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Guitar players and fans of good hand: Which guitar solo is your Favorite?

Thanks for the Eric Johnson link. I checked some of his other stuff and can't believe I haven't heard of him, he must be on lots of other albums in older C & W or somewhere.
Reminds of a guy who was a C & W studio cat for years and always played Hendrix as a kid or something. You can hear so many different types of picking.
Sounds like a Strat with Humbuckings too.

Thanks.
 
The best guitar solo of all time?! There are millions of great ones.

Anything by Jeff Beck, of course. Hendrix.

Actually one that sticks out in my is Jeff Baxter's solo in "My Old School" (Steely Dan).

Okay, I give up. What's the correct answer?
 
I can't narrow it down to individual solos, but I do have my favorite soloists, including Duane Allman, Terry Kath, Eric Johnson, Danny Gatton, John McLaughlin, and Eric Clapton.

For me, it's more about how they build the solo, and less about virtuosity.

As an example of the later, Larry Coryell is remarkably talented, but he's never played anything that really spoke to me.

Steve Morse is another amazingly talented guitarist, and sometime he plays really musical things, but other times he just blazes away.

I can respect the technical skills, but they aren't the things I tend to listen to (perhaps I'm just jealous???)
 
wst3 @ Fri Nov 16 said:
I can't narrow it down to individual solos, but I do have my favorite soloists, including Duane Allman, Terry Kath, Eric Johnson, Danny Gatton, John McLaughlin, and Eric Clapton.

For me, it's more about how they build the solo, and less about virtuosity.

As an example of the later, Larry Coryell is remarkably talented, but he's never played anything that really spoke to me.

Steve Morse is another amazingly talented guitarist, and sometime he plays really musical things, but other times he just blazes away.

I can respect the technical skills, but they aren't the things I tend to listen to (perhaps I'm just jealous???)
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Yeah Steve Morse is brilliant. He is also extremely versatile and far from a one trick pony. This is another reason why I appreciate Eric Johnson to the level that I do - he can play from Texas blues, to chicken pickin to Wes Montgomery to steel string finger style to modern shred and excel at all of them and still sound like Eric.

Ryan
 
One of the most over-looked IMHO is Mike Bloomfield, best know for his work with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Bob Dylan, when he first went electric.

The guy could do more with 1 note than most guys with 30. Listen to his work on Dylan's "Tombstone Blues" on "Highway 61 revisited".
 
Nick Batzdorf @ Fri Nov 16 said:
Okay, I give up. What's the correct answer?
Click to expand...

I think there is no correct answer. My favorites are Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Steve Lukather, Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson, Steve Vai, Gary Moore, Eric Clapton and also Mark Knopfler and others... .

One of the "best" solos for me is this one:

 
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Since you mention a few more contemporary player, Gunther, but also since your question was especifically about solos, not players, I'd definitely like to mention Vito Bratta, ex-White Lion. Don't know of anyone more lyrical than him soloing heavy metal. Personal favorites: Broken Heart, Little Fighter. I still have a lot of fun playing them today.

As for players, my utter respect and admiration for John Petrucci, Al DiMeola, Steve Vai. Many brilliant people though, it's a bit unfair to skim through so many others...
 
Gusfmm @ Fri Nov 16 said:
Since you mention a few more contemporary player, Gunther, but also since your question was especifically about solos, not players, I'd definitely like to mention Vito Bratta, ex-White Lion. Don't know of anyone more lyrical than him soloing heavy metal. Personal favorites: Broken Heart, Little Fighter.

As for players, my utter respect and admiration for John Petrucci, Al DiMeola, Steve Vai. Many brilliant people though, it's a bit unfair to skim through so many others...
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Right! Vito Bratta, also very good.

There are so many good guitar players around. But we all have at least one or two (or more) favorite solos in our head.
 
Jimmy Page, Since I've Been Loving You (at 3:51). FWIW, I much prefer the recorded version:

 
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One guy that is sadly not known nearly as well as he should have been is Shawn Lane. He died in 2003 at age 40 from complications related to chronic psoriasis, and nearly every video of him is low quality but worth watching just to see his hands in action. He was incredibly fluid, incomprehensibly fast, and had a unique sense of melody. He often played with bassist Jonas Hellborg and a cast of Indian all-star percussionists in fusion jams. Anyway, here's a mid-career performance with some outstanding solos in it including one at the start :)52) and another later (4:04)



I also urge you to check out some Chuck Schuldiner. Another one who died way too young (age 34 from cancer), he was the man behind the seminal metal band Death. His angular, skittery solos were sharp, intense, and always exciting. Here's an instrumental track that's pretty much one long solo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3OPOYG6XIQ

A few more quick hits for you:
Trey Azagthoth from Morbid Angel ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkhZpMo2-0I @ 8:28 )
Kirk Hammett from Metallica ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eMQyX-zAhQ @ :46 )
Slash, G&R ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SbUC-UaAxE @4:12 & 7:26)

... man, and I haven't even mentioned any Alex Skolnick or Fredrik Thordendal or Andy LaRocque yet...
 
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chimuelo @ Fri Nov 16 said:
Thanks for the Eric Johnson link. I checked some of his other stuff and can't believe I haven't heard of him, he must be on lots of other albums in older C & W or somewhere.
Reminds of a guy who was a C & W studio cat for years and always played Hendrix as a kid or something. You can hear so many different types of picking.
Sounds like a Strat with Humbuckings too.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

No problem - Eric is considered one of the guitar "gods" of the past twenty years. He actually came up through the great late 70's early 80's Austin music scene alongside longtime friend Stevie Ray Vaughn. He did years of session work with the likes of Carole King, Cat Stevens, Christopher Cross etc. before coming into prominence with his solo career. "Cliffs Of Dover" was and still is his signature tune which propelled him to icon status. He plays vintage strats with heavily wound single coils(not to the degree of Texas Specials) but with a definite high output. He is most known for his ridiculously crystal clear tone and his "string skipping" arpeggios.


Ryan
 
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