody deserves.
Then there is the usual problem when trying to come up with objective data about musician.. of the 3 main category:

1 Technical ability
2 Quality of composition
3 Influence
4 Innovation

Only 1 and 3 have some hopes of being somehow "measured". You get a player, try to find how many licks he has, how technically demanding they are and you can come up with a valid number.
2 is absolutely subjective, so any attempt to discuss it will end up nowhere.
4 is useless.. because yeah, you can be innovative by rubbing your guitar in your ass but is that a worthy innovation? I feel it's more like 2 reissue.

But even if we limit ourselves to the technical side, the discussion pretty much goes nowhere. You need to set a standard.. and if your standard is somebody like Guthrie or Tom Quaile or any of the "new generation" of players we can now enjoy thanks to the internet, then pretty much everybody becomes overrated.
Since I don't think we can ever agree on a standard, I really don't understand the sense of these kind of questions.

TLDR; if Guthrie is the standard of technique/popularity then EVERYBODY is overrated.

 

[Speeddemon]

These kind of threads tend to end in flames because people miss the basic meaning of the words.

To be "overrated" simply means to get more credit that somebody deserves.
Then there is the usual problem when trying to come up with objective data about musician.. of the 3 main category:

1 Technical ability
2 Quality of composition
3 Influence
4 Innovation

Only 1 and 3 have some hopes of being somehow "measured". You get a player, try to find how many licks he has, how technically demanding they are and you can come up with a valid number.

That's exactly why I find it personally BS when people call Hendrix OVERrated. He even scores high on 2 and 4 as well.
You may not like what he did, but he was before EVH, *the* influence. Beck, Clapton, Page e.a. did not (perhaps undeservedly) enjoy the same kind of following.

 

[nevusofota]

These kind of threads tend to end in flames because people miss the basic meaning of the words.

To be "overrated" simply means to get more credit that somebody deserves.
Then there is the usual problem when trying to come up with objective data about musician.. of the 3 main category:

1 Technical ability
2 Quality of composition
3 Influence
4 Innovation

Only 1 and 3 have some hopes of being somehow "measured". You get a player, try to find how many licks he has, how technically demanding they are and you can come up with a valid number.
2 is absolutely subjective, so any attempt to discuss it will end up nowhere.
4 is useless.. because yeah, you can be innovative by rubbing your guitar in your ass but is that a worthy innovation? I feel it's more like 2 reissue.

But even if we limit ourselves to the technical side, the discussion pretty much goes nowhere. You need to set a standard.. and if your standard is somebody like Guthrie or Tom Quaile or any of the "new generation" of players we can now enjoy thanks to the internet, then pretty much everybody becomes overrated.
Since I don't think we can ever agree on a standard, I really don't understand the sense of these kind of questions.

TLDR; if Guthrie is the standard of technique/popularity then EVERYBODY is overrated.

You must be an engineer

 

[kunos]

You must be an engineer

lol even worse... software dev

 

[Manxmofo]

Underrated

Steve Howe
Prince
Don Felder
George Harrison
Jim Messina
Patrick Simmons (Doobie brothers)

Overrated

Bonamassa
Clapton


I say overrated their music is enjoyable but Clapton is well passed his best and JB, while I admire his output it's at the expense of quality, out of all of his songs there are only a handful that are memorable.

A few have put John Mayer, I think that's a bit harsh, although he's been around a while now, he's one of few high profile guitarists that can still get music in the charts and get guitar music out to youngsters.