Bands And Albums.

I can't believe more people haven't mentioned Yngwie Malmsteen. It might be because everything he's ever done bleeds together. I don't care for his music, but he was very entertaining in that G3 DVD!
As for me:

Jimi Hendrix: all along the watch tower (perfection)

Eddie Van Halen: girl gone bad (among others)

Kirk Hammett: blackened

Steve Vai: for the love of god

Billy Corgan: soma (yes, I know he's a tool)

I forgot to mention "The Messiah WIll Come Again" by Roy Buchanan also Buchanans version of "Hey Joe". On Junior Wells version of "Key To the Highway" Sammy Lawhorn plays a simple but awesome effective guitar solo.

UFO -- "Venus" off of "Walk on Water" album.
Eddie Van Halen "Hang 'Em High" off of Diver Down.
Living Colour "Cult of Personality"
Vinnie Vincent Invasion "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"
Gary Moore "Still Got the Blues"
Shotgun Messiah "Living Without You" and "The Explorer"

This is totally opinated but Ive got a few great riffs to speak of

Althuogh Sweet Child O' Mine is and will always be my Fav Slash solo and the one that got me playing I think really His work on One in a Millon was supreme slash. Very hard fast pace melodic riff mixing acoustic with the starbust great riff great song. The reason Sweet child is such a hard riff (and the reson Slash Hates playing it) it's all down on the 12th fret a very fast pace 2 chord progessional riff. One false mis note and there goes the solo.Also with such sustain you need one hell of an amp to pull it off cleanly without distortion "JCM"
Another great riff is Deffinatly Hell's Bell's not hard to play at all but damn what an intro. Angnus young is deff in my top 5 guitar gods with all his vibrato.
OH and to reply about the slide Guitar on Derek and the Dominoes song "Layla" let's not forget it was the late great Duane Allman that did that solo. Even Clapton himself and I quote "Duane Allman was the Master when it comes to the Slide" Even 40 years after his death he still is the king in that department. Coming up behind Duane in a very close 2nd has to be Derek Trucks
Has any one even thought about Rush and their solos WOW lost for words there
My third G god on another level would have to be George Harrison Himself without him where would distortion be anyways
Now for some of you this is really gonna strike a chord and your gonna say this dude is a retard and needs to move on But any thought on Jeff Healey. A vituoso and deffinatley underestimated. With A very uniqe vibrato, slide playing,progressive finger styling "since he did play it on his lap and he was blind" and not to mention classicaly traind with blues and jazz playing styles
last but not least must we forget about Queens Brian May. with his self built guitar have fun trying to repeat some of his tone work.
and finally I had to put this in about Pink Floyd. Being a true Floyd fan since I was 10 now almost 40 I will not take nothing away from David Gilmore (A G god at his own level) But noones Mentioning Syd Barrett by far the supreme Floyd guitarist. Enough said I'll end with that now let the crap hit the fan.

Has any one even thought about Rush and their solos WOW lost for words there

Of course!

My favorite rush solos:

Limelight - just a fantastic moody solo, my best copy can't touch the original.
Kid Gloves - OMG you hear it, and are like "how the F did he do that?!?"
2112 (part 4? "presentation", solo at end) - he just RIPS into it and holy crap it's freekin great.
Digital Man - Another fantastic 'moody' solo that also just rocks.
YYZ - fantastic 'rock' use of the spanish phrygian scale. great bends.
Marathon (live, show of hands)- great build-up and then BAM! something about the tremolo use, .. just amazing in his technique.

Imo, Alex's worst solo is the Tom Sawyer one. It just sounds out of place

I'm pretty obsessed with the solo in "'84 Sheepdog" by As Cities Burn right now. They just posted the song today. It's hard to pick just one, there are a lot of beautiful solos.

www.myspace.com/ascitiesburn

Imo, Alex's worst solo is the Tom Sawyer one. It just sounds out of place

I never thought it was so much out of place... I just can't stand hearing the song anymore, as it's the most overplayed song they have.

I think the solo to "farewell to kings" was probably my least favorite.. sounded misplaced, and never really hit the home run that it was trying to.

the guy is still a god to me though..

Vinnie Vincent Invasion "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"

OOPs! Got to thinking about it and it was a band called "Impelliteri" that did a killer version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"
"Vinnie Vincent Invasion" did a great job on "Star Spangled Banner"

Neil Young - southern man, revolution blues
Frank Zappa - muffin man, montana
Jack White - ball and a biscuit, death letter
Jeff Baxter - reelin in the years, my old school, so many more
Mark Knopfler - Sultans of Swing, everything he touches
Jerry Reed - jerry's breakdown and every song jerry ever decided to play
Jimmy Page - fool in the rain
John Fogerty - i put a spell on you

Jimi Hendrix "Watchtower" solo. Ritchie Blackmore " Sweet child in time". Jimi Page " 7 to 11 ". I have goose bumps just thinking about them.

Jeff Beck - Where were you (I know it's not really a solo but it's too awesome)

One of my all time favorites would have to be the solo Angus Young did in "You Shook Me All Night Long". Pure classic guitar work there. Also, even though I'm not a huge hair metal fan, a lot of those guys played some of the most technical solos I've heard.

Seeing as how I'm more of an Alternative/Metalcore listener, I get used to hearing different styles of solos, but here are some good ones I really like:
"Real World" by Matchbox Twenty
"Psychosocial", "Pulse of the Maggots", and "Sulfur" by Slipknot
"Tears Don't Fall" and "Hearts Burst Into Fire" by Bullet for My Valentine
"I Won't See You Tonight Pt. 2" and "Afterlife" by Avenged Sevenfold
"Spirit of Radio" and "Closer to the Heart" by Rush
"Keep on Rocking in the Free World" by Neil Young
"Suicide Note Pt. 2" and "Cemetary Gates" by Pantera (RIP Dimebag)
"Tattered on My Sleeve", "This Calling", "It Dwells in Me", "The Deepest Gray", "Six", "Two Weeks", "Chiron" and "The Air That I Breathe" by All That Remains (freaking love Oli Herbert's style of playing)
"Like a Stone" and "Original Fire" by Audioslave
"Right Side of the Bed", "Lip Gloss and Black", "Ex's and Oh's" and "Falling Down" by Atreyu
"Re-Align", "Straight Out of Line", "Keep Away", "Awake", and "Shine Down" by Godsmack

Gotta be Rush's "La Villa Strangiato" solo with the reverse effect.