He was pretty good, but his songwriting often tended toward the banal (not always, though. He wrote some stellar songs) and his singing was not so hot and he was somewhat dour. He was good enough, but compared to Lennon and McCartney, he was second rate.
Which may be unfair. Most are second rate compared to Lennon and McCartney.
Just to expose my prejudices, I’m a huge, gigantic fan of mid 60s folk rock and the Byrds are maybe my favorite group ever. So the stuff from Help through Revolver is pretty much my favorite music of all time.
I like the Byrds. . . But I also like The Crazy World of Arthur Brown’s Fire: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en1uwIzI3SE, the Dave Clarke Five http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0Ib501CEjU, the Rolling Stones, and just about every other band in the 60s.
The Byrd’s were an excellent group that went on to produce many great careers.
My favorite Beatle music...Rubber Soul and Revolver (dating myself here). I cherry picked the songs on later albums.
But....I still think they might be the best of all times. Not only for their talent, but for their cultural influence.