The major and minor scales are just fine man. Seriously listen to Beethoven's "Organ Fugue in G minor" and you'll appreciate a simple minor scale. Its not so much the scales but how you use them. Listen to a song or backing track, get the key they are in, get the chord progession and it will make everything so much easier. Then i what i do is i use a few notes from the scale to form a very tiny riff, play around witjh that a few times then branch off and cautiously test notes that are in the scale but i wont really veer away from the few notes i started off with.

I've on,ly been playing guitar for a year also but i have been playing piano for about 7 yrs now and thats the method i used. It may be a bit confusing and if you dont understand then i'll try and explain a buit clearer.

:D