What makes a great guitar solo?

[Ferbian]

We've probably all had that guitar solo that send shivers down our spine, or goosebumps on our arms, or whichever reaction you get from a great guitar solo.

But I started thinking, what is it really that makes a great guitar solo? cause I personally know I've encountered some guitar solos that either had me hating it, or just wonder "how in the world did that fit into the song?"

A great guitar solo in my opinion would be something like this.

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This one, the whole solo caught me off guard, cause I didn't expect it to come, Breaking Benjamin never being very known for guitar solos, and especially not this kind if they ever did a guitar solo, which I think made it great, also the instant goosebumps I got from it.

While a guitar solo I didn't like was this one.

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Now don't get me wrong, I'm a huge Fozzy fan, but that solo had me looking odd throughout the whole thing, unable to really connect it to the song, other than something that seemed to be put in there for the sake of showing "hey I can play a guitar"

 

[The People's Peep]

I know this might sound strange, but I hate solos where the guitarists simply try to shred as fast as they can. In my opinion, it makes the solo feel out of place and actually sort of desperate. Its almost like saying "Hey, I dont really know music, but I can play guitar really fast".

For me a great guitar solo is one that fits in the song. Its based off of a melody or even a vocal line. It doesn't need to be fast. My favorite band, Weezer, does this a lot. Rivers Cuomo is a music genius and its seen in a lot of his songs. For instance...

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It just fits so well and has an almost "epic" feel to it.

 

[Ferbian]

I know this might sound strange, but I hate solos where the guitarists simply try to shred as fast as they can. In my opinion, it makes the solo feel out of place and actually sort of desperate. Its almost like saying "Hey, I dont really know music, but I can play guitar really fast".

For me a great guitar solo is one that fits in the song. Its based off of a melody or even a vocal line.

Exactly my thought TPP, the whole oddly placed solo in a song like the one I linked played by Fozzy doesn't strike me as a good solo, although there are songs I do tend to believe has a fairly decent solo in it even though the actual guitar solo of it is just a wild crazed thing, a specific song that strikes me like that would be

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Although this one follows one of the things that you mention, it follows the vocal line and the guitar play throughout the whole song firmly, and therefore I consider it, to be a decent solo, it's not great, but it's definitely worth calling a proper solo.