Just a question.

I've been playing with the pentatonic scales a LOT the past few years. I pretty much know all of them now. It's lots of fun using them in rock songs.

When i look at Slash lead stuff (from the GNR era of course) i see he uses them a lot too, but also notes that are 'out of' these scales. I know it's all about 'thinking outside the box', but on what does he base these notes? I noticed he plays notes that are also in chords that the other guitar plays, he combines this with the Pentatonic. Other then that he just seems to grab notes from out of nowhere, especially when he plays those fast hammer/pull solo's. On what is this mostly based?

Ok, this is my question broken down easily, what scales should i know to expand my solo skills? I don't care for metal shredding stuff, the bluesy hard rock is my area (like i said, Guns n Roses. And no, they are not a metal band). I'm getting very near to what i want from myself at this moment, but it i still feel i'm missing something if i want to truely rock hard.

Definitely Dorian and Mixolydian, in conjucntion with the blues scale. I hear Slash using the natural 6 a lot, which is a great note. Or a b5, like in the blues scale. You gotta jump around in the patterns a lot, not just straight up and down, practice on that....

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Well the first thing you should understand, if you don't already, is that pentatonic scales are (for the most part) kind of like skeletons of other, more complete scales. You literally take a regular 7-note scale and basically omit 2 of the notes to get the pentatonic version.

Those notes that Slash plays "out of nowhere" are most likely those 2 omitted notes. (Or the blue note, or just some other note that happens to sound good over a certain chord.) For example, when you might normally play in major pentatonic, try playing in the full major scale or the Mixolydian mode. Or you can compromise between the two, playing mostly in major pentatonic but sprinkling in some notes from Mixolydian or Ionian (major). Also, it's fairly common to throw in some minor 3rds usually as passing tones in major tonality rock songs, especially if they're based on Mixolydian rather than Ionian. It gives it a little more of a "hip" feeling. In the case of minor pentatonic, try playing the natural minor scale (Aeolian mode) or the Dorian mode, or sprinkling in notes from one or the other.

Exactly which notes you choose to add depends greatly on the song itself, but ultimately it's a matter of taste.

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As someone who's playing would never get mistaken for a neo-classical shredder - although I do play metal - I can tell you that this is correct!!

I'd actually have said that he prefers those minor modes over blues pentatonic, but the blues basis to Slash's solos is easy to see. Work on hammer-on/pull-offs, bends & double-stop bends, slides and making partial chord shapes during soloing. Getting 'those' notes... bends and pinched harmonics will both add a huge amount of colour.

At a slight tangent, another band it's worth listening to is ZZ Top. Billy Gibbons plays pretty much just pentatonic blues scales when he solos, giving a very stripped down sound. There's not a huge amount of speed there, but it's pretty interesting to see how a solo can be done using just the basics.

EDIT: Go on, laugh about that. For me, hearing ZZ Top encouraged me that simple stuff could sound pretty cool, which was what I needed when starting off.

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Thanks, i'm gonna look into that. ZZ top is cool as hell. I can't name any band that has such a cool look too. "Low Rider" is one of my favorite songs ever.