In case you missed the three 'big grin' smiley faces, that was a bit of a joke, just a random progression from a thread where people posted their favorite chords
I don't really need to hear examples of pentatonic scales, but thanks for the offer. In case I get lonely, I have a CD of Chinese traditional music. You should check out some of those pipa players, they can really shred
My view is that any approach based on a formula will sound formulaic. Why not write a melody, and then use theory to fill in the harmony? Working the other way around tends to rehash what's already been done. Hence the examples cited in this thread, like Carlton, Satriani, Johnson, McLaughlin . . . this stuff is all twenty or thirty years old.
I've seen Carlton and McLaughlin in concert. When I saw McLaughlin, I was sitting way stage left, McLaughlin was stage left facing right, so we were looking at his back. Towards the end of the show, one guy near me yelled "show us your fingers, John!" so he turned towards us and strummed a few C chords.
Moral of the story: if you want to learn to play a good solo, stop listening to guitar heros and start listening to great melodies. It doesn't matter what the instrument is. Allan Holdsworth listened to John Coltrane. McLaughlin studied Indian music. Malmsteen revered Bach and Paganini. My tastes run to Debussy (who liked whole-tone scales) and Schoenberg (who never met a note he didn't like).
Y'all gotta find your own muse. Failing that, just play anything. There are only twelve notes in the West, seven of them are in the right key, three of them are close, that only leaves two that are going to be challenging. Just remember what note you want to end on (that is it's good to know the first and fifth), and don't lose your place so you can finish strong.