One of my favorite under-appreciated prog guitarists is the Moody Blues' Justin Hayward!  He wrung an incredible sound from his Gibson ES-335, and is not often mentioned in the polls dominated by Howe, Hackett, Fripp etc.! 

Here's a nice one of his!  Who is your suggested under-appreciated guitarist?  (please, just name one, not a whole list!)

Ian Crichton

most definitely Roman Bunka.

go to 33:54 in this example and you can hear why.

or listen to this:

or this:

or watch this video:

this is some excellent and highly original guitar playing

Although not a progger, William Reid of The Jesus and Mary Chain.  Reid's control of feedback, multitude of riffs and melodic leads to die for plus a highly varied approach.     William probably couldn't replicate a Dream Theater lead but William wrote some of my favorite guitar music.   

I'm a Mick Ronson fan too.   He could sure play guitar.    Lindsey Buckingham also is underrated. 

Good call on Justin Hayward (from the Moody Blues) Also:

Andy Latimer (Camel)

Mike Holmes (IQ)

Anthony Phillips (very early Genesis and solo)

Jan Akkerman (Focus)

Alan Morse (Spock's Beard)

Rich Berends (Mastermind)

Ed Wynne (Ozric Tentacles)

Rich Williams/Kerry Livgren (Kansas)

Alex Lifeson (Rush and yes I do feel he is underappreciated to an extent)

Trevor Rabin (Doesn't get the respect he deserves from some yes fans so I throw him in here as well)

Martin Barre (Jethro Tull)

Roye Albrighton (RIP) (Nektar)

Of course there are plenty of others as well.

I would say both. I would probably list him myself but since he was already mentioned I'll just second it. 

Master of the "sweep" .  

In honor of our own PresDoug, I'll nominate  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmut_K%C3%B6llen" rel="nofollow - Helmut Köllen  from Triumvirate!! 

Like Greg Lake, he was an excellent plectrum-style bassist who also excelled on 6-string!!  Sadly, he passed away far too young. 

Doug once sent me Helmut's solo CD, which was excellent!!  Thanks, Doug!! 

Yep. Played with the Alan Parsons Project and was also on Jon Anderson's "Song of Seven" album.

Lifeson, Rabin and Barre have between them sold well in excess of 100 million albums.

Rabin is also a fabulously successful composer of Hollywood film scores and the single "Lift me up"  which Rabin co wrote with Squire for the album "Union" spent 6 weeks at the number one position on the billboard album rock tracks chart. 

Latimer also clocks up album sales in the multiple millions. 

Justin Hayward has recently been inducted into the Rock and Roll hall of fame.

Jan Akkerman was well appreciated as a guitarist in the 70s and Focus even had commercial singles success completely outside the sphere of prog or fusion. 

That's the problem with a term such as "under-appreciated"; people interpret it differently and it is subjective in a weird way because it is not only about assessing one's own opinion but also about the opinions of other people. It may mean "almost unknown" but on the other hand if you think that Andy Latimer is the number one guitarist in prog then you could legitimately claim he is under-appreciated despite him being quite well appreciated overall... one could also argue that it is entirely different from "unknown" and rather means "better than people think" which is an empty statement as long as somebody is unknown so not many people think anything about this person.

Some guitarists that for me a really among the very best in prog and generally are Adrian Belew, Fred Frith and Peter Wolbrandt (of Kraan). All of these are more or less well known and even well appreciated, but you'd probably find them on few top 10 lists of guitarists and they'd certainly feature on mine.

Or perhaps the term is best expressed as a function of album sales which is the only real and true measure of both appreciation and success....??

I don't think so. If people buy a Yes album with Trevor Rabin on it, this doesn't mean that they think he is a top guitarist. There are all kinds of other reasons to buy an album. Some people even might buy a Steve Hackett album because they like his songs and musical style rather than being interested in guitar skills.

Thanks for sharing your views. Album sales are mostly irrelevant in my opinion since we are talking about individual musicians. Anyway, I suppose we all have our own opinions and criteria for what we consider under-appreciated. All the guitarists I mentioned are in my opinion more under appreciated than Steve Howe and Steve Hackett who I both feel are vastly under appreciated in non prog circles so now maybe you can get a sense for why I chose all of these guitarists. 

Trey Spruance - Secret Chiefs 3

Paul Lai - Upsilon Acrux

Kavus Torabi - Knifeworld

James MacGaw - Magma

Frank Fromy - Shub-Niggurath

Good call on Justin Hayward back there; most often celebrated for his vocals and songwriting, but he could play some real tasty guitar. 

Ok, how 'bout Pye Hastings? 

I'll go with Jean and say Roman Bunka of Embryo. Such a great guitar player, and he plays the oud too! And his first solo album "Dein Kopf ist ein schlafendes Auto" is one of the very best albums of the 80s and among my personal favorites. And no-one but Jean and me ever mentions him, which is an absolute shame. You guys should most definitely listen to the examples Jean gave in her post.

Someone named Eddy Marron which is not a bad call either.

Not sure if he's underrated but Donald 'buck dharma' Roeser from BOC....at least I don't see him on many lists.

This. I wanted to mention him, but thought he was relatively well-known. On the other hand, he does not get as much love as other guitarists, though he's one of the very best.

Buck's not an unknown, but he's definitely UNDERappreciated! IMO, he's a lead guitarist who can hang with just about anybody, but unlike most (and like his contemporary Ronnie Montrose), he's a master of tone and melodicism. And these new young rock guitarists — sheesh, they can't play a solo if you spray WD-40 all over their fretboards.

Speaking of German guitarists(at least I assume the guy from Embryo is German)I would like to nominate Manuel Gottsching from Ash Ra Tempel and also a solo artist. I think he's almost the textbook definition of an under rated guitarist.

The McManus brothers (Pat, John, Tommy) were born into a family of musicians. At a young age, he was a champion fiddler in his neck o' the woods in Ireland. Pat and his sister went and saw Horslips live and were blown away by their inventive fusion of Celtic and rock styles. 

Inspired like a fire tornado to move into the realm of electricity, Pat shifted to guitar and "appointed" his John as bassist-vocalist and Tommy (R.I.P.) as drummer. They first called themselves Pulse and then changed the name of their band to Mama's Boys. They enjoyed some modest success in the U.K. but never really clicked in the States. They did, and do, have a loyal following. Their first several albums as a trio are some of the finest hard rock I've ever heard.

Mama's Boys opened for Thin Lizzy on occasion. I'm shocked Phil didn't try to lure Pat to Thin Lizzy. A quartet featuring both Pat and John Sykes on lead guitar probably would've been too much. They'd have left every venue in a shambles! But I'm glad the McManus clan remained intact up to a point, because those early Mama's Boys records are dynamite.

AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: Speaking of German guitarists(at least I assume the guy from Embryo is German)I would like to nominate Manuel Gottsching from Ash Ra Tempel and also a solo artist. I think he's almost the textbook definition of an under rated guitarist.

 

Manuel's awesome! His lines on Ashra's Correlations just sizzle. 

Roman Bunka is the son of a German diplomat and grew up in Beirut. He also took part in Embryo's famous trip to Pakistan and India. This is why there are a lot of Arabic and Indian influences in his playing, which makes him in my opinion one of the most interesting guitarists out there. He definitely deserves more recognition.

my god you are so hot.. not sure if it is those socks you are wearing.. or simply your taste in music

even if you don't recognize the name.. you would recognize his signature greatness.  The long standing #1 Mick ranked Blow thy Speaker song ever...

Good call. How do you define virtuoso though? I'd say he's as good as Martin Barre, David Gilmour or most other prog guitarists. 

That is exactly why I phrased the question as I did!!  

Justin Hayward was indeed voted into the RRHOF, but I still find little written about his technique, style etc. in professional guitar periodicals.  Hackett, Fripp, Howe and others seem to have sucked the air out of the room regarding prog guitar (my own opinion). 

Some have mentioned the late Peter Banks...I consider him under-appreciated, even though he was very prominent in the formation of Yes.  Later on, his style evolved from his angular jazz-rock phrasing to a style more like Steve Vai (his solo CD "Self Contained" showcases this style).  Hear Peter shred!! 

How about Tony Hill?

NP: Adagieto from EOS

I would think that two very special guitarists deserve a mention here, for their work, although for the most part I am not sure that most people can handle it ... these are strong, weird and further out in left field kind of position.

John Weinzierl - AD2 ... no one could use effects and placed an amazing sound in such incredible spots within the music. And he could also improvise from here to Pluto and back. Witness YETI, the main piece in the album, which is stated to be an improvisation!

Ax Genrich - Guru Guru first several albums. I picked up his 3 solo albums, because I thought this guy would be interesting and off his rock'er! Yep .. he is that and then some. But for sheer insanity and sound and noise, no one could come close to what he did on the first Guru Guru albums, and how 2 of those pieces are still played today left and right.

Phil Miller from Hatfield and the North/ National Health

Vincent Mc Cusker of Fruupp

John 'Charlie' Whitney of Family/ Streetwalkers

Micky Jones and Deke Leonard of Man.. 2 of the best, most inventive rock guitarists ever!!

And I agree whole heartedly regarding Donald 'Buck Dharma' Roeser of Blue Oyster Cult.. a fantastic rock guitarist.. as was Ronnie Montrose, also already mentioned,

The solo is after 3 mins

Good stuff, I've been waiting for Dave Lambert to show up!  Well done! 

 

He also plays the bass guitar on this album.

His brother Andras was also the Bassist of the group and is a excellent Underrated player too.

Another one worth to be mentioned here is Denis Jalbert (Hamadryad).

You're right. Andy is actually a really good, if unorthodox, player. Excellent ear for strange voicings and beautiful dissonance. He and Dave together created some pure six string magic.

Forget this--  who is your favorite under-appreciated orthodontist.  Am I right ?

But Ian Crichton of Saga is fantastic.

He may surprise  a few folks, if they heard him.

 

 ^

Atavachron wrote: Ian Crichton

of course you are...  but tricky b*****d you are...  that is a trick question.

Isn't meeting an orthadonist with a strong oral fixation like in the top 5 male fantasies ie bucketlists of ever hot blooded male. 

ie there are no under-appreciated orthodontists..  

Gum me, baby.

Sancious is an OUTSTANDING nomination, thanks!!  He rips on guitar and keys!!  

Fantastic suggestion, thanks!!  You are right, he is fantastic!  

I have fond memories of when this song was on constant rotation on AM radio in the States, good times! 

.

A lot of them mentioned... being myself a guitarist I'd say following are underappreciated. Not just guitar technique, but overall composition talent and attitude.

Francis Dunnery - It Bites

Trevor Rabin - Yes

Brett Kull - Echolyn

John Michtell - Arena

Markus Steffen - Sieges Even

Arjen Lucassen - Ayreon

Kurdt Vanderhoof - Presto Ballet

Peter Hesslein - Lucifer's Friend

Mick Rogers - Manfred Mann's Earth Band

Some 12 string magic sometimes too! 
 

Good call on Charlie Whitney too. Family are a bit under-appreciated in general. 

Chris Fry is the obvious one . I've seen Magenta live 4 times and he is always brilliant.

Also a 'vote' for Dave Kilminster who has worked with Keith Emerson and Roger Waters so he must be doing something right!

Don't be shy anyone. tell him the tooth

Well, you're correct in that no one ever seems to talk about him. 

Mine is a bass playing guy that goes around Portland, and takes lessons from "Glenn" on occasion! (the guy from OREGON) .... though one time, I did have to tell him that my tooth was not a bass drum! He got the message!

Dave Brock

I should start by saying that he's a pretty awful guitarist. I remember reading a review of a Hawkwind album which stated that Brock sounded like 'he'd learned to play guitar yesterday'.  I think this must have been referring to his lead work, which is, I admit, pitiful.

However as a rhythm guitarist, on classic 70's tracks like 'Paradox', 'Spirit of the Age' or 'Lord of Light', he just nails it, with an organic, chugging, ragged greatness. 

Check out his Al Dimeola imitation in this video!  Amazing! 

Clark passed?   He was an incredible guitar player despite his hillbilly banjo-playing image .

RIP, man.

Yep.  Roy could rip.

Along with Glen Campbell and Jerry Reed.  

(and I despise country music)

How about some young blood?

Kim Myhr (on the left)

Reinier Baas

Peter Kolovos

Nicola Hein

This is highly unfair, specially how his guitar is used in those early albums which was quite a bit less about the fanboy pyrotechnics that folks here and elsewhere adore, but about how to use the sound and the effect on his guitar within the piece in question, and adding to its strength ... which was not loudness and noise, compared to the over rated number of crappy guitarists here that do nothing but show off their pyrotechnics on the string, and have absolutely nothing to show for it musically.

In terms of his guitar presence, and use, he is exceptional, and the only sad thing is that in his old age, these days, he is not, or can not, be as smart and as good as he used to be, or maybe the material just is not half as creative and original as it used to be.

BTW, the late Roye Albrighton of NEKTAR deserves mention here. One heck of a special guitar and singer!

HOLY COW!! (But we all knew Roy was a badass.)

 ^ Chip!--  great choice.   Saw him a few times in SF and he always rocked.