that would be it

Ah, that's different. And true. But technical skill does not neccessarily negate talent.

^ Very true

@ thread starter: I have only been teaching for 3 years, but in my experience I have found if you want to make a good solo and have your own sound you need to learn solos in lots of different styles.

And you might know this but don't imitate another guitarist

I have a story of why you shouldn't

I had one student who had imitated Hendrix, he always wanted the same sound as his, he used the same guitars and pedals he used, learned all his songs and solos. I then taught him all of Hendrix's influences. He was closer to Hendrix's sound more than any guitarist I had taught, it really amazed me. I thought "this kid is really lucky he can solo a lot like Hendrix". Then one day I said to him "blues is pretty much gone from Rock, you need some newer elements in your sound." I taught him Rocket Queen, but surprisingly he never heard the song so I played it for him, he seemed to have liked it but I could tell he was wondering why I wasn't teaching him the stuff I had previously been teaching him. In a couple weeks I taught him the whole song, and I went on vacation for a few weeks and when I came back I asked him to play me a solo. What he played was amazing, I could still hear the Hendrix, but the newer elements of Slash added in made him sound even better.

Basically the more guitarists you study the better you will sound

at least in my experience anyway.

First I have to know how fast you can play and how smoothly too. Tell me how far you are in learning, what stuff you just learned, what stuff you're having trouble with. So I can give you a solo that won't be too easy or way too hard.

Incidentally, here are some non-technical solo ideas that I stumbled on the other day. I've been trying to get my guitar notation reading up so that I can audition for university, and in searching for transcriptions I found this site. It's called jazzpath, though the lessons I'm gonna pass on aren't retricted simply to jazz. If you're interesed injazz, there are some good technique builders here aside from these solobuilders, but require reading from treble/bass clef.

http://www.jazzpath.com/education/

Bottom of the list, the mp3s. All you need is the Blues Scale.

If you want to make a good solo on the spot here are some tips I should give you

1) Make your own riffs for soloing
2) Make up maybe 2 or 3 every week
3) Always do a different approach so you can familiarize yourself with the different notes and moods you can create so that you will be able to just start a solo on the spot in a song that will go with it