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3.12pm
21 June 2017
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Personally, I feel George despite having been part of the world famous Beatles, is still under- rated as a guitarist; people are more interested in the sounds made by Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jeff and Led Zep’s Page who started at around the same period. You can still see that in the music media.
Examples are his solos/intros in ‘All My Loving ‘, Ticket To Ride ;’And Your Bird Can Sing ‘; the solo on A hard Days night, ( the closing riff also is very evocative for me);Drive My Car . Then there was his playing on Abbey Road .
I recently saw him say in an old video interview that in the early days he actually yearned for a Sratocaster and having missed out on buying one he went for the Gretsch he became so famous for. I dont understand that as I thought they avoided Strats because of it’s association with The Shadows…it would have been interesting though. 
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SgtPeppersBulldog6.46pm
9 March 2017
Offline I couldn’t agree more with you, George is an underrated guitarist, he had a lot of chordal knowledge and Something is such a great solo, so is Octopus’s Garden , Let It Be (the last solo he ever recorded with the group for 25 years), And Your Bird Can Sing , Till There Was You , the list is endless.
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3.07am
26 January 2017
Offline Nobody can play like him. Although some can write and play hard, faster, and more complicated guitar parts, not one guitarist could please the ear as much as George did. Except maybe Jerry Garcia.
He is totally underrated.
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2.01am
21 June 2017
Offline Another one that comes to mind is his playing on ‘I feel fine‘; a great song all round that. You can hear the rockabilly influences on the early records; i.e; Carl Perkins and Eddie Cochran, but his playing moved with the times.
I’m not sure if the Stratocaster that he later took up, would have been right for the Beatles sound. the Gretsch and Rickenbacker guitars somehow sounded right for the Beatles sound up to around 1966 along with Vox amps.
2.04am
Moderators
27 November 2016
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Kite said
…the solo on A hard Days night, ( the closing riff also is very evocative for me)…
Actually, he recorded that solo at half speed, and down the octave, then GM sped it up.
But otherwise, he was such a great guitarist who could communicate his feelings via his guitar playing.
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8.20am
9 March 2017
Offline Welcome to the forum Kite. Anyways, John and George both shared lead guitar on I Feel Fine , John on his acoustic Gibson plugged in (he did this on a few songs, She Loves You is another example) and George on his Gretsch, although George is the one playing the solo.
As for the Fender not being a good sound for The Beatles, I couldn’t disagree more, I love George’s Strat sound on songs like Nowhere Man , Taxman , and All You Need Is Love .
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3.19am
26 January 2017
Offline Unpopular opinion: I don’t think George (as a beatle anyway) was as good a guitarist as people are making him out to be. It’s one of those cases where something gets cited as underrated so much that they become overrated.
Lets be honest, while George developed into a fantastic songwriter, his playing always left something to be desired. He often sounds hesitant and awkward in his playing, and he couldn’t improvise very well. For example, the solo on Something is incredible and beautiful right until one of the last phrases where he does some really awkward and badly played bends. And his earlier Beatles solos are also not great, with exceptions like AHDN . He sounds like he’s just choosing notes at random and he doesn’t sustain them at all – the notes end just as they begin leaving a stunted kind of sound.
To summarise: while George is truly a great guitarist, don’t be too over enthusiastic in praising him, for he is far from an Eric Clapton or Stevie Ray Vaughn.
I've been up on the mountain, and I've seen his wondrous grace,
I've sat there on the barstool and I've looked him in the face.
He seemed a little haggard, but it did not slow him down,
he was humming to the neon of the universal sound.
4.11am
19 January 2017
Offline QuarryMan said
Unpopular opinion: I don’t think George (as a beatle anyway) was as good a guitarist as people are making him out to be. It’s one of those cases where something gets cited as underrated so much that they become overrated.Lets be honest, while George developed into a fantastic songwriter, his playing always left something to be desired. He often sounds hesitant and awkward in his playing, and he couldn’t improvise very well. For example, the solo on Something is incredible and beautiful right until one of the last phrases where he does some really awkward and badly played bends. And his earlier Beatles solos are also not great, with exceptions like AHDN . He sounds like he’s just choosing notes at random and he doesn’t sustain them at all – the notes end just as they begin leaving a stunted kind of sound.
To summarise: while George is truly a great guitarist, don’t be too over enthusiastic in praising him, for he is far from an Eric Clapton or Stevie Ray Vaughn.
I actually don’t hear anything bad about the last phrase in the Something solo, the bending sounds fine to me and it works sonically.
In regards to that stunted sound to his solos and choosing notes at random, I think it was just his style to play solos like that. I don’t think he picked notes at random at all since melodically they fit the songs, they were clearly well though out solos. He had his own style at the end of the day which worked wonders for the Beatles, so yes I’d argue that he is great and underrated.
No he wasn’t as technically proficient as someone like Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page or Eric Clapton but he wasn’t really required to play like that. This is why I find it hard to define what a great guitarist is and it’s the same for any other instrument (Ringo). George had a major impact on guitar playing like all the other ‘great’ guitarists.
Jimi Hendrix is a god though 
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8.14am
26 January 2017
Offline Flyingbrians said
I actually don’t hear anything bad about the last phrase in the Something solo, the bending sounds fine to me and it works sonically.
In regards to that stunted sound to his solos and choosing notes at random, I think it was just his style to play solos like that. I don’t think he picked notes at random at all since melodically they fit the songs, they were clearly well though out solos. He had his own style at the end of the day which worked wonders for the Beatles, so yes I’d argue that he is great and underrated.
No he wasn’t as technically proficient as someone like Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page or Eric Clapton but he wasn’t really required to play like that. This is why I find it hard to define what a great guitarist is and it’s the same for any other instrument (Ringo). George had a major impact on guitar playing like all the other ‘great’ guitarists.
Jimi Hendrix is a god though
Most of his earlier solos before CBML were improvised I believe, and as I said his improvisation was sloppy. Either way, his early playing is messy and awkward and only on a few songs (Fixing A Hole , Let It Be , Octopus’ Garden amongst others) was his playing worthy of being counted among the greats. Obviously George’s status means he is a great, but I don’t think his playing is anything special.
I've been up on the mountain, and I've seen his wondrous grace,
I've sat there on the barstool and I've looked him in the face.
He seemed a little haggard, but it did not slow him down,
he was humming to the neon of the universal sound.
8.25am
9 March 2017
Offline While i think that there are better guitarists out there, i don’t even think George would be in my top 5 to be honest, i think he is a great guitarist, not just in the sense that he can do great solos like Something and Let It Be but also that he’s very versatile, able to play in many genres of music and he has a great amount of chord and scale knowledge, just listen to the solo on Till There Was You , it’s such a great solo and is all over the place or Michelle where he is able to throw in both the minor and major third without the solo sounding terrible.
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11.41am
26 January 2017
Offline The bends at the end of Something are creative and interesting and they go into the ending phrase perfectly. It sounds a little awkward, but I fee that is intentional and George is in control the whole time of the sound. I personally love that part.
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4.20pm
21 June 2017
Offline The main issue here is that he was a good player, but also the right player for the Beatles. I dont believe the other names mentioned would have fitted in musically regardless of their playing ability, because of their different backgrounds and personalities.
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Beatlebug5.20pm
9 March 2017
Offline I agree with you there Kite. Guitarists like Eddie Van Halen and Brian May may be superior to George in every way but they’d suck in The Beatles because they don’t musically fit with them.
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10.41pm
16 June 2017
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Even if his guitar playing wasn’t the greatest ever, his playing still has a certain feel or style to it, which I think is just as important as his playing abilities.
I love hearing the slide guitar in his solo songs, and Marwa Blues is a masterpiece because of his playing.
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18 December 2012
Offline I don’t really get why whenever people compliment George they have to do it in a backhanded way. George was a genuinely great guitarist, and the way he used his influence from the sitar to play was incredibly unique. Not only that, his solos were like songs in themselves. Being a talented guitarist isn’t all about how fast you can play a lot of notes. Actual guitarists like Brian May and Johnny Marr deeply admire George, and you can hear his influence in indie music.
As for those early days, keep in mind how fast those albums were recorded and how quickly George had to come up with those solos. The other Beatles aren’t perfect on those songs either. Then later on he became a fantastic slide player.
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24 March 2014
Offline His work in “I Saw Her Standing There ” is gorgeous. That really is another song in itself.
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8.20am
Moderators
15 February 2015
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bewareofchairs said
I don’t really get why whenever people compliment George they have to do it in a backhanded way.
Well, George wasn’t good, but he was good, you know
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8.22am
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1 May 2011
Offline Nice to see you around, @bewareofchairs.
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3.02pm
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14 April 2010
Offline bewareofchairs said
I don’t really get why whenever people compliment George they have to do it in a backhanded way. George was a genuinely great guitarist, and the way he used his influence from the sitar to play was incredibly unique. Not only that, his solos were like songs in themselves. Being a talented guitarist isn’t all about how fast you can play a lot of notes. Actual guitarists like Brian May and Johnny Marr deeply admire George, and you can hear his influence in indie music.As for those early days, keep in mind how fast those albums were recorded and how quickly George had to come up with those solos. The other Beatles aren’t perfect on those songs either. Then later on he became a fantastic slide player.
I can think of some songs in which Paul and John sang at least one different word in the same line.
Backhanded compliment: They sang pretty well for guys who couldn’t remember the words. 
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