Not great guitarists who are nevertheless perfect for the band they're in

wesker123

William Reid

adampeter

the correct answer is Noel Gallagher 

terada

Me. My band play mostly 3 chord nonsense progressions. A match made in heaven 

richardhomer

Paul Buchanan from The Blue Nile

Roysterdoyster

Dave Evans

HarrySeven

mikem8634 said:

It's a difficult one. It depends what you mean by great. If we are talking technical ability with someone like Guthrie Govan representing the pinnacle, then guitarists like Reg and Dave from The Chameleons would be, by comparison, not great. I, however consider them to be both perfect for their band and utterly great.

100% with you on that. Two of my favourite guitarists.

moogie72

Kilgore said:

Joey Santiago

Definitely a great shout, made some genius noises

PolarityMan

Gavin Rosdale

Objectively sounds like he's just holding a chord then falling down the stairs, but somehow awesome for the music. 

ICBM

Peter Buck in REM.

The Edge doesn’t count because he *is* a great guitarist.

AlexO

Came to put Noel G but was already beaten to it. Let's throw Bonehead into the mix then. 
The only man to never play anything other than a bare chord and play stadiums.

Who said you need to have flashy solos and glossy hair ey...

HAL9000

ICBM said:

The Edge doesn’t count because he *is* a great guitarist.

Indeed. He has come up with a load of instantly recognisable intros. You only need to hear the first few bars (or in some instances the first few notes) to recognise...

Where The Streets Have No Name
Vertigo 
Pride
Zoo Station
Beautiful Day
One
I Still haven’t Found What I’m Looking For

...and plenty more.

To come up with something original and recognisable isn’t easy. To do it several times certainly isn’t easy.

TeleMaster

Philly_Q said:

And not being pedantic about the thread... Kim Thayil.

Absolutely. I don’t care for a lot of his lead work at all but it largely works.

Johnny Marr is a very good guitarist IMO. Guthrie Govan is a genius. 

TJT1979

Disagree with Joey Santiago. I think he is a great, innovative guitarist. Just not traditional. Agree that he's perfect for the band, though.

MikkiMcMurderer

George Harrison 

Jez6345789

I pretty much disagree with the whole concept of this thread and a good number of the players listed. Fine if you place technical ability above all else.

i would far prefer to listen to most of the so called adequate for their band players 

like Gilmour, Keef, Alomar etc than a night of Guthrie. Who is only really liked by guitarist. I am bored by the third track, once you get past the oh he can do xxx for all his chops he is boring as **** to listen too. 

But each to to their own 

richardhomer

Jez6345789 said:

I pretty much disagree with the whole concept of this thread and a good number of the players listed. Fine if you place technical ability above all else.

i would far prefer to listen to most of the so called adequate for their band players 

like Gilmour, Keef, Alomar etc than a night of Guthrie. Who is only really liked by guitarist. I am bored by the third track, once you get past the oh he can do xxx for all his chops he is boring as **** to listen too. 

But each to to their own 

Wis’d.

All my favourite guitarists ‘serve the song’ - the other sort (which Frank Zappa refered to as ‘Stunt Guitarists’) - don’t interest me at all.

Mike Campbell is a master of ‘playing the song’. He always adds something memorable but without ever hogging the limelight. 

p90fool

Some of you people have a very cheeky idea about who isn't "great".

I'd love to hear some of you attempt a perfect Wilko Johnson or Keith Richards impression, you might actually find some of the shreddy stuff surprisingly easy in comparison. 

Grocer_Jack

p90fool said:

Some of you people have a very cheeky idea about who isn't "great".

I'd love to hear some of you attempt a perfect Wilko Johnson or Keith Richards impression, you might actually find some of the shreddy stuff surprisingly easy in comparison. 

Wilko sounds easy - until you try and get it spot on. It's impossible to get the muting and percussive attack right with a pick for example.

Grocer_Jack

TheBigDipper said:

carlos said:

Sassafras said:

John McGeoch wasn't what I'd call a virtuoso but he was incredibly inventive and original so he fitted the Banshees perfectly.
Same with Hugh Cornwell.

The first I thought of. Also liked him in PIL

And before those, in Magazine. Excellent playing to the song. 

My old band used to do Shot By Both Sides - the first few bars of the solo in the middle are not easy! I reckon I played it 50 or 60 times on stage and never got it quite right. 

Strat54

Any member of the FB who play in a band....?