Originally posted by Tweak
[B]ahh thats cool. One problem i keep having is that when i start improvising some lead over the top it always sounds very 'happy' no matter what i do, thats what im trying to get away from and im seeing now from both of your bits of advice that if i just stick to B aolian it gets me closer to the overall sound of the piece i have in mind.

If your looking for a less "happy sound" try using the minor pentatonic scale, and the blues scale [1, 2, b3, 3, 4, b5, 5, 6, b7 (7 for a leading tone)] over a major chord progression. This is a very common technique for rock guitar solo's, but it requires alittle more attention to harmony. Use the major scale tones for a basis, and the others for alittle contrast from the "happy" sound.

I tend to end up sounding like brian may a lot of the time, but not quite as fast.. whereas i want to be sounding more like satch or malmsteen in terms of the notes im playing if not the frantic yngwie-warp factor.

I'm not sure about satch but I know malmsteen uses alot of minor scales and he often substitutes minor scales with modes like the phrygian mode. Check out what TheDirt wrote to see what I mean.

Good luck!