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Listen to David Gilmour of Pink Floyd on "Dark Side of the Moon"… he doesn’t "shred" anything but his solos on that recording are legendary. Why? Because they have a Beginning – Middle – End. They are musical, they tell a story, and they take the listener along for the ride. Just shredding at lightening speed is not musical, and it’s generally not anything most people even want to listen to.

1) Understand chord structure so you know where you can go and can’t. You can’t play "outside" the chord changes until you know what you’re doing musically.

I think a good solo is sort of like a ride on a roller coaster. You climb the big hill.. take a huge plunge and build momentum over some other hills and valleys… and finally chill back out and return to the station.

2) Start with an approximation of the melody or compliment it… Good solos start with the familiar so it should sound like something the listener has already heard in the song. Think of the multi-guitars in "Sweet Home Alabama" or the Eagles’ "Hotel California".

3) Build the solo to a climax… add speed and complexity to your playing as you build to the peak of the solo. This is where you want to introduce elements of surprise… you’ve hooked the listener, now entertain them. Think "Freebird"

4) Return to earth to take the listener back into the tune. Not all good solos do this – some end at the high point, but the great solos take the listener back to the gate so to speak -so they can drift back into a chorus or another verse of the song. This is what David Gilmour does so well.

A little "shredding" goes a long way. Slip a few tricks in here or there at the emotional high point, but you don’t have to play every lick as fast as you can in every solo. I’d rather listen to 5 seconds of David Gilmour than every "shredding" solo that’s ever been recorded. They don’t impress me because they’re only technical – not musical. Eddie Van Halen is the original "shredder" – he never gave it all away. Listen to "Eruption" – that recording changed guitar playing forever – but it’s still not over-the-top noise.

PS – another great guitar record that influenced how I approached solos … Jeff Beck "Blow by Blow" . It’s hard to believe he’s playing a guitar at times – he has the phrasing and musicality of a horn player.

Listen to some of the country chicken-pickers. Brad Paisley is an unbelievable soloist.

Listen to actual horn players… Charlie Parker (alto sax), John Coltrane (tenor sax), and Dizzy Gillespie (trumpet) . They are the holy trinity of Jazz soloists. Later, add Miles Davis (trumpet) and Bill Watrous (trombone) . There are more references than I can list here that are non-guitarists that can help you learn how to solo.

The modern electric guitar is absolutely the most remarkable instrument ever invented – it can sound like anything you can imagine- the perfect medium for a soloist. Get hold of some recordings by Allan Holdsworth – he’s another musician who will change how you approach the guitar.

Finally – practice endlessly… record yourself… keep tweaking until it’s doing what you want it to do. Good luck.

By practicing the mundane as well as the cool stuff you gain a better understanding of how to effectively improvise. Not everything should be super fast shredding, because we all know that that gets very boring after a few minutes. To develop a superior melodic sense you should strive to incorporate both slow and tasty passages with your shred chops. There is something to be said about a great blues lick or single, slow, gutsy bend that can really accent a cool fast riff.
Try recording some basic chord progressions and practice soloing over them with different stylistic approaches. Try using bluesy sounding riffs and jazzy sounding clean licks as opposed to just straight ahead metal riffs. By incorporating these other styles you become a more rounded player with the ability to communicate to a larger audience than just teenage headbangers. Record yourself as much as possible and listen to what you are playing. When you come across something unusual and interesting, stop and check it out, expand on those "unique" ideas to develop a more "interesting" improvisational vocabulary

I wanted to note, that David Gilmour is a great suggestion. You can fill a guitar store up of a thousand guitarists, and have them jamming, making noise, doing whatever… and you’ll still be able to hear David. His tone and style give his playing a unique sound. This is in part to his equipment, but also due to his phrasing.

Phrasing is the key. Playing 1 tempo, like when you’re shredding gets old, boring and monotonous. When you put feeling into your playing, by adding extended trills or legato playing, or holding a note with vibrato after a fast sweep, or holding a string bend and letting the guitar sustain, so the listener can hear the natural beauty of the instrument is one way. Playing around more with arpeggios is another way.

A couple songs you should check out are:

Pink Floyd – "Comfortably Numb", and also "Time". Those 2 songs have amazing solo’s with feeling. You have to almost act as if your guitar is singing,… without any words. You have to hear the melody in your head and play to it.

Black Sabbath – Planet Caravan. Iommi played Dorian, I think in the key of D over this song. It adds a different, darker feel to the solo. You’ll notice that he strays away from the mode by adding little accent notes here and there to give the solo a bluesy sound to it. Check out Pantera’s version of the song to hear how Dimebag did the solo. It’s pretty similar.
— I suggest playing this song, and just trying to improv over the whole song, to stay in key, but try to play along with the solo…. you don’t want to play it exact. You’re want to try and stay in key, and go off of the solo, and weave in and out of harmony with it.

A lot of metal players/shredders have learned by playing classical music. I think I read an article by Kirk Hammett once, and he said he learned classical music, and it really opened up his playing ability. He would kick back, put on classical music, and try to put solo’s to the music.