My favorites are the Aeolian and Phrygian Modes when I'm playing rock or metal. I like try to stay away from pentatonics because they lack the 2nd and 6th degrees. Without them the scale doesn't have the "color" that major and minor scales have. Also, when I play jazz I use the Ionian, Mixolydian, and Dorian scales depending on what chords are being played in the rhythm.

Zakk wylde is the pentatonic king and his solos are very colourfull, interesting that you leave them out. you could be doing yourself an injustice. most classic rock is pentatonic i'd be intersted to hear your rock playing. for me you cant play it without them.

I still use pentatonic riffs all the time but I don't like to use them for 100% of a solo or song. Its just my style because I think that when I play only a pentatonic scale I sound too much like someone else. Its not that I think pentatonics sound bad, I mean guys can make great solos using them. But for some reason when ever I try to use them entirely it sounds like there is something missing.

I like to mix scales. I'm not sure what the actual name of it is, but I love playing a harmonic minor with a raised 4th. Or I like to a natural minor and add in the diminished 5th from the blues scale or add a major 7th just to have a bit of a chromatic twist. Whole tone scales are fun too, although I'm not really sure how to work them into a song, unless I was soloing in a lydian mode and just did it for a lick since it has a major 3rd and raised 4th.

Mixolydian for major-sounding stuff, Phrygian for poweful sounds.

My favorites are the C and D scales in the Blues on variation 3...

i'm sorting diggin lydian scales these days. kinda spacey sounding. especially with a good dose of string skipping...also been messing with superimposed pentatonic scales. very chromatic.

I wouldn't say it's a favourite for use in 'real life' but if you're just sat by yourself scr*wing around then it's really fun to jam on a sextonic scale (no snickering, please). Here's a link to the position I tend to use:

http://fillmorefive.blogspot.com/2008/01/full-of-eastern-promise.html

As you can guess from the title, it's very Middle-Eastern / Arabian sounding and contains lots of 'tension' intervals/tones. If you drone on the low E string (open) and let it ring then it creates an interesting harmony with the rest of the scale.

Try it. Hit the low E open then noodle around on some of the scale notes in sequence up or down.

My favorite is the blues pentatonic, but I like adding notes during the process. A lot of the times I am in a certain key, and I am looking for a scale similar to the blues pentatonic, but with a little bit of flare. I have to admit. I will learn a scale a lot of times, and I don't remamber the name of it. I think it's great when you guys can remember the particular Alodian or the lydian, but I just don't think about it a lot. All the technical stuff eludes me. I am more of a feel player. What fits the moment. I have perfect pitch a lot of times, and I can play along a whole lot of songs, I just can't remember what damn scale names were or whether or not it was in Aminr or A7 chords. I actually envy the technical players, but I have never been a tecnical person any way. So that's that.

Kenski, I like the sextonic. Damn it gets your fingers moving.