Elvis was one, Sammy Hagar is another, Malcom Young comes to mind. Can you think of others?

Seth James
Tab Benoit
George Benson

Mike

Don Rich

Gary Rossington

Jack Bruce

James Hetfield
Marty Friedman

Lindsey Buckingham.

Mick Mars

Are we including bass players? Nobody should underate Jack Bruce; maybe best bass I have ever seen live.

Tab Benoit is going to be at Main Street Crossing in Tomball soon

Toy Caldwell.

Robby Krieger

Jerry Reed

Mark Knopfler

Vince Gill

John fogherty

☝️

Politics aside… jason isbell.

Reggie Young .

And got a purple heart in Vietnam, rather than return to the states, he went back to 'Nam to rejoin his Marine unit.

Dan Tolar
Jimmy McCulloch

Merle Haggard flew under the radar but he could play.

Glen Campbell is another.

Many of those already listed I know of and have heard. Maybe they're not so underrated?

I'll toss in the name of Donald Kinsey.

Leo Kottke

Larry Crane
Mike Wanchic

Vince Gill

George Kooymans

There is a lot more poor stuff than bad guitar solos in that mix,

Lot of genres and styles to consider - cutting across that, I would list Danny Gatton as way underrated.

Tommy Emmanuel
Billy Strings
Believe it or not Prince was a hell of a guitar player. Weird guy but he could play

Danny Gatton underrated?

Before his untimely death wasn't he on the cover of Guitar Player magazine, maybe even Rolling Stone, as the greatest guitar player that ever lived?

Fender's Danny Gatton custom shop telecasters are pretty heavily sought by collectors and players both.

Frank Marino
Terry Kath

Daryl Hall

David Gilmore, Sammy Haggar is very modest about his guitar playing but he is very talented. Charlie Hargrett of Blackfoot Berton Averre of the Knack
Tommy Shaw

Dafuq!? Glen Campbell's intonation was for s h i t.

LMAO!!!

Freddie Salem fromn the Outlaws

I did not know about this cat Gatton. Wow! Thanks for mentioning this guitarist fellows!

Malcom young

Not sure he qualifies as underrated tho as he was a piledriving machine

Buck Dharma

James Mcmurtry, Jimmy Thackery.

Leo Kottke isn't underrated, just under-appreciated like Danny Gatton.

Mississippi Fred Mcdowell

Junior Brown 👍

Urban legend.

Elvis could NOT play guitar.

From guitarists viewpoint, Malcolm was one of the best rythym guitarists, ever!

Some people only think of his funny lyrics, or social messages, or the weird instrumentation (comparatively, for rock and roll) he has in his music..............and therefor he might be considered "underrrated" by the uninformed.

I nominate Frank Zappa.

Excellent player and renowned by actual guitarists.

Gatton has never been unappreciated!

Apparently you know a great guitarist when you hear one!

Yes, thanks, all true - even that cover story. However, ongoing samples of contemporary comments and raves in blogs and guitar player threads like this don't ever seem to reflect the status you noted there. My humble view is that his work was much greater than so credited - thus my post.

By the general public he has, most have never heard of him.

The half dozen guys on this forum who actually play guitar...well.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe.


Pete Miserando:

Lots of great guitar players out there that are only known to a small group. It seems like someone has the be truly exception to get heard these days. The radio stations don't seem to be interested in putting very much new talent out there.

Still, there's good ones coming along,...Molly Tuttle, Billy Strings, Marcus King,..

Couple of young guys pickin' and singin' a song that was written by George Gershwin in 1934.

Davey Johnstone
Jim Stafford
Tommy Tedesco
Bill Nelson
Charo

Prince. He played emotions instead of notes

Glen Campbell is very highly regarded by anyone who plays. I woudlnt say he is underrated.

another very highly regarded player. Maybe not known in certain Pop circles, but anyone who plays knows gatton is top notch.

Phil Keaggy. In a interview with Jimi Hendrix they were talking about the greatest guitar players and Jimi said something like don't talk to me. Talk to Phil Keaggy.

Steve Warner
Brad Paisley

Alvin Lee

Yep, I'll add Roy Orbison

Neal Shon
Alex Lifeson
Johnny Winter

Rik Emmett of Triumph

Like button!

Lotta' talent right there. Thanks to Bristoe for posting this.

Hughie Thomasson,and Billy Jones,The original guitar army!The OUTLAWS!

Many of these players are underappreciated, not underrated.

Eddy Van Halen... That is all you need to know for now.

Dwayne Allman always gets mentioned as a a great & rightly so. While Dickie Betts not mentioned nearly as much. Watching old live vids reminded me that Betts was always up front with as much or more great licks as Dwayne.

Jeff Beck

Gary Duncan (Quicksilver Messenger Service)
Danny Kirwan

Luther Dickenson
Mark Speer
Warren Haynes

Lonnie Mack anyone?

Danny Kirwan?

John Mclaughlin, from the past Doc Watson.



mike r

Antoine Dufour?

Bob Welsh?

Nicely done for two - liked the bit up tempo - but did not use Gershwin's changes.

Good grief; EVH And Jeff Beck "underrated". They are like top 10?
While you are at it; don't forget Clapton and Santana

If your "He played emotions instead of notes" means that he was big on show off/moves/clothes but mediocre with guitar output, I tend to agree.

Randy California?

Clapton sucks ass...

Joe Walsh

Yep

Ralph Macchio

Don Felder

Otis Rush?

'

Absolutely! I'm a big BOC fan anyway, but after the wife and I saw them in 2019, I told her "I will never again speak of great guitarists without mentioning Buck Dharma!" So fluid, so versatile, so effortless.

Fleetwood Mac late '60s

or early 70's

is he underrated?

Stopped righ here. One of the best that simply doesn't get the recognition he should.

Justin Hayward?

Not underrated,..just under acknowledged. Don Ross.

Jorma Kaukonen

Mark Farner

Greg Lake

I'll tell ya who's under-rated.

Me.

They say Jimi Hendrix hit notes on a guitar that have never been duplicated.

I do that, all the time.

Intentionally?

While stoned free?

Let's not cloud the issue.

Howlin' Wolf?

Generally more known for his harp playing and singing?

This young man is destined to be the flatpickin' GOAT if he's not already. I can't get enough of listening to him. He cut his teeth on Bluegrass. But he can do anything with an acoustic guitar. He wrote this song when he was living hand to mouth without two nickels to rub together. It put him on tour and on the Opry. This version was from several years ago when he first started getting paid,...in Traverse City Michigan. He's got a following that travels to his shows like the people who followed The Grateful Dead.

Fun music. I go to 1:23 and listen to his run over and over again.

Mark Farner !

A trained player might say he sucked. But my ears absolutely loved his playing on their first 3 albums. The solo on Inside Looking Out still rocks big time.

Half the guitar players listed here are commonly acknowledged as great guitarists. How can they be "underrated"?

More than half.

It's a lot easier to rate the over rated guys because they have a rating.

Great guitar player, and trivia combined.

Name the guitarist whose band was named after a band member that never sung on any song put out by the band.

Ricky Medlocke from Blackfoot and Skynyrd.

Gotta' agree with EdM, re: Lindsey Buckingham

Could be. I poorly framed the question.

SHB: Name the band named after its guitarist, when the guitarist never sang on any song put out by the band.

Robin Trower?

Break my heart on this if it's honest. But this part monotone recording tripped my trigger in 69, & still does.

The solo starts about the 3 minute mark.

That's a great guess, might be right, tho Trower was also known as a vocalist with other bands.

Guy I'm thinkin of never sang a note with any band, far as I know.

Santana, was the guy I was thinkin of.

Now, you girls are just naming guitarists you've heard of before.

Peter Green (Original Fleetwood Mac)
Roy Buchanan
Andy Powell (Wishbone Ash)

Awe, GFY...

Jim Croce

J Geils???

Leslie West

Danny Whitten, NYoung's old budd.

[video:yahoo][/video]

Try Jimmy Lyon

Dude who played for Eddie Money, and others. Listen again to the solos on Two Tickets and Shakin'. Amazing!

Alright, here's a dude most haven't heard of outside of guitar circles, Greg Koch.

Dude can not only play but is famous for his witty guitar reviews for Wildwood guitars.

He's been featured in Guitar Player Magazine, Joe Bonamassa called him a "phenom," and Fender Guitars listed him in their “Top Ten Unsung Guitarists.”

I'm subscribed to Wildwood guitars just to hear Greg's banter and play on different guitars.

Wildwood Guitars

Ask your Dad (if alive) about the night your mommy came home late...9 months before you were born, limp wrist.

Garcia pedal steel-

Greg Koch is a hoot. And a very fine picker.

Tony Iommi, Fast Eddie Clark.

Good observations. Didn't quite know how to respond to the OP because I don't have the rating chart.

Jan Ackermann
Martin Barre

Larry LaLonde.

The dude has spent most of his career content as second fiddle to Les Claypool, but he can absolutely rip (listen to some of the pre-Primus metal bands he was in like Possessed). He also just knows how to fill space perfectly within Primus' groove.

Richie Kotzen

Ry Cooder and David Lindley, especially when they played together.

Pete Anderson on the first dozen or so Dwight Yoakam records.


Okie John

Waddy Wachtel

Dave Mason??

Taj Mahal?

Rory Gallagher

Alex Lifeson

Totally agree with that.

One guitar player, no rhythm guitar backup, dude can flat out play.

Considered to be one of the top 10 guitar players of all time, if not THE best, he's not what anyone would consider underrated.

I agree with pretty much all the guitarists that have been posted so far but, haven't seen Paul Gilbert.

Just out of curiosity, I just went through all 7 pages of this post.
Y'all missed a couple! LOL!
1. Chet Atkins
2. Richard Smith - When Richard was 13, he played with Chet Atkins. Chet called him a phenom then.
3. Mason Williams - "Classical Gas"
4. Roy Clark
5. Andy Griffith

There are tons of talented guitarist out there. Many who would be revered in any recording studio in the world, but just how many top notch guitarists chase recording dreams?

How many guitar pickers in Nashville,
The number of ants on a Tennessee ant hill! LOL!

Alistair “Zal” Cleminson
Alex Zinojinovich

Jimmy Johnson and Pete Carr of the Swampers and Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. The number of instantly recognizable riffs these guys came up with and the number of stars these guys recorded with is ridiculous.

Peter Green.

Jesse Ed Davis

Guy from my town is a musical prodigy. Robert Bowlin. I have hunted and fished with his dad. He could pick up an instrument have someone show him how it is to be played and in a couple of weeks he could master it. Piano, horns, woodwinds, and anything with strings.

Lot'sa folks like that. Sadly, not all of them will ever be recognized.

Guy named Jim Henderson had a star with a show in Branson, Missouri beg him to come play fiddle. Willi g to pay Jim WAY more than he was earning in Podunk, USA.
Jim refused.
His excuse?
"I'm not moving my family to Missouri and I'm not going to stay in Branson without my family!"

That line of work takes a lot of time and dedication.
"Time" away from family and the "dedication" to go where the work is.

I just threw-up in my mouth a little bit. 😝

Not the best guitar player, but damn sure underrated considering his singing and writing talent.

Robin Trower

I'm a big Trower fan!

Nothing about Robin Trowsers is underrated!

The Jon Bennet-Ramsey of the guitar world. LOL

If you play guitar you know who he is, but you will never hear him on your radio dial. And with Over 150 posts in this thread and I am the first to mention him, maybe not underrated but not mainstream.

I disagree.

Yeah, I don't play guitar and I know who he is.

And if one chooses to listen to Classic Rock stations, across the country in my experience, you will hear him with some frequency. Even before he went solo.

The thread is about underrated, not ubiquitous.

Alright, fess up, who else googled "ubiquitous"?

Even I have heard of Robin Trowers and I can't play a Kazoo.

The really good musicians are studio musicians . They play the music for people to record at the studios.

Best guitarist ever, hardly underrated.





P

Underrated isn’t the right word, but I’d never heard of these guys and they are something else. To include some cool guitar. I will warn you, they might just grab a’holt of your brain…..




King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard are a rock ‘n' roll Frankenstein's monster. As creative as they are prolific, they pack blasts of almost every noise in the genre's history—even flute solos and skittery jazz freak-outs. It's all brought to electrifying life by a psychedelically bent garage energy. The pieces form one mighty beast: one limb is sunshiny ‘60s weirdo pop, while another is a prog-psych odyssey. Flip the switch on this Melbourne-bred colossus, and open your ears to their wild creation.

Fats Kaplin and Lloyd Maines

Billy Gibbons

Jack Black

Joe Walsh was hardly under-rated.

James Gang to Eagles to Solo projects.

His guitar prowess was never under-rated.

Johnny Marr

Tommy Crain from CDB

Jack White

Jerry Reed... SON!

Michael Sweet
Mark Kendall
Michael Wilton
Matthias Jabs

AWESOME! ....and cute!

Didnt read the entire thread, but has anybody heard
Of James burton? Listened to him on Roy Orbison
Black and white. Wow

I thought he was Elvis’ longtime lead guitarist……. “Play it James”

Terry Kath founding member of Chicago

Did anyone mention Glen Campbell?

How about Buddy Hackett (not the old comedian!), Troy Freeman, Morris Rosson, Larry Hardgrave, Dane Ledford,
Michael Lindesmith.
You've never heard of them because they never left their local environments, but they are all top notch!