I have heard many guitar solos. I have heard many guitarists express themselves and it is extremely hard for me to pi8ck the best guitar solo. I just wanted to hear your imput.

Peace and Rock

I agree its to hard...I might say EVH or Jimmi page,or some blues riff...I think it might be easier to ask what is the worst solo...I will get back to you on this one.

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD .... by Steve Vai

Gets my vote every time, if we're speaking strickly rock style music that is.

You won't find a best guitar solo.

Good luck finding it.

Ice cream man by Van Halen.

That song rocks and has a great solo. One of the best solos i think is My Friend of Misery by Metallica on the Black Album. Long and consistent. Cant think of the best tho. Too hard.

Peace and Rock

the great song i was referring to Wasnt Ice Cream Man it was the one by Stephen Vai. Just clearing that up.

Peace and Rock

Any wes montgomery solos

I like the solo in Laddies night in buffalo.

Eruption by Van halen


all it is, is a solo

Yes it is a solo.

There are so many great solos... but one that i like very much is the solo at the end of Easily - RHCP.

oh yeah, and also nothing to lose...

ok you cant count solo's in songs i mean shure there are some good one's like the one's in songs like One, Black Star, Eruption, and Little Wing but the best solos are the solo's that guitar players just do like when a guitarist comes out of nowhere and does like a 9 min. solo just for the hell of it thoes are the great one's cuz there is no hype around them they do it simply because they love to play

I like some of jimmi pages solos...In the evening...Some riffs in All of my love...Hot dog...Hot dog is country with distortion...Different.

For me? McCartney`s "Let it be" (the one in the single wasn't George) but maybe Hendrix and Page were the best soloists in guitar. Of course I can not say about Mamlsteen or Satriani because they are exhibition guitarits. Country music and blues maybe are the styles in what guitar players express better. I insist: Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page are, for me, the best ones (Hey, wait a minute!!!!! Eric Clapton and Ritchie Blackmore are the third and the fourth best ones)

Welcome to the forum messyblues...I didnt even realize there was a solo in let it be...If im wrong please be kind.

Spidy,
I believe there is a small solo in Let It Be...really nothing to speak of IMOH....but to each his own....

Thanks...I wasnt sure if there was a solo in it or not.

NIB- black sabbath (there is a bass solo and a guitar solo


Black Sabbath Rocks

Yeah i agree that Stevie Via and Hendrix are awsome guitarists.
Theres many great solest but theres not many duels that can solo.... One of the only bands that have 2 soloest at the same time is Iron Maiden. If you heard the song "Phantom Of The Opera" it has a duel on the guitar solo. Its around a 2-3 mins solo
Iron Maiden is one of the only bands to add in a "classical" music aspect to it. They have key changes and change styles in there songs which is hard to hear in a lot of bands (new or old). Another great soloing bands is Avenged Sevenfold. They also add in the "classical" music aspect to there music. Instead of writing a 3 mins song, they compose a 8 min musical experence. Metallica's Kirk Hammet is an amazing soloist. He can rip out some pretty fast licks. Also Zack Wylde is another amazing soloist. He spits out some of the fast pinch harmonics ive heard. Hendrix almost takes the cake when it comes to soloing. Not always the fast paced "speed demon" style everybody tries to go for in a solo. He just makes up extremly creative lines. Changing between playing a fast scale on the 12 fret and playing rhythmic chords all along the fret board. And he also makes use of his effects. Another creative guitarist is Tom Merello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave. From some solos he do pick slides to make his guitar sound like a turntable. Like Hendrix he uses both Funk and Blues in his solos.....


ROCK ON!

Not sure who the bass player was in Sabbath however he could play a mean bass guitar.

to me, the best guitar solo is the live version of stairway to heaven. (on TSRTS)

:no: the best solo for me is one of rata blanca : el hada y el mago, good too guerrero del arcoiris, great solos or sea of lies symphony x, they rulez, Ahhhh, el rap de dar of the band called cuca awsome.... like someone say the best solo doesn?t exist is only about preferences or something like that......

I agree, is easier to find the worst guitar solo. Regards

Yep I agree...someone should start a new thread for the worst solo...

Hmmm, picking just one is a bit rough because there are dozens of great ones and picking one seems like a slight to others, but...

The first one that springs to mind is the late Shawn Lane's typically mind-blowing jam in "Wherever You Walk" from the "Time is the Enemy" album from 1996 with Hellborg and Sipe.

More recent is roughly any given spot - slap in either disc and cue up at any point - of Frank Marino's brand-new RealLIVE!. I cannot recommend this release more highly. Though US release isn't scheduled until mid-November 2004, it's been on sale at mahoganyrush.com - with autographs by Frank for the foreseeable future - since early September. It's a concert from Montreal recorded three days before the September 11, 2001 attacks - which lends an eerie feel to Frank's traditional "Electric Reflections of War" passage from his solo sequence. He tells of a kind of premonition he had while he played that part, a wave of intense sadness that came over him while he played it and a sudden urge to play fragments of "Star-Spangled Banner" and "Taps," neither of which he'd played live in years - which comes across palpably on the recording.

When I lived in Portland (OR,) there was a steak house that had this marketing gimmick where if you could eat an entire 72 oz steak (that's about 5.5 pounds,) with all the side dishes in a single hour, it was on the house.

RealLIVE! could be described as the rock guitar equivalent of a 72 oz. steak.

For a taste, there's an 11-minute MP3 "trailer" - a medley of sorts - available as a free download at http://www.mahoganyrush.com Turn up your sound card, click, sit back, and bask in some of the most incredible jamming imaginable. And yeah - the whole thing sounds like that - clocking in at 2 1/2 hours total.

The phenomenal live sound comes from the fact that Marino had total control of all aspects of the recording, from concert engineering to recording, editing, mixing, production, everything.
And no, nobody's paying me - or even asking me - to say this. Just...check it out.

It's hard to pick a favorite from an overall performance like that, but his version of "Voodoo Chile" - the slow blues thing, not "Slight Return" - which is the opening track, is unbelievable, and the extended jam he does in "He's Calling" leaves me speechless.

Pardon the running l o n g ...

[Edited on 11/2/2004 by UFO]

there isnt a best guitar solo and there never will be one they are all great in there own way

Your right...However Its great to hear what people think are the best solos...Peace

in metal, i'd say ma fave's both of the 'one' solos by metallica, other than metal i gotta say love thing by satriani about two mins in, or always with me always with you by the same guy, it has THE most gorgeous tapping i have ever heard, makes my heart melt every time...but yeah, love thing is so **** sweet its gotta be my fave solo ever.
peace out

that is one of their better solos i think but dificulty wise i dont think it is the best. I stick to a lot of the solos on the black album.. They are more complicated and some are longer. Thats my opinion tho.

Peace and Rock

I didnt like the solo in enter sandman...It didnt sound right to me...Oh well...different strokes I guess.

I liked all of the solos on guns n roses' Appetite for Destruction.

appetite was good but i think a better cd is use your illusion the one with both cds. No great solos but good down to earth songs, i especially liked their version of knockin on heavens door by bob dylan. Good stuff, dont likem now tho.

Peace and Rock

wot about santanas oye como va, that intro riff is catchy n a classic

Top jimmy has a cool solo...So does hot for teacher...

I would probably have to say the last guitar solo in "The twilight is my robe" by Opeth is my current top pick. That is based solely on the use of effects. They hit a single note with a phaser or something and it just makesthe whole thing.

In the all time fav's column, I have a live version of Astronomy by Blue Oyster Cult that has an unreal solo in it. The transition from slow to blindingly fast is so smooth you don't even notice it. One minute it is mellow and melodic, and then all of a sudden it is blindingly intenseand fast.

Just wanted to say welcome to the forum fellow canadian...Im from Halifax Nova Scotia.

I disagree...all solos are not great...
Some are much better than others.!
It's all a matter of personal taste. If you like blues, then obviously you'll prefer a blues lick, if metals your thing ,then a metal lick and so on.

I happen to love progressive rock and fine tuned articulate playing, from Jazz to progressive Jazz and Fusion.

You'll never hear me call a blues lick of any kind, the best lick I've ever heard. this includes anything the late great Jimi Hendrix or Sevie Ray Vaughn may have done.

I can listen to jazz solos for about 60 seconds...Then Im out...It gets to sound like a bunch of notes with no beginning or ending...Thats the appeal I guess...No offence to any one who likes jazz however when these jazz solos go on and on I just cant listen to it...

On the other hand I do like a hint of jazz influence in rock songs...I dont like the boring solos.

The solo on Disc two of the Live Evil Album by Black Sabbath. Heaven and Hell its like a 8 minute solo. I love it dont think its the best though. Personally I the intro to One solo by Metallica, the Fade to Black intro solo, Sanitarium intro solo, and this live version of Stairway to Heaven that I have, Jimmy does a nice 5 minute solo.


Metallica forever! :4pieceband:

I think that if you narrowed it down to one style it would be easier to answer that question.

Amen to that Scofield!

I like a lot of Jeff Beck's solos...especially from "Yardbirds Live at the BBC" and the Yardbird's "Roger the Engineer" (the cut "Psychodaisies" has both Beck and Page freaking out on guitar!) on through Beck's early solo albums. And if you're a Jimmy Page fan and have never heard the Yardbird's last album "Little Games" do yourself a favor and buy it immediately! Several of those tracks have solos that sound a LOT like Jimmy's Zep stuff (there's even an earlier version of "White Summer" on it).

I also love just about every guitar solo Steve Howe cut with Yes back in the seventies (he got voted Best Guitarist of the Year by GP magazine readers for what, like 6 years straight, back then? ) Also Robert Fripp laid down some hellacious solos on "Larks Tongue" and "Red" in the second incarnation of King Crimson (plus I love his solo on Brian Eno's "Babies on Fire" - intense!)

Man, there are so many great solos I could go on on this subject forever! Just thought I'd mention some of my faves, who no one else has mentioned yet.

(and does "Miserlou" by Dick Dale count as a solo? The whole song's a solo basically...)

i love all john mayer solo's. gotta love that guy. and oh yeah, justin king is nuts too!

I see somebody revived this old thread.

O.K gentlemen here's a a great solo for the lot of you: RACE WITH THE DEVIL ON SPANISH HIGHWAY by Al DiMeola.

I dont know of many guitar players that can catch up to Al when he flat-out lets it all hang out.

For those of you who are not familiar with AL, you may want to give him a listen. He's belongs to the school of fusion.

black magic women is simple but very good

That is so subjective and there are so many factors. I think it is safe to say we all know how many bad solos there are.

Speakin of Al DiMeola, the version of "Orient Blue" on his instruction video is wicked.
And as a lot of people rightly pointed out, Its probably impossible to pick the best guitar solo.
My favourite is Nunos "Rest in Peace" solo.

[Edited on 12/6/2006 by ZeldaMentalEvil]

This may make me unpopular but I think that one of the best solos that has been RECENTLY played is the solo in 'Like a Stone' by Audioslave in fact im listening to it right now. Nice effect and much of the passion that make Audioslave one of my favorite bands.

Hi, I dunno but I think Carlos Santana's "Song of the Wind" rates pretty highly. But hey the same guy said he met aliens once....

Trying to find the best guitar solo is like trying to ind the best guitar player... you can't. Each and every guitarist expresses thier emotion. BB King can make you feel what he's feeling in a single note, as can Joe Satriani, as can Neil Young. Vai can blur through a zillion notes in the right mode over a certain chord progression and blow your mind. If you do find the best solo... let me know. I have been looking for years.

I know Im showing my age here but my alltime favorite guitar solo is in a song called " I'm so afraid" by Lindsay Buckingham (fleetwood mac). If you listen to it keep in mind he is fingerpicking all of it.

There are many players that play strickly with their fingers. Jeff Beck has been doing this for some time. The guy from Dire Straights (his name eludes me right now) is also a finger player.

mark knopfler is the name

Thanks Brian.

i'd hafta say machine gun by hendrix, or testify by srv, or covered in rain solo form the any given thursday dvd by john mayer

It is hard give a my favorite solo, but I really do enjoy Carry On My Wayward Son-Kansas. That is a band with talent.

My advice is to find ANY musician whose style you like and build your own solos based somewhat on that style. It's OK to copy note-for-note for learning purposes, but don't stop there. I've been playing as long as Clapton, and there are people we've both borrowed from, so we sound a bit alike (yeah, he's a lot more fluid than me). The best guitar players listen to horn players, keyboard players, you name it. Listen to, and learn from a variety of instruments.

Ted Nugent's "stranglehold" isn't the whole song a solo?

Terry Kath (of Chicago) -- 25 or 6 to 4
Jimi Hendrix -- Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)
Jimmy Page -- Heartbreaker
The chick bass player on Crossorads 2007 playing with Jeff Beck
Of course anything Jeff Beck -- He just plays solos.

That's my 2 cents.

I think Michael Jackson - Beat it is up there