“At its best, the solo can tell a story, give us a sense of spectacle, and even offer a window into a player’s soul”: These are the best guitar solos of 2023

Towa Bird, Nuno Bettencourt, Nita Strauss, Synyster Gates.

This year is not like any other. The response to the 2023 greatest guitar solo poll nigh-on overwhelmed the administration at Guitar World. It was a record turnout, and once we collated the votes, and our editors meticulously weighed up each solo’s melodicism, influence and technical prowess, we had a truly formidable top 10 on our hands.

The number one spot will come as no surprise. This was the year that gave us this decade’s Heartbreaker, its Eruption. We might all debate the guitar solo’s place in composition, the form it should take and whether it is even necessary in the first place, but it’s not going anywhere.