First of all I am very happy to hear you are picking up solos by ear - congratulations !
Now you are facing very common problem regarding positioning - like you mentioned, there is more than one way to play a single note, so you can have lots of different starting points.
Couple of advices I can give you regarding this... First and most important one, you can work out starting point based on what happens next in that solo or melodic run ! If run is going up, most likely first note you heard is on lower strings and vice verse. Second and even more important advice - these things will come with time ! Keep playing things by ear, listen to guitar music and your ear will very soon pick up individual string sounds.
You can practice this on your own also !
Play open E string on high E string then play it on 5th fret B string, 9th fret G string, 12th fret D string, 19th fret on A string and 24th fret on low E string (if you have 24 frets
Each string has special ring to it. In general, higher strings sound sharp while same note on low strings (D, A and E strings) sounds very warm !
Hope that helps
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