You say making a mistake whilst playing to a recording is annoying. I totally agree and I've found a way to make life simpler, if that is, you have a four track and a pitch shifter pedal.
All you do is put the tape speed way up on your four track, record the solo you're after and then play it back on a slow speed using your pitch shifter to make the pitch nearly right (more than nearly right ain't possible on my own pedal) and use the tape speed for fine adjustment. You can always tune to the original recording.
Voila.. half speed recording.