How is Keith Urban rated as a guitarist? Is he considered average, better than average?
Wikipedia is your friend. Apparently he is pretty good. He was a guitarist for Brooks & Dunn and Alan Jackson and others. He’s won some awards, as well.
My opinion as a player is that he is very highly skilled, based on a few live performances I’ve seen on television.
I was impressed with his trick during the week - walking into the audience while playing, taking off his guitar, signing it and giving it to a girl in the crowd.
It’s a lot more expensive than calling a woman up on stage and kissing her, which is what he did when we saw him.
Crotalus, as usual, is spot on - the guy just isn’t good; he’s a truly great player. Between him, Brad Paisley and Nashville session-stud-turned-full-blown-star-himself Vince Gill, you have current players who are technically at the top of their games.
Urban has been known as a Telecaster player, but recently got a few fine vintage Gibsons, including (I believe) a '53 Les Paul - but one that still has the poorly-designed tailpiece featured on the original, first-year '52’s (I can geek out on this type of guitar if there is interest). He also has a couple of vintage LP Specials and Juniors - the “starter” Les Pauls that were much cheaper back in the day, but have always had a special place in rock, punk and other music. I have a 1957 Les Paul Special (in TV Yellow!) and they are a real “guitarist’s guitar” - kinda like the Telecaster of Les Pauls (sorry, that’s insider-guitar speak…)
He’s a very melodic, inventive lead player - I couldn’t name a song of his to save my life, but I watch youTube clips other guitar-obsessives post on gear pages of his leads - they are well constructed, melodically interesting, and technically well-executed. He was recently featured on the cover of Vintage Guitar magazine - which is kinda like getting blessed as a true player, along with 1 or 2 other magazines (although if you have enough vintage gear, anyone can get on; they recently had Jay Jay French of Twisted Sister on the cover ::sigh:: ).
bump
I’m just curious, did I kill this thread by over-geeking, or are folks just not big Keith Urban fans? Like I said, I don’t listen to him except from a guitar-player’s standpoint, but I am a bit surprised more folks aren’t checking in on this thread - he’s pretty popular, right?
Most music fans can’t really tell if someone is a good guitar player or not. Most music fans don’t really care, for that matter.
Exactly - I like Keith Urban, but when you started talking about specific kind of guitars, well, I glazed over. I wouldn’t know the difference.
A very fair response, and true for the majority of listeners, I’m sure.
And scout1222? What’s scary is I am sure I did glaze most folks’ eyes over; but, as I stated in my thread, I was holding back on the more geeky stuff! 
It’s hard for people who don’t play guitar to appreciate good guitar playing. Also, hearing a song played isn’t nearly as impressive as seeing the guy’s fingers flailing about the fretboard!