Tony Hicks. For all the instantaneously recognizable guitar riffs he's contributed to pop music, I doubt many music fans know him by name.
Another agreement here! There are TONS AND TONS AND TONS of these threads here. I don't see how the OP missed any if he used the "search" button. This subject is so terribly boring, and ALWAYS ends up being a personal preference thread. Makes no sense here. There are many, many other music forums that love this sort of thing. Go there.
Duke Robillard Charlie Baty Junior WAtson Hollywood Fats If you've heard them you know what I mean. If you haven't case proven
Of the guitarists mentioned Lindsay Buckingham and Prince are under appreciated mainly because their guitar chops are not what they are known for. Mike Campbell of the Heartbreakers gets little mention but he is a great guitarist. Very tasteful.
Francis Lickerish & Steve Stewart, who both used to be in The Enid David Rhodes who played with Peter Gabriel
The first three Glass Harp Albums were well known (the 1st s/t is my favorite) & liked in the mid-west area, at least the Michigan and Ohio areas.
That was awesome. They were wobbly and teetering on the edge but held it together somehow. Good stuff!
I thought of some more: Dan Spitz from Anthrax: Rarely mentioned among the great thrash players, but Dan was very creative and unique, did a lot of stellar work on this early Anthrax records, and the band has never been the same without him. I think why he's overlooked is because it's Anthrax, the Ringo of the Big Four, and also because the guitar gymnastics were never as prominent in Anthrax as in most other thrash bands. Ronnie Wood from Faces, solo, The Rolling Stones: Because of his clownish persona (and the skills dropping off at certain points), people often forget that Ronnie can be a damn good guitar player. Listen to Faces, Rod's early solo stuff, Ronnie's own solo stuff, even some of his work with the Stones, guy can groove like a mudda, and occasionally bust out a kickass solo.
Well, someone likes them here, as the thread has grown to 5 pages in 4 hours, which is far faster than most threads I see. Also, nobody is requiring you to post on or view this thread, so if you don't like the subject matter, just don't participate. I sincerely apologize for wasting the second of your life I wasted making you read the thread title, but any other time wasted is on you. I'm not making this post because I was personally offended by criticism of this thread, this just felt like the right time to address these kinds of posts I see on pretty much any thread, no matter the thread type. Everyone has a particular type of thread they don't particularly like, but that's no reason to go around posting negative things and trying to rid the site of that kind of thread. Sorry for getting preachy there.
Underrated is when someone rates an artist a 5 but you think he's a 10. Underappreciated is when those who know of an artist rate that artist highly, but feel the artist should be more well known.
Dave Davies, I'd put him up there against any British guitar player, his rhythm work in particular on 64-66 songs is just incredible
I guess I see what you're saying, but I feel that the word underrated in the context of rating art or media has become something of an acceptable misnomer, where rather than denoting only its original definition, it also means underappreciated and under-acknowledged. I can see why this annoys you, but I think it has become sort of a jargon.