[4] While at University, Frith read John Cage's Silence: Lectures and Writings, which changed his attitude to music completely.

[5] Frith recorded the album at David Vorhaus's Kaleidophon Studios in London on 11–13 and 15 July 1974, where he played a modified 1936 Gibson K-11.

[9] All the pieces were improvised, some completely, some to a roughly preconceived idea, and sound as they were played, except for "No Birds", which was recorded in two parts, and "Not Forgotten", from which two notes were removed.

[6] On the longest track on the album, "No Birds", Frith played on two prepared guitars simultaneously, creating the timbre and range of an orchestra.

[9] Frith took the title of "No Birds" from the last line of a poem, "One Nest Rolls After Another" by Captain Beefheart that was printed on the back of the LP sleeve of his 1971 album, Mirror Man.

Frith also used the phrase "No Birds" in the Frith/Cutler song, "Beautiful as the Moon – Terrible as an Army with Banners", which was released on Henry Cow's 1975 album, In Praise of Learning.

[11] In a review in NME in November 1974, Charles Shaar Murray described it as "a totally revolutionary album" and "an undeniable landmark in the history of rock guitar".

"[1] Piekut described Guitar Solos as "extraordinary not only for the astonishing precision and originally of Frith's technique, but for his détournement of an instrument whose entire history had been governed by a simple rule: you pluck it and it goes twang.

"[14][italics in the source] She said Frith displays his "astounding technique" of abruptly switching "timbres, multiple rhythmic lines, subtle nuances in volume [and] harmonic densities" within a single piece of music.

[14] Gagné commented on some of the tracks: In "Glass c/w Steel", Frith meticulously fades up, one after the other, four strands of sound, and overlays them into an eerie haze, out of which bounds a rubbery, animal-like line.

As this critter bounces and jabbers, the backdrop continues to shift, eventually swelling into loud silvery bells, and then taking a protesting descent back into silence.

Those ectoplasmic sounds, in a modified form, flit about "Out of Their Heads (On Locoweed)", a track which reworks the formula of "Glass c/w Steel".

She stated that it "is still light years beyond most musicians" and listeners could find themselves "falling out of love with guitarists who haven't grasped the implications of Frith's approach.

[17] When a remastered edition of the original Guitar Solos was released 28 years later on Frith's own Fred Records label,[18] it attracted further praise from critics.