Most underrated guitarists

[Jind]

I cant believe it took a page and a half for someone to say Alex Lifeson...lol

Joe Bonamossa (not well known enough)
John Mayer (hes known more as a singer)
Keith Urban
Vince Gill

In Metal:
Eric Petersen
Head from Korn (guy shreds)
Mikael Akerfeldt
Both guys from Tesseract

Oh and total agreement on Andy James, and Per from SS

I just don't look at Alex as underrated - at least by people that appreciate more than speed, accuracy, ... all the norms of "awesome" guitar type appreciation.

As many know I'm a huge Rush fan - I just take it as a given that the people that understand his talent get it.

As to your list of non-metal I'd add Richie Kotzen - especially since he's moved on from the typical shred methodology. But he just impresses me not only with how he plays but what he plays and writes as a musician, songwriter.

 

[blue_fAng]

8 seconds of pure fail. Sounds like some real Kirk Hammet shit.

yep. you are the kind of person who judges by only watching a little performance which may seem or not good instead of actually listening to most of the artist's work and then judging them. I love how some guitarists say 'hey Kirk Hammet sucks!' when they can't play anything as good as him.

 

[Notuern]

crybaby

Don't whine like a little don dokken

Haha, that killed me man.

.. but seriously though, i dont like Dokken at all, promise.

(Holy shitballs my arm looks weird in that pic. )

 

[AceFireForce117]

that's why i like jason becker and marty friedman's touch on the guitar so original. (ok he's not underrated though )

 

[Harry Hughes]

Andre Olbrich. The man composes some of the most emotional, flowing solos I've ever heard, and manages to solo for nearly a minute in every song and never make the listener bored.

Never thought of his soloing as particularly remarkable/unique in any way.
Very much that 70s school of lead playing, like you hear from the Iron Maiden guys.
That said, super tasty playing that's always in context, never overbearing and always has fantastic supporting melodies behind the vocals.
This post also made me listen to BG for the first time in about 2 years and made me remember why they're one of the few power metal bands I could actually listen to without turning it off after 2 songs.

 

[Russtopher]

Ty Tabor. Great songwriter, fantastic melodic solos, but it seems like aside from musicians, King's X as a whole doesn't get a lot of recognition.

 

[BrettT]

Ty Tabor. Great songwriter, fantastic melodic solos, but it seems like aside from musicians, King's X as a whole doesn't get a lot of recognition.

Yes!

 

[kaomao]

Viktor can rape your ass with all his licks!
(check 3:50 for some really tasty guitar slapping)

 

[Terminus]

Carl August Tidemann of early Arcturus and Winds is another I dont see mentioned much.





and one of my favorite solos around the 4:35 mark:

 

[Skinny Viking]

Gus Drax (BioMechanical)

 

[ChrisTanakaCanwell]

+1 to Cantrell and Mushok!
Tommy Emmanuel
Anders Nyström
The Undertaker-looking guy from Iced Earth
Dave Young
Mato Nanji