People on this forum obviously have a bit of a bias towards more “shreddy” style guitar solos, which makes perfect sense and is fine, but I figure that we all probably have some solos we love that aren’t so shreddy either. Here’s a thread to appreciate them.
I’ve got two.
^ Although good luck finding it - it doesn’t sound much like a guitar solo.
Starts at 4:23. It’s actually one of my favourite guitar solos.
4 mins 40 if the time stamp thingy fails us:
going to count this even though you might say it isn’t a “solo”:
Great choice. Possibly my favorite Pumpkins tune, though it’s hard to pick just one with them.
Same here. Both Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie and the infinite sadness are amongst my favourite albums.
Almost every single Def Leppard solo no matter which guitar player was playing them. Some of my absolute favorites ever. I’m not going to link. There’s too many. Some of the lesser known ones to check out are the solos to desert song, paper sun, and lady strange. But there is so much and the one thing they have in common is how well placed they are, and how well they fit the song. Some of that was probably Mutt Lang too,
Also Alex lifeson’s soli to Manhattan Project. Happens at the end. Classic call and response that fits the progression well.
There’s so many but here are a few.
I love Vinnie Moore’s solo in the UFO cover of “The Pusher” (solo at 2:56):
Disqualified! Even though there’s no shredding here, Vinnie is a shredder. So, guilt by association.
That was a cool solo though 
I’ve always loved the guitar on this:
Should start off right around the solo, but really the whole song. It’s this weird sparse, angular lead break that’s as much guitar noise as it is melody, and I think it’s cool as hell.
Guthrie’s solo on Steven Wilson’s ‘Routine’ (I cued it up pretty close, but it leads in).
Fredrik’s solo throughout here, which is totally disqualified because he gets wanky several times, but it’s the slower phrasing I love - like a less dexterous Holdsworth.
For a classic, Don Felder’s first solo on Hotel California. Leads in cool, lots of great bends, syncopation, follows the chords… good stuff.
Felder is underrated his solo is “One of these Nights” is very tasty.
Steve Gaines is also underrated. Gone far too soon.
His playing on “One More From the Road” is awesome.
I always liked his leads way more than Walsh’s. I’d vote for Hotel California too, easily but I’ll list some others.
I was thinking of making a thread on “favorite guitar tones” and this is one of my favorites (and favorite solos too). Sorry, I know Christmas is over…
Same on this one, great tone, great solo
Someone else took Comfortably Numb but that solo is just perfect.
Sister Christian has the tastiest hair band solo I can think of (unfortunately not the great tone of the others I’ve mentioned, but hey, it was the 80’s):
Neal Schon has great tone and tastiness. I guess since he’s a shredder I’m disqualified for mentioning him due to the same “guilt by association” problem with Tommo’s submission. He’s just so damn melodic though.
Lastly (until I think of many many more), probably my favorite rock solo of all:
Solo is one minute in
I’m not sure if it counts as a solo…? But towards the end
How has no one listed this one yet?
IDK. Depends on your definition of what is or is not a shredder. He might still might qualify you for this, although including him might open up the doors to players like Gary Moore etc.
Stone in Love is okay, but I prefer a song like “Send her my love” for this. It really hits his melodic side for how dead simple it really is.
That one’s great too!
I take it back. This disqualifies you just on principle.
NO Stairway. Denied!
I know I know. Just remember though, it’s only so overplayed because it’s so great