And the Winner is.....

I think I am going to go back to my original plan of some time ago:

1) Will use Robert Conti's "Assembly Line" to build a repertoire of chord melody songs.

2) Will use Garrison Fewell's "Jazz Improvisation for Guitar: A Melodic Approach" to learn improv. This book connects with the sounds I like, and it seems to utilize a logical and elegant approach to building solos. So this book is the "winner" that I will employ.