I've never been into soloing much. I suck at improvisation so if I have a song that needs a solo I write it, learn it and then play it the same way every time.

My brother, on the other hand, solos with ease. He says it's knowing all the scales and how they interact with each other which should give you the ability to switch from one to another easily.

Suggestions? Learn ALL the scales. Play with them ALL the time, (or as much as you can.) Find some simple instrumental cuts. (I know they sell backing tracks on CD and they're probably downloadable somewhere too.) Play with these tracks. Play along with the radio, the TV, a video game.

I know this is slim, but there are a lot of folks here who are going to have a lot more input for you, so just be patient. It's usually pretty slow during the day here, but picks up in the evening and weekends. (When I'm not here... Hmmm.... I wonder if it's me?)

Music is as much about learning lots of theories and scales as it is about making your own things up.

If you find yourself not being able to come up with new ideas, then you need to practice coming up with new ideas. Change up your routine. It sounds like you enjoy playing along with Metallica songs, or spending a lot of time learning the solos. Have a day in your week that you spend improvising solos or making up your own progressions and melodies.

As far as not being able to apply scales, you should do some research. There are a lot of resources in books and websites. As you're reading and learning, apply the things you learn using backing tracks or your own recordings. When you're learning those songs from bands you love, try to think about why they put that chord there, or this riff. Analyze why you like it so much.

Have fun!

Your actual best bet is to take lessons. An instructor with serious knowledge can help you open that door. We can all sit here and type out explanations but if you don't understand it it's all for nothing. To have someone sitting there with you to explain why this works and how to apply it is really what you need.

Yup, i face this problem before.
And what i do is. I slice out the licks from a solo.
Let's take Enter Sandman's solo: The pull off 3 notes arppegio part at the near end of the solo?
I take that out, and a few more from other songs solo that i love to play.
Then i recorded a backing track of myself playing a chord prog. in the key of Em.
PLay it back and i'll try my best to fit those licks that i've slice it out into my pocket.
Some of them don't fit and need to be change a bit.(different key,notes,..etc)
So i take a few hours a day practicing to fit those licks that i've learn and love.
By time, you'll get lots of licks from magazine & the Web. Where you can choose and collect those that you like
and put them all together and solo like there's no tomorrow.
A friend that can share licks and swap solos can boost up your understanind even more.

I like to listen to the music of the solo section and hum a melody over it - it can incorporate the vocal melody or not depending on what fits. Once you find the melody noodle around it. If you listen to instrumentals - Vai, Satch, etc... - they have a lead melody - or melodies - and then build from there - I look at a solo section the same way. The problem I have is if you are playing multiple songs in the same key, making sure the solos all sound different. I think this adds more feel then simply rattling off some scales.

all you need to know is your modes, pentatonic, and blues scales... also figure out which modes sound good over what chords, kinda like what xarkzilla said, finding out how the scales interact with each other... also, listen to what other people in your band are playing, maybe you can play something that interacts with the bass line or be creative with the rhythm of the song... but you dont need to know that many scales... listen to a lot of blues players (bb king, srv) and they will always find so many ways to make the five notes of the pentatonic scale sound damn good

Thanks guys and gouls. Im probly gonna go the Guitar teacher route.

You'll find you've made the right decision. We've all given helpful tips here and they all do apply, but it's so much easier when you hit a stumbling point and someone's there to explain it in detail.
Just don't pay someone to teach you songs...I fell for that thinking I was getting "lessons." You can learn songs on your own. You want the meat and potatoes of music...you won't get it just having someone show you a new song every week.

Some good info here, dudes. Good luck!

+1 webcreds abound! (I don't know that they're good for anything, but it's all I have to give, so it's yours!)

Never be afraid to post questions about a certain topic here. Need help with a lick? A part from a song? Wanna know how to personalize it? Need help recording? Where to put the mic? feedback on a song?

There's folks here who'll try their best to help you out with pretty much any question you may have. Use us, we like it...

(Especially Xark...lol)

I'm all about learning scales and knowing the theory. But an approach some of my buddies use is to sing a phrase and play it back on the guitar. So when they practice this all the time, then when it comes time to whip up a solo they just sing a line and play it as they sing it. It leads to some very interesting results that you may not come across in scales.

But then again, what's more badass than ripping up a pentatonic? hahaha