Underrated Guitarists

I don't think Vinnie Moore is overrated - he's over-talented and quite the virtuouso, that's true, but not overrated (IMO!). His music doesn't really "shine", or carry the magic of, e.g. Joe Satriani's "Surfing With The Alien".

Steve Vai, OTOH, even if you said he was the best guitarist in the known universe that had ever lived, would still be underrated.

Others (much less virtuosic, and criminally underrated because of it);

Andy Latimer

Steve Rothery

Keep your "noodlers" any day - these guys can wrench out the most gorgeous music and the deepest emotions with a single note; Now that's class!

Steve Wilson

Brian Josh

omar rodriguez - mars volta

some very good jazz impro. on de-loused in the comatorium

Certif1ed wrote: Steve Vai, OTOH, even if you said he was the best guitarist in the known universe that had ever lived, would still be underrated. Keep your "noodlers" any day - these guys can wrench out the most gorgeous music and the deepest emotions with a single note; Now that's class!

I have always considered Vai a "noodler." A "really really good noodler."  

danbo wrote: Certif1ed wrote: Steve Vai, OTOH, even if you said he was the best guitarist in the known universe that had ever lived, would still be underrated. Keep your "noodlers" any day - these guys can wrench out the most gorgeous music and the deepest emotions with a single note; Now that's class! I have always considered Vai a "noodler." A "really really good noodler."

You're damn right he noodles, and usually, when he noodles, it's (incredibly) all intentional rather than lucky - but he does the other stuff too - you know, tunes! And then there's the other stuff he does that isn't tunes and isn't noodle...

Have you ever seen the somewhat dodgy film "Crossroads" - not the Britney Spears saccharine-saturated autobiography, but the one where the "blues guy" does a deal with the devil? Vai plays the devil's guitarist and the "blues guy"'s parts in the final duel - and frankly, I always thought that (like in real life) the devil had the best tunes!

If you haven't seen it, it's worth seeing just for Stevie in the duel at the end. Smokin'!!!

traditionally the devil has been a violinist...it wasn't until he heard Fripp that Satan decided to concentrate on the six-string

oh yeah, and it was the great Ry Cooder who did the blues parts for the 'cutting heads' segment- for all Vai's proficiency, delta blues really isn't his forte. Arlen Roth, ubiquitous guitar trainer and Ralph Maccio's coach for the film, explained that the final sequence was originally supposed to be solely a blues showdown rather than what he termed "this heavy metal nonsense". Originally it was just Roth and Cooder providing the guitar work for the film, but Cooder was replaced by Vai as the demon guitarist (well, to his credit Steve does look more like a demon) whose tracks were actually sped up to accentuate the tension (hard to believe Vai wasn't fast enough- speedy fretwork being a major part of his appeal). Unsung master Bill Kanengiser did the classical guitar work.

Despite the fact that the narrative and dialogue are ridiculously banal, Crossroads is a pretty unique film- besides being required viewing for any budding blues guitarist (especially young white boys like I used to be) it gave Robert Johnson and the blues in general a more-than-deserved boost in popularity. Too bad that people almost always get the actual guitar credits wrong.

Dick,

How did we miss: Bon Lozaga? He smokes. Not original, but he can tear it up.