Most Underrated Guitarist Of All Time

KP, please don't start this argument again. The question is simple and presumes the application of subjective taste, not the imposition of some form empirical musical ratings-standard. As you repeatedly say, there is no such system and no way to implement one, without removing the one element that this thread is relying upon, i.e. subjective taste.
Everyone has favourites and it is natural to feel that some of them don't get the recognition that they deserve. It is threads like these that often open up people's horizons to new types of music and to previously-unknown musicians.

If you find the thread uninteresting (as in *yawn*), ignore it.

KP, please don't start this argument again. The question is simple and presumes the application of subjective taste, not the imposition of some form empirical musical ratings-standard.

Not trying to be argumentative, though I know I am being so anyway.

But the question doesn't presume the application of subjective taste. The question was not "who are some guitarists out there that you feel are under-rated?" The question was "Who is the MOST under-rated . . ."

And that's where I simple want to know -- "how the heck does anyone propose to answer that question?"

That people are answering the question suggests to me that either the respondents are ignoring the question asked and instead offering suggestions of people they simply feel are under-rated, or they actually believe there is a way to equate people's "rating" as artists.

You, at least, admit there is no such capability. I presume the rest of the folks would agree with you, but on the off chance that someone is actually trying to answer the question as asked, I tossed out the challenge.

So, since no one is actually responding to the original poster anyway, why not have a discussion about why such a question is un-answerable instead of just answering another question instead?

But, just to be part of the non-conversation -- some people I feel are highly under-appreciated (god knows how they're rated):

Phil Keaggy
Dave Davies
Alvin Lee
Robbie Krieger
Vernon Reid
Gabor Szabo
Tommy Tedesco
Charley Byrd
Ted Greene
Michael Angelo Batio
Lester Flatt
Pee Wee Wightwing
Bill Emerson

(and this may be the first and last time that Baito and Flatt are mentioned in the same thread :) )

Alex Lifeson gets my vote out of the big bunch of famous guys we've all heard of

Out of the guys nobody's ever heard of: when I was 19, I used to go see a band called "Dogwatch" down the Ruskin Arms in East Ham (the same place Iron Maiden started out) on Sunday nights. Their guitarist was a guy called Roger Glynn and he was brilliant. The singer (a guy called Roy Wierd) left and Dogwatch disappeared without trace.

There you go, beat that. If you know where Roger Glynn is these days and what he's doing, do let me know.

Best,

A :-)

There you go, beat that. If you know where Roger Glynn is these days and what he's doing, do let me know.

I think he's in the process of regrouping
http://www.woodenlion.com/

i apologise for trying to be cute , but how many of these types of threads do we see here every few weeks?
it's just another opinion poll that really bores the heck out of most of us imo.
altho i really did learn a bit from this one https://www.guitarnoise.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=19840&highlight=underrated

:twisted: :wink: :twisted:

I love these threads. They get KP all riled-up.

+1 for Lifeson.

I love these threads. They get KP all riled-up.

Ummm .... hmmmm

:oops:

well KP I think I can definitely answer your questions regarding ratings, Gaspar Sanz gets a 5.6 rating (you lose points for living in a different century) where as Joan Jett gets a 6.3, it's really quite simple and Lonnie Johnson 7.3 vs Al Dimeola 7.5

Not sure what could be clearer than that, the numbers don't lie.

Fair enough KP....but the originators of threads like these aren't sourcing material for a PhD thesis...they are often just throwing out a rhetorical question for the sake of "conversing" / getting some responses / maybe just interacting with others here....everything doesn't NEED to be quantifiable to be salient to the needs or wants of the original poster...and it makes no difference that no one can be "proven" right or wrong...in this case, just a generic list of apparently underrated guitar players is what the thread is producing, so how can that be so bad...... :?
Again....unless the offended forum members are paying for some of the bandwidth, :wink: ....why not just skip the threads that bore you... or those that offend your sense of what "belongs" here...? :lol:

There you go, beat that. If you know where Roger Glynn is these days and what he's doing, do let me know.

I think he's in the process of regrouping
http://www.woodenlion.com/

Cool - there's some old Dogwatch photos, and I'm sitting here looking at them and thinking "yeah, that was Queen Of The Nile, that one's Donuts On The Pier"

Quality. Cheers KP.

A :-)

KP, please don't start this argument again. The question is simple and presumes the application of subjective taste, not the imposition of some form empirical musical ratings-standard.

Not trying to be argumentative, though I know I am being so anyway.

But the question doesn't presume the application of subjective taste. The question was not "who are some guitarists out there that you feel are under-rated?" The question was "Who is the MOST under-rated . . ."

And that's where I simple want to know -- "how the heck does anyone propose to answer that question?"

That people are answering the question suggests to me that either the respondents are ignoring the question asked and instead offering suggestions of people they simply feel are under-rated, or they actually believe there is a way to equate people's "rating" as artists.

You, at least, admit there is no such capability. I presume the rest of the folks would agree with you, but on the off chance that someone is actually trying to answer the question as asked, I tossed out the challenge.

So, since no one is actually responding to the original poster anyway, why not have a discussion about why such a question is un-answerable instead of just answering another question instead?

But, just to be part of the non-conversation -- some people I feel are highly under-appreciated (god knows how they're rated):

Phil Keaggy
Dave Davies
Alvin Lee
Robbie Krieger
Vernon Reid
Gabor Szabo
Tommy Tedesco
Charley Byrd
Ted Greene
Michael Angelo Batio
Lester Flatt
Pee Wee Wightwing
Bill Emerson

(and this may be the first and last time that Baito and Flatt are mentioned in the same thread :) )

Well, on the one hand I completely agree with you, and I don't really like these types of threads either. But on the other hand I think you're taking this entirely too seriously. Now having said THAT, thanks for mentioning Gabor Szabo. I remember reading interviews with Carlos Santana who has mentioned Szabo as a major influence so I checked him out a couple years ago. He's incredible and one of my favorites.

Joey Santiago, http://guitargeek.com/rigview/329/

from "The New Stuff: A Conversation with Joey Santiago"
Interview by Stephen B. Armstrong

"JS: I would describe my style as being 'angular and bent.' It's all derived from guitar moments that perk my ears up. My favorite song, when I was first learning, was "Savoy Truffle" on the Beatles' White Album. George Harrison played that bent note that I fell in love with and later milked it for all it was worth. "

"JS: I listened to a lot of different music when I was growing up. Our public library let us take records out and I started listening to the ones that were not available at the bigger record stores. I listened to Les Paul, Chet Atkins, Joe Pass and Wes Montgomery. I would read the liner notes, which usually referred to other musicians who were influential or played similarly. If I liked the record, I would check them out. It was so refreshing to hear this music instead of the stuff that was getting played on pop radio. Later on I also listened to a lot of Hendrix. "

"I was trying to write the ultimate pop song. I was basically trying to rip off the Pixies," Kurt Cobain said in 1994, when Rolling Stone asked him about the runaway success of "Smells Like Teen Spirit."

"Radiohead guitarist Johnny Greenwood told British television that "the reason we don't use as much guitar now is there are only a handful of Pixies albums. You can't keep copying them." (Compare the famous scrape of Radiohead's 1993 breakthrough single, "Creep," to Pixie guitarist Joey Santiago's work on Doolittle's "I Bleed.") Of course, a great many bands have done just that—as Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters put it recently in New York Times, "The quiet/loud dynamic that's dominated alternative radio for the last 14 years can be attributed to one and only one band, the Pixies."

ok you can lock the thread now :wink:

well KP I think I can definitely answer your questions regarding ratings, Gaspar Sanz gets a 5.6 rating (you lose points for living in a different century) where as Joan Jett gets a 6.3, it's really quite simple and Lonnie Johnson 7.3 vs Al Dimeola 7.5

Not sure what could be clearer than that, the numbers don't lie.

Sorry, but Al loses 3 of those points for endless repetition and a decade of palm muting.

gnease,

OK I'm with you on that Al's new rating is 4.5

Lester FLATT ????
How'd he get in there ?
Earl Scruggs used to play all the guitar instrumentals on the Flatt & Scruggs live shows and albums....yes, that Earl.

There...I'm being both subjective and analytical.... :lol: :lol: :shock: