I think a very important skill to develop when learning solos is the ability to hit the pause and rewind button on your hi fi. If youre learning big and very technical solos it'll be best to learn it lick by lick.
Treat hard riffs/licks as exercises.

The best place to start with scales is probably the ol' favourite of many players the minor pentatonic. It only has five notes so that chance of hitting "wrong notes" when soloing is less than when you use say the Aeolian mode.

Go check out www.ibreathemusic.com for some good advice on scales.

Rock on