Best "clean" guitar solo's

dindude

Bouncing off of that other thread, it'd be interesting to hear people's opinion of what they deem the best clean guitar solo's are, you know true stunners. Now there's a bit of artistic license here as we know that most guitar amps don't do really really clean, but you hopefully get the idea.

Three that spring to mind for me are:

Another brick in the wall.
Ricky don't lose that number.
Sultans of swing.

What say you?........

Gassage

steamabacus

Zappa's Any Kind of Pain is the one that always does it for me.

https://youtu.be/EW7A7AjefCg?t=2m47s

(Any Kind of Pain starts at 2'47", guitar solo at 5'17")

Gassage

Do not shoot me for this but this is truly one of my fave solos ever. Steve The Colonel Cropper playing 'just enough' notes.

It is truly the textbook on how to solo.

1.40 on

viz

Greg Howe does a fantastic solo on classical nylon-strung in Just Kidding: 

Gassage

Also,

I have checked this and this was just guitar into a cranked 63 Vibroverb.

1.47 and OMG

dindude

Hmmm, a few boats being pushed out with regards to "clean" sounds already methinks.

Kebabkid

Err.. a bit stuck in the 80s here with most of my choices:-

Animal Logic's 'Someday' featuring mega-sessioner Michael Thompson on guitar and probably better known from the Xotic FX demos, Stanley Clarke on Bass and Stewart Copeland on Drums

solo at 2'16"



'Luka' by Suzanne Vega - a couple of solos here

'What I am' by Edie Brickell & New Bohemians - 2'11"
My favourite envelope filter sound 

'It's Over' by Gino Vanelli - it's a VERY 80s track so best skip to the solo at 2'22" by jazzer Mike Miller



There's quite a few from Steely Dan like 'Hey Nineteen' and "Josie' and George Benson is another goodie.

Gassage

dindude said:

Hmmm, a few boats being pushed out with regards to "clean" sounds already methinks.

My hands are high.

equalsql

Pick pretty much any Brian Setzer solo. That guy knows more than anyone on the planet how to squeeze great clean solos out of a Gretsch.

Nomad

Tony Monaco Trio doing Jimmy Smith's Midnight Special. Guitar from 1:15...

EricTheWeary

My answer to many, many things on here is Jim Campilongo and as he uses a clean tone on about 90% of his output it's an answer that will serve me well here as well. However, for the sake of contributing something specific maybe Monkey in a Movie, which is almost the quintessential Jim, and Roly Poly by The Little Willies which is actual solos within the context of a sung song. 

axisus

One of my favourite solos is on Billy Idol's Man for all seasons. It's played by Steve Stevens and he does an awesome clean run after a nice little clean groove before cranking up again. 

Gassage

OK, does this count as clean? It's another guilty pleasure...

earwighoney

Television - Marquee Moon

IMO as good as a guitar solo gets irrespective of being played with a clean tone or not. 

slacker

1 36

StageStruck

The formative years of rock 'n' roll are probably as good a place as any to look for "clean" guitar solos. Off the top of my head,

Bill Haley -  Rock Around The Clock, (Danny Cedrone)
Gene Vincent - Be Bop A Lula (Cliff Gallup)
Johnny Kidd & The Pirates - Shakin All Over (Joe Moretti)
The Shadows - Pretty much anything, Hank rarely played anything with other than a bit of echo.

Headphones

Surely there's only one really; the solo from Come Up Nad See Me, by Steve Harley...  I bet you can all hum it now (who needs a YT link)!

Headphones

Ok, a bad typo - but this site still won't let me fix it: "there was an error performing your request.  PLease try again".

UnclePsychosis

This is one of my favourites.

mburekenge

Gassage said:

Do not shoot me for this but this is truly one of my fave solos ever. Steve The Colonel Cropper playing 'just enough' notes.

It is truly the textbook on how to solo.

1.40 on

@Gassage listening to a bit of the don Cropper is never to be apologised for. Sterling work.

not exactly clean, but his solo on 'Rock me Baby' is one of the greatest ever IMHO.