Most people who play guitar and listen to music simailr to what they play, will play along to other band's cds. But do you ever change or add things into the songs just for the hell of it. Some people might not want to do this because you probably wouldnt use the stuff you added on since everything else would be like the actual band had done it. Ive changed lots of songs and its fun but its also a bit of a waste of time, unless youre actually doing a cover song.

Ill change little things, like in seen and destroy the verse riff is just open E
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

i change it up and throw in some triplets in there so i dont get too bored hah
i do that alot
or Ill throw in pinch harmonics

the only other thing Ill do is write a 'new' solo for it. i dont come up with a whole solo for it but if i know the structure of it then ill keep that structure but make it up

like if the structure goes

big bends-runs-tapping-bends-blusy thing- runs

then Ill follow that but not how they do it (makes sence?)

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Yeah, sometimes you just can't resist the urge to add in extra notes and techniques... sometimes it fucks it up completely, but still.

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I do that all the time. There is no point in doing a cover song in front of people unless you are adding to it. Megadeth doing "These Boots..." and various Van Halen covers are good examples of how to properly spice up a good song that was originally played by second rate hacks. Megadeth doing Anarchy in U.K. was a complete waste of time and is the one and only early Megadeth track that compels me to hit the skip button.

I usually just add a solo to the song, or do a different solo to the song, because I'm to lazy to learn the actuall solo from tabs.

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I like to think of what some songs, like some classic rock or other nonmetal music, would sound like with some double bass or blast beats to the beat of the music. I can't remember what classic rock band it was, either Cream or Yes, but it seemed they were the first to experiment with double bass. It blew my mind.

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Random pinch harmonics and descending pentatontic runs from the 5th or 7th fret of the 3rd string

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All the time. Taking a mediocre tune and giving it teeth is great fun.

I tend to do that too for some resaon.

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whamy bar stuff, harmonics(not just pinched) and scratches/slides... thats pretty much all i do to other peoples tracks... besides make a shitty version of the solo cause i dont know any of them...

oh and Bia, im officially taking your "giving it teeth" quote

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thats the way to do it.

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I do it all the time, and it's not a waste of time, you're practicing. I usually change the first two riffs on Crown of Horns.

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A reply to all posts: I knew i wasnt the only one!

yeah, its fun. I usually just add leads, not the solo kind, just a melodic lead or two. ive added some keyboards to songs before too, and for those who are into that, its pretty damn cool. You know, whats better than making your favorite songs better!? Or at least more appealing to you.

I like to play bass solos under the "breakdown" parts of some songs.

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adding uneven time changes to a normal 4/4 song.....
or the other way around.....

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Once I learn "Day of Suffering" off (yes, I know its super-easy, I just need to increase my repotoire of songs), I'm going to add a proper solo, not the ridiculous stream of barely audible noise it originally has.
Everything else about it is great.
When I do "Purple Haze" I usually add palm muting on the chord parts & some random harmonics on the lead-riff-type parts.