I’m kinda old school and like the guitar solo in Magician’s Birthday by Uriah Heep & Rock-N-Roll Machine by Triumph.
There is, however, a great Polish guitarist who can play extremely complicated and very fast pieces by Bach on two guitars at once, and I have not seen anyone do it better. His name is Adam Fulara - he used to make funny faces, but has managed to get a handle on that, but in light of the complexity of what he plays on electric guitar, it should be expected. It's like running a marathon.
Check him out here playing Bach:
Adam Fulara - BWV 848 : Johann Sebastian Bach
Adam Fulara - BWV 847 : Johann Sebastian Bach (Without the faces and on a single neck guitar.
Now to the really hard stuff, doing something like that on a classical guitar:
Dimitris Kotranakis - Flight of the Bumblebee : Rimsky Korsakov Amazing job!
Some great female guitarists:
Li Jie - Paganini's 24th Caprice 13 year old Chinese girl.
Galina Vale playing Rachmaninoff's Prelude No. 5 Opus 23 Amazing young Ukrainian guitarist - she is an awesome performer and arranged this very complicated piano piece for the guitar herself.
Another of my favorite guitar playing ladies is Liona Boyd, but her version of "Recuerdos De La Alhambra" has disappeared from the Internet! So instead, here is Kaori Muraji - her version is also very nice:
Kaori Muraji - Recuerdos De La Alhambra : Francisco Tarrega Look up a few of these
The only one that really comes right to mind is on Peter Tosh’s reggae cover of “Johnny B Goode”. Smooth, intricate, and he absolutely rips it. It’s been my favorite lead guitar riff for decades.
The first one that got my attention...
George Harrison-The Beatles-I Saw Her Standing There
Hard to add to this list but honorable mention:
Trevor Rabin
And You & I
Yes
Mason William’s “Classical Gas” the one w/out the orchestra. Also like anything Sergovia, especially his baroque.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKTpKG5jQIo>
There is a live version on YouTube, as well...Hillage really "gets into it".
Some favorites of mine are Jorma Kaukonen and Alvin Lee .
Any with Lindsay Buckingham, especially his live version of Big Love- all by himself.
Eric Johnson - Zap
Steve Hackett (Genesis) - Firth of Fifth
Vernon Reid - Cult of Personality
Mark Knopfler - Telegraph Road
Pat Metheny - The Epic
Tuck Andress (Tuck & Patti) - Castles made of Sand, Little Wing
Tuck Andress demonstrating how to play 4 parts at once on one guitar
If you like guys who can shred but are also experts on music theory and modal playing, check out the Godfather of the Guitar Frank Gambale
Probably one of the hardest things to play on a guitar is Paganini's 5th Concerto.
The film "Crossroads" featured Steve Vai playing it.
Crossroads - Guitar Duel
The beginning part with the slide was played by Ry Cooder. The part that includes Paganini's 5th was played by Steve Vai.
I like Dimitri Kotranis' version on the classical - gotta see it to believe it.
Dimitris Kotranakis - Paganini's 5th
Metal Ping!
It certainly belongs on the list as do several by Frank Zappa.
L
bump need time to really think about it. There are so many:)
My personal favorite of all time.......Mark Tremonti, from Alter Bridge, and formerly of Creed.
I have other favorites, but right now.....He is THE GUITARIST!
Nels Cline
The solo by George Lynch in Dokken’s “In My Dreams” - very underrated solo.
Neil Young - Like A Hurricane
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPZuR8OZeLw
Not technically the best, but the best