Each and every 12 months brings a cavalcade of fretboard-searing guitar solos, and indeed, this year’s lead guitar harvest proved to be quite bountiful.
In March, Nuno Bettencourt dramatically returned to the limelight, vowing to keep Eddie Van Halen's guitar fire burning with a jaw-loosening solo on Rise, Extreme's first new single in 15 years. There was more lead guitar greatness from Wolfgang Van Halen and his Mammoth WVH project, and Jackson Guitars' Misha Mansoor-led Virtuoso Mega Shred – a mind-blowing, five-solo metal guitar instrumental that was written for a guitar promo, of all things.
On the funk side, there was a burner from Cory Wong; in the blues, standout solos from Joe Bonamassa and Kenny Wayne Shepherd; in the punk and indie worlds, absolute belters from Screaming Females and Palehound. On top of it all, there was an emotional tip of the cap to the late Jeff Beck in the form of Moon River, his final collaboration with Eric Clapton.
Oh, we could go on. But what we really want is for you to tell us: what’s the best guitar solo of 2023? We’ve recruited an all-star panel of pro players, along with the wider GW team, to draw up a shortlist, but if you really, really disagree, you can nominate your own pick, too.
We’ll close the poll a week today and publish the results in mid-December. And don’t worry if your favorite artist doesn’t crop up here; they may well appear in our best album poll, which will go live very soon indeed.
And with that, we bid you a pleasant voting experience. Until next time…
