In your opinion who's the most over-rated guitar player?

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  • PKTrekGirl
    PKTrekGirl Posts: 747
    awilkins wrote:
    I'd say Mike McCready is overrated on here/by PJ fans and I love him.

    Gotta agree with you there. I remember people being outraged that he is not on Rolling Stone's (was it RS? I can't remember for sure) top 100 list or something...but the thing was, he was a voter, actually....and didn't end up on the list.

    Which is fine with me.

    For the kind of music PJ writes and plays, Mike is very good. He does not need to be King of Shred - Pearl Jam's music does not require it. From what I know of Mike, he seems like a really nice fellow, and easy to work with...as well as being technically competent. And in Pearl Jam's case, that mix of qualities is probably more important (and useful) than is being a Prima Donna King of Shred....which some of those guys tend to be (not all, but certainly some).

    Mike is not a top 50 guitarist like some around here posit. But it doesn't matter to me. I love him anyway, because he is the best guitarist for Pearl Jam, and that's all that should matter to the fans.
  • Lifted
    Lifted Posts: 1,836
    awilkins wrote:
    I didn't think Trey was rated that high to be overrated. I think he's pretty damn good though. I wouldn't say Neil Young is overrated either as I don't think he's held to mythical heights. I'd say Mike McCready is overrated on here/by PJ fans and I love him.

    Kurt is overrated with respect to everything.
    Jimmy Page probably is overrated.
    Tom Morello is overrated.
    Joe Perry is even rated?
    Slash is overrated.

    trey is rated pretty high. especially within the 'jam' community. i think he's great at what he does though i'm not a huge phish fan.

    neil young certainly is held to mythical heights...and it's well deserved. but i suppose this is a thread about opinions.
  • mfc2006
    mfc2006 HTOWN Posts: 37,491
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  • dcfaithful
    dcfaithful Posts: 13,076
    Lifted wrote:
    neil young certainly is held to mythical heights...and it's well deserved. but i suppose this is a thread about opinions.

    I would say that his guitar playing isn't really rated, but his songwriting ability is.

    If his guitar playing is rated, it shouldn't be rated too high. Neil isn't exactly a clean-technique type of player, and his stuff is not too technical.
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  • awilkins
    awilkins Posts: 984
    dcfaithful wrote:
    Lifted wrote:
    neil young certainly is held to mythical heights...and it's well deserved. but i suppose this is a thread about opinions.

    I would say that his guitar playing isn't really rated, but his songwriting ability is.

    If his guitar playing is rated, it shouldn't be rated too high. Neil isn't exactly a clean-technique type of player, and his stuff is not too technical.
    Was just about to post this. NY is held to mythical heights, but I wouldn't say his guitar playing is held to mythical heights. I would go as far as saying Trey is rated pretty high, well-deserved, but not overrated.

    The most obvious in this thread is still The Edge an overrated guitarist and Kurt Cobain being overrated as a whole. Mike MMc is overrated within the PJ community.
  • Of The Aggie
    Of The Aggie The ATX Posts: 1,550
    Jack White
  • PearlJamaholic
    PearlJamaholic Posts: 2,019
    Kerry King, so you can tremolo pick, good for you. Jeff is still the man, just isnt an attention whore.

    Kirk Hammett, wah is cool but it doesnt hide all your mistakes.

    Also Cobain for all the reasons already listed.

    Angus Young, same riff for 40 years...

    To defend Morello though, supposedly he is great guitarist, from what I read in guitar magazines from interviewers and such that heard him just missing around on his guitar, but he just hides behind the same riffs and the whammy pedal. I'd really like to see if there is any truth that he can really play. But given what he has shown of his playing he is overrated.
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  • your move now
    your move now Posts: 1,165
    well I think Kurt is a universal one here...

    Mike... look he gives me chills. when he has his head tilted back and is completely zoned out, esp certain versions of Even Flow it is like he is on another planet. Yes bias and whatever but he does have the ability to do that to me and can only think of maybe 2 others who can
    I don't mean to offend anyone, a lot of what I say should be taken with a grain of salt... that said for most of you I'm a stranger on a computer on the other side of the world, don't give me that sort of power!
  • PKTrekGirl
    PKTrekGirl Posts: 747
    your move now wrote:
    well I think Kurt is a universal one here...

    Mike... look he gives me chills. when he has his head tilted back and is completely zoned out, esp certain versions of Even Flow it is like he is on another planet. Yes bias and whatever but he does have the ability to do that to me and can only think of maybe 2 others who can

    Well, I think the difference is that PJ's music has a heart...and Mike plays like he has a heart. Which is sort of what I was getting at above. Amazing technique in terms of shredding is not really necessary to play PJ's music, so Mike doesn't need to have the technique of an Eddie Van Halen or whatever. He needs to be technically competent, which he is...and he needs to have a heart. That works very well with PJ's music...which is why, while he may not be the best guitarist in rock, technically speaking, he is most definitely the best guitarist for Pearl Jam.

    At least I think so. :)
  • Thoughts_Arrive
    Thoughts_Arrive Melbourne, Australia Posts: 15,165
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  • JTH
    JTH Chicago Posts: 3,238
    PKTrekGirl wrote:
    Well, I think the difference is that PJ's music has a heart...and Mike plays like he has a heart.
    This is why I disagree with everyone who's mentioning Slash as overrated. Maybe it's just me, but I think this is the way he plays, too.

    I saw G n' R a week ago and they've got three really good guitarists in the band right now. DJ Ashba was the one who played most of Slash's leads. And while there was nothing wrong with his playing, it just wasn't right. I guess maybe there's a certain amount of sloppiness to the way Slash plays and Ashba played everything a little too perfectly.
  • Eilian
    Eilian Posts: 276
    JTH wrote:
    PKTrekGirl wrote:
    Well, I think the difference is that PJ's music has a heart...and Mike plays like he has a heart.
    This is why I disagree with everyone who's mentioning Slash as overrated. Maybe it's just me, but I think this is the way he plays, too.

    I saw G n' R a week ago and they've got three really good guitarists in the band right now. DJ Ashba was the one who played most of Slash's leads. And while there was nothing wrong with his playing, it just wasn't right. I guess maybe there's a certain amount of sloppiness to the way Slash plays and Ashba played everything a little too perfectly.

    I can't fathom any criticism of Slash's playing. He's an optimum blend of technical ability and soul,...he's a ridiculous guitarist. Joe Perry also, is a riff factory and clinically tight. Neither are Paul Gilbert in terms of theory and technique but who wants to listen to a virtuoso play scales at a machine gun's pace all night? Slash and Joe Perry get the credit the deserve for the most part.

    Mike, however perfectly his recorded efforts serve the song, is horrible 9 out 10 times he improvises live....I wish he'd pack it in and just play what he recorded. He ruins Even Flow, Immortality and Yellow Ledbetter live - all of which, he's recorded fucking brilliant solos for - and every other song that gets extended for him to nonsensically fret wank (Porch, Rearviewmirror, Of the Earth) is a good song destroyed in my opinion.

    It's largely, if not entirely down to the fact that I love the studio versions so much that Mike is the name that immediately springs to mind when I think "overrated". Sorry guys.

    As far as Neil Young is concerned - he's a brilliant songwriter no question - but he should definitely give the solo sections a very wide birth.
  • benjs
    benjs Toronto, ON Posts: 9,367
    Mike as he plays today is over-rated. The Mike who did this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhKxLgeNNUs - is not.
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  • Horos
    Horos Posts: 4,518
    Mike is really only over-rated on the board.

    I don't think he's really 'rated' outside the Porch.
    #FHP
  • Gary Carter
    Gary Carter Posts: 14,077
    Bruce Springsteen

    Yes he pours his heart and soul into every note and makes it seem like every note his last note on earth, but if you take all that away and he's like ed vedder on guitar

    Angus Young

    boring as fuck. Been doing the same thing for 40 years.
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  • Indifference71
    Indifference71 Chicago Posts: 14,909
    Get_Right wrote:


    Speaking of it might get loud, you can tell that neither Jack White or the Edge have any business being in the same room as Page.


    Absolutely. That was an awesome idea for a documentary, but I wish they would have picked a couple other guys besides Edge and Jack White.
  • Of The Aggie
    Of The Aggie The ATX Posts: 1,550
    Indifference71 wrote:
    Get_Right wrote:


    Speaking of it might get loud, you can tell that neither Jack White or the Edge have any business being in the same room as Page.


    Absolutely. That was an awesome idea for a documentary, but I wish they would have picked a couple other guys besides Edge and Jack White.

    I'm wondering if they just couldn't get anyone else to participate.
  • awilkins
    awilkins Posts: 984
    metsfan wrote:
    Bruce Springsteen

    Yes he pours his heart and soul into every note and makes it seem like every note his last note on earth, but if you take all that away and he's like ed vedder on guitar

    Angus Young

    boring as fuck. Been doing the same thing for 40 years.
    I wouldn't have said Bruce was rated so heavily that he was overrated.
  • goldrush
    goldrush everybody knows this is nowhere Posts: 7,790
    mfc2006 wrote:
    The Edge
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    Exactly what I was going to say!
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