The Greatest Guitar Solos, Ranked
Rank the greatest guitar solos head-to-head, Comfortably Numb vs Stairway to Heaven and more, then see which solo the community ranks best. Early results (n = 21): too few finished brackets to call a leader yet. Your first pick is right here. No sign-up.
Size
Texas FloodStevie Ray Vaughan
Little WingJimi Hendrix
Tap a poster to make your pick. Crowd numbers appear after you choose.
Rank all 24: the song sorter, about 81 picks for your full order, 1 to 24. All 24: a bracket, 23 picks, with tied places.
Greatest Guitar Solos: early results
Early results (n = 21). Win rate across 371 head-to-head picks from 21 finished brackets. n is the number of matchups behind each win rate; only entrants with 30 or more are listed.
| # | Guitar solo | W–L | Win rate | vs .500 | Titles | n |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 37–16 | 69.8% | 2 | 53 | ||
| 2 | 23–13 | 63.9% | 3 | 36 | ||
| 3 | 25–15 | 62.5% | 2 | 40 | ||
| 4 | 23–14 | 62.2% | 2 | 37 | ||
| 5 | 27–17 | 61.4% | 1 | 44 | ||
| 6 | 20–13 | 60.6% | 1 | 33 | ||
| 7 | 19–15 | 55.9% | 2 | 34 | ||
| 8 | 19–15 | 55.9% | 1 | 34 |
Greatest Guitar Solos: an early tier list
Early results (n = 21) Too few finished brackets to call yet; the tiers settle as more people play. Placed by win rate, steadied toward 50% for entrants with few matchups: S is 75% or more, A 60%, B 50%, C 40%, D 25%.
Stier, win rate 75% or more
- Nobody yet
Atier, win rate 60% or more
- Hotel California
- Free Bird
- Crazy Train
Btier, win rate 50% or more
- Master of Puppets
- Stairway to Heaven
- Sweet Child O' Mine
- Comfortably Numb
- Eruption
- November Rain
- Alive
Ctier, win rate 40% or more
- Sultans of Swing
- While My Guitar Gently Weeps
- One
- Layla
- Little Wing
- Money for Nothing
- Purple Rain
- All Along the Watchtower
- + 3 more
Dtier, win rate 25% or more
- Bohemian Rhapsody
- Texas Flood
Ftier, win rate 0% or more
- Crossroads
How the Greatest Guitar Solos bracket works
This guitar solo ranking is played, not dragged into rows. You get one matchup at a time — Stairway to Heaven or Comfortably Numb? Free Bird or Eruption? — and after 15 picks the bracket has a champion, with everything else placed by how far it got. Comparing two solos is far easier than sorting 24 of them at once, which is why the finished list tends to survive a second look.
This bracket runs 4 rounds at the default 16-slot size (Round of 16, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Final), drawn from a pool of 24 solos. The draw changes every day and New draw reshuffles it whenever you like, so the same solo can meet a different opponent in round one and finish somewhere else entirely. You can also play it at 8 or 24 slots for a shorter or longer run.
15 picks, 4 rounds
- Round of 168 matchups
- Quarterfinals4 matchups
- Semifinals2 matchups
- Final1 matchup
Roughly 1-2 minutes start to finish at the default size.
All 24 entrants
All 24 entrants are listed below, including Stairway to Heaven, Comfortably Numb, Free Bird and Eruption. Updated
- Stairway to HeavenLed Zeppelin - Jimmy PageListen on Apple Music
- Comfortably NumbPink Floyd - David GilmourListen on Apple Music
- Free BirdLynyrd Skynyrd - Allen CollinsListen on Apple Music
- EruptionVan Halen - Eddie Van HalenListen on Apple Music
- All Along the WatchtowerJimi HendrixListen on Apple Music
- Hotel CaliforniaEagles - Don Felder & Joe WalshListen on Apple Music
- Bohemian RhapsodyQueen - Brian MayListen on Apple Music
- Sweet Child O' MineGuns N' Roses - SlashListen on Apple Music
- November RainGuns N' Roses - SlashListen on Apple Music
- Purple RainPrinceListen on Apple Music
- CrossroadsCream - Eric ClaptonListen on Apple Music
- Texas FloodStevie Ray VaughanListen on Apple Music
- Sultans of SwingDire Straits - Mark KnopflerListen on Apple Music
- Whole Lotta LoveLed Zeppelin - Jimmy PageListen on Apple Music
- Little WingJimi HendrixListen on Apple Music
- Voodoo Child (Slight Return)Jimi HendrixListen on Apple Music
- Crazy TrainOzzy Osbourne - Randy RhoadsListen on Apple Music
- Master of PuppetsMetallica - Kirk HammettListen on Apple Music
- AlivePearl Jam - Mike McCreadyListen on Apple Music
- LaylaDerek and the Dominos - Duane AllmanListen on Apple Music
- While My Guitar Gently WeepsThe Beatles - Eric ClaptonListen on Apple Music
- Money for NothingDire Straits - Mark KnopflerListen on Apple Music
- Shine On You Crazy DiamondPink Floyd - David GilmourListen on Apple Music
- OneMetallica - Kirk HammettListen on Apple Music
Tier list instead?
Load all 24 into the tier list maker and sort them into S through F yourself: same entrants, no matchups.
Open the tier list makerMissing something?
Build your own guitar solo bracket with exactly the entrants you want, then share the link.
Open the bracket makerGetting a ranking you actually agree with
- Go with the one you would rather hear right now — instant reaction beats a considered take.
- Start at 16 slots. If the result feels too obvious, replay at 24 so more of the 24 solos make the field.
- Undo exists for a reason: an early-round mistake propagates all the way to the final, and there is no shame in taking it back.
Questions people ask
How many solos are in the Greatest Guitar Solos bracket?
The pool holds 24 solos. A default run uses 16 of them and takes 15 picks across 4 rounds: Round of 16, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Final. Other field sizes are available too — 8, 16, 24 slots.
Which solos are included?
Stairway to Heaven, Comfortably Numb, Free Bird, Eruption, All Along the Watchtower, Hotel California, Bohemian Rhapsody, Sweet Child O' Mine, November Rain, Purple Rain, Crossroads and Texas Flood, plus 12 more. Every entrant is listed further down this page with its artwork.
How long does the Greatest Guitar Solos bracket take?
About 1-2 minutes — 15 choices at the default size, or 7 if you drop to an 8-slot bracket. There is no sign-up, and your progress is saved on this device after every pick.
Is this a greatest guitar solos tier list or a ranking?
Both are here, and the bracket is closer to a tier list than it looks. It ends with a champion, a runner-up and then every other solo grouped by the round it went out in — which is exactly a set of tiers, decided by 15 direct comparisons rather than by your first guess at a layout. What it deliberately does not do is claim a precise gap between two solos that never met. If you would rather place the solos into S through F rows yourself, the tier list maker loads all 24 of them at bracketranker.com/tier-list-maker.
Is there a community greatest guitar solos ranking?
Every completed bracket feeds the Greatest Guitar Solos community results page, which aggregates win rates across all plays and tracks how often each of the 24 entrants takes the title. It updates continuously, so it moves as more people play.
Can I change which solos are included?
Use the bracket maker: add your own solos, name it, and share the link so other people play the same field. That is the route to take when this pool of 24 is missing something you would have picked, or when you want a version scoped to one era, label or franchise.