For me there are 2 obvious ones: Martin Barre of Jethro Tull and Gary Green of Gentle Giant. Outside of fans of these bands you don't hear much about how great these 2 are. They were such integral parts of those bands, it's impossible to imagine anyone else contributing some of the amazing work they did to JT and GG.

Have fun with this. Looking forward to seeing your thoughts!! 

 

My guitar playing is unappreciated - my family tell me to be quiet and the cats run off as soon as I start unzipping the case.

 

Mike Bloomfield.....his phrasing with the Blues is the most outstanding thing on earth to me. "Albert's Shuffle" is the prime example. There were things I did not enjoy about the Super Session album. It's mainly Bloomfield I was interested in. His intense acoustic Ragtime playing on "Blues, Gospel, and Ragtime Guitar" is in league with Steve Howe's "The Clap". He is a progressive guitarist that indulged in Blues music. A few times he gets sloppy and has a very bad singing voice, but wait till he starts soloing? When I was a kid,...everyone knew him! You could walk down the street and ask a huddle of hippies who Mike Bloomfield was and they would give you the gawking look and ask you if you were born stupied? He hosted rock festivals and was one of the most original guitarists ever with a well respected reputation in N.Y. He was just as popular as Hendrix and Clapton in the 60's but somehow got swept to the wayside.

Albert Lee from the band Heads, Hands & Feet was a magnificent player with multitudes of diversity. Just an amazing player no doubt. I often followed these types of players even though they did not play in Progressive Rock bands. If I didn't enjoy the style of music their bands played, I would wait patiently for their guitar solos. It was worth it because many guitar players that get stuck in the wrong band or play a style of music which you do not prefer, more often play in a dimensional way that cannot always be heard on a Gentle Giant album.

Peter Green.....How did he get that sound? That fire? He would always hold back! He hated the entire "Rock Star" mentality and so he hired Jeremy Spencer to cover that ground and later he hired Danny Kirwan to take attention from himself. He can be caught truly breaking loose during live jams from the "Boston Tea Party" tapes. To explain his impact on lead guitar...one must think of themselves in a straight jacket while playing repeating chord progressions....then comes your turn to play and you break free from the straight jacket playing with powerful phrasing and the overall impact that many guitarists can not reach. He is that incredible but, you have to investigate his history because as I said he holds back.  

Will have to check out some of the others mentioned!! Bravo!

I would also add Andrew Latimer, who is a fantastic guitarist but really unappreciated and very seldom mentioned.

The same happens to me  except I have two dogs

Another great one.