Singers have it easy: no matter their musical direction and their travelling companions, we already know what they sound like. That thing they do? They’re still doing it, just with new friends.

Guitarists on the other hand…

It helps if you can use your solo material as a counterpoint to the band, to express the you that is usually diluted (say, Graham Coxon), or if you’ve already sung lead for the band (Mike Mills, Coxon again), or if you can wait an eternity before going properly solo (Johnny Marr). Or, as in the case of Rod Jones, you can play around with solo material for a bit without feeling any immediate impulse to release it, and then maybe if you get to the stage where you think it’s actually not half bad, you might release it. That should help listeners get over the slight sense of discontinuity when presented with something that sounds a bit like the old band, only not quite…

Of course, it also helps if it’s a pleasantly catchy number like Wonderful.