Billy Zoom
[Reply]

Don Felder, perhaps.
[Reply]

A friend turned me on to Andy Wood. Guy can play. Another is Ian Thornely.
[Reply]

Roy Clark :-)

Huge fan since I first saw him on Hee-Haw :-)
[Reply]

Willie Johnson, Pat Hare and Link Wray - without these three, there wouldn't be power chords, which are a mainstay of rock & metal, and used by just about every guitarist mentioned so far.
[Reply]

Underrated by shear popularity, maybe, but truly innovative and worthy of more public awareness and/or acclaim by virtue of not just their innovation...and also for their impact:

Tom Morello
Ricky Wilson
Steve Hackett
Phil Manzanera

Yngwie Malmsteen - maybe not underrated by those that write in threads like this, but by the 'general public', perhaps
[Reply]

and I forgot about Mark Knopfler
[Reply]

Taylor Swift
[Reply]

No love for Joe Satriani? You can't tell me he's not underrated considering most people have never heard of him.
[Reply]

Huy - you're just distracted by the looks....
[Reply]

Not only have I heard of him, I've seen him live. Ask Peter, he was with me. :-)
[Reply]

Tal Wilkenfeld
Stevie Ray Vaugn
[Reply]

SRV is definitely great, but definitely not underrated in the U.S.
[Reply]

Ah, and now we get into the question as to what one means by underrated. In that Rolling Stone list I posted, I feel Johnny Winter is underrated at #63. But I also think Duane Allman is underrated at #9. Hell, crazy as it sounds, I would not argue if someone here said Jimi Hendrix was underrated at #1, if you get what I'm saying.
[Reply]

Joe Satriani
Nuno Bettencourt (Extreme)
Scotti Hill (Skid Row)
Jerry Cantrell (Alice in Chains)
Brian May (Queen)

#6 Kaki King
[Reply]

Subjectivity definitely comes in to play in what is such an opinion-based topic. Hell, some of the best guitarists in the world as far as technique, skill, speed, phrasing, etc. - and the ability to combine all of those melodically - are currently working in heavy and extreme metal and thus are not well known at all. So I could easily put out a top five "underrated" list that goes:
1) Mikael Akerfeldt
2) Jeff Waters
3) Brent Hinds
4) Corey Beaulieu
5) Alex Skolnick

And 95%+ of the people out there would be scratching their heads going "who???"

I looked at the list you linked to from RS and saw that three of my top five were considered among the top 100 (Fripp, Zappa, and Prince, IIRC). So can three guys who are thought of among the top 100 players ever really be considered "underrated" (assuming you lend any credence to RS's opinion :-) )? I don't know...but it's a fun subject to discuss. And if nothing else it might turn some people on to some players they might not be familiar with.

As a side note I heard "Cowboy Song" by Thin Lizzy on the radio today and my first thought was "Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson could definitely go on that list!" Maybe "Top 5" was too limiting. :-)
[Reply]

Mac, good call on Brian May. He's up there in my top five list of "Greatest Guitar Tone Ever", which is as follows:
1) David Gilmour
2) Dimebag Darrell
3) Brian May
4) Eric Johnson
5) Billy Gibbons

Uh oh...that's two minutes for threadjacking my own thread. :-)
[Reply]

Kirk Hammet
Alex Lifeson
[Reply]

I do, and that frightens me. :-)
[Reply]

With good reason. Just imagine how scared I am, living in this head.
[Reply]