Well, learning tabs isn't a bad way to start. That's basically how I learned guitar, not really the best as far as theory and such goes, but it's a great way to get ideas and build your knowledge. As a few famous musicians have noted (such as Victor Wooten (AKA greatest bassist ever (along with Jaco and a few others))...I digress... "Music is like a langauge, so the more you learn and the more you play, the more fluently you can speak your language." This applies in the way that, the more (possibly Tabs) you play, the more you are able to play in general. Sooooooo, in learning tabs, you are already learning how to play rock solos, or whatever it may be. You take ideas from other people and after awhile, they morph into a completely original idea (sometimes). As far as theory and stuff goes, you just gotta be exposed to it. Taking lessons wouldn't be a bad idea, considering theory can be quite difficult to grasp at times. One basic thing about the soloing aspect, combined with chords, is that you can always start with the notes in the chord. Those notes are the basic notes that can be used, maybe not the greatest, but it's a start. As a matter of fact, one of the best ways to solo, or a good technique, although hard, is to always try and make use of the key note in the chord. This might not work, i dunno, but say you play a C major chord. You could use a C major scale and this would work. If the next chord in the progression was a C major with a flat fifth (F#/Gb....i believe), then you might wanna try and incorporate the F#/Gb into your solo as the chords change. Just a little bit to think about. Hope this helps.