10 Great Guitarists In Terrible Bands

The guitar is known as the Holy Grail of rock instrumentation. Even though thousands of fans fawn over the lead singer charisma, there's something about having a six-string in your hands that really resonates with the rock audience. Sometimes the licks are so good that they even manage to eclipse the more reprehensible parts of the group.

Throughout the years, many bands have lived or died on their guitarists, but these acts tend to rely on their fretboard wizards a little too much. While some of these bands may have a solid enough foundation, they would be a shadow of what they were if they didn't have these guitarists to help with the big picture. Whether it be just a lick, a hand in songwriting, or just having the rock star attitude, these guys have saved their namesake bands from boredom, cringiness, or sometimes both.

You may think the singer has a terrible voice or the subject matter of the tune is awful, but once the guitar comes in, that artistic spark seems to flicker if only for a little bit. These guitarists may not have picked the best bandmates, but their contributions to music go far beyond the shoddy songs on display.

Depending on what year it was in the '00s, it was anyone's guess as to how a new Fall Out Boy record would turn out. While the band has put out some stellar material on albums like From Under the Cork Tree and Infinity on High, their most recent output on Mania have painted them as a band desperately trying to stay on the charts. For as much glitz and glamour Pete Wentz wants to add to the production, it's a shame he doesn't utilize the killer solo talents of Joe Trohman.

In the band's glory years, Trohman was responsible for making some of the band's best melodic material, like the soaring octaves on "Sugar We're Going Down" or the weird jazz stylings on "Thnks fr th Mmrs." Even when just picking through chords, the subtle articulation he would put into these songs had the perfect amount of soul to match Patrick Stump's powerful belt.

Outside the context of solid pop punk, Trohman has also lended his talents to the supergroup the Damned Things, where he can hold his own beside the likes of Volbeat's Rob Caggiano and Anthrax's Scott Ian. Fall Out Boy may be trying to artificially create soulful rock music, but with Trohman's natural talent in their ranks, do they really need to?