Asakitazz: Paul Gilbert

Paul Gilbert

Background information
Born	November 6, 1966 (1966-11-06) (age 41) Carbondale, Illinois
Instrument(s)	Guitar, Vocals, Bass, Keyboard, Percussion
Years active	1985–present
Label(s)	Universal Japan
Associated acts	Mr. Big Racer X G3
Website	Official website
Notable instrument(s)
Ibanez PGM signature series

Paul Brandon Gilbert (born November 6, 1966 in Illinois, United States of America ) is an American guitarist best known for his work with Racer X, Mr. Big, and his more recent instrumental albums. He is currently married to Emi, who has been on tour with Paul as a keyboardist since 2007. This is Paul's second marriage, the first in the late 90s. Following his departure from Mr. Big in 1997, Gilbert began releasing solo albums. He also joined Joe Satriani and John Petrucci on the 2007 G3 tour.

He is also notable for his alternate picking, string skipping technique, and was named #4 on GuitarOne's "Top Shredders of All Time".

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Shrapnel Records

Around 1981-82 Paul first contacted Mike Varney, founder of Shrapnel Records, asking for a gig with Ozzy Osbourne. At the time Varney couldn`t think why Osbourne would want a 15 year old guitarist, but after listening to his demo it changed his mind. They talked for the next 3 years, until Paul came to L.A for the GIT ( Guitar Institue of Technology ), and then was ready to record Racer X's debut album Street Lethal.

Racer X

Formed in Los Angeles in 1985, Racer X originally comprised Paul Gilbert (guitar), John Alderete (bass), Harry Gschoesser (drums) and Jeff Martin (vocals). They were heavily influenced by Judas Priest and Gilbert's playing was reminiscent of Yngwie Malmsteen, displaying fast-driven solos with extreme-level technique. Gschoesser was replaced by Scott Travis (later known for being the drummer for Judas Priest) in 1986, and Bruce Bouillet was added as a second guitar player. Bouillet was a very skilled player, as he had to play over Gilbert's always difficult and challenging phrases. Paul Gilbert gained recognition as one of the fastest guitar players in the world due to incredibly technical pieces like "Frenzy", "Scarified", "B.R.O." and "Scit Scat Wah". Gilbert left Racer X in 1988, but he eventually would rejoin the band in 1999. Currently the band is inactive, but Gilbert has said that he'd like to do another Racer X record sometime in the future.

Mr. Big

When Billy Sheehan left David Lee Roth's band in 1988, he joined with Paul Gilbert, who had left his former band, Racer X. They founded Mr. Big, with Pat Torpey on drums and singer Eric Martin. The band was a huge success in Japan, and became famous in 1991, with Lean Into It, their second album, which featured the ballad "To Be With You", which received strong media play and reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Gilbert continued playing in Mr. Big until the late 90s. He left the band in 1997 to pursue a solo career, and was replaced by Richie Kotzen. Mr. Big disbanded in 2002.

[edit] Projects

In May 2003 he played on an only twice-performing project called Yellow Matter Custard, a Beatles cover band consisting of Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater), Neal Morse (ex-Spock's Beard), and Matt Bissonette. A CD and DVD are available. They took their name from a lyric in "I Am the Walrus": "Yellow matter custard, dripping from a dead dog's eye".

He rejoined Portnoy along with Dave LaRue and Daniel Gildenlöw for a Led Zeppelin tribute band called "Hammer of the Gods" in 2004, again with Portnoy in September 2005, with Sean Malone, and Jason McMaster in the Rush tribute band "Cygnus and the Sea Monsters", and yet again with Portnoy, Gary Cherone, and Billy Sheehan in May 2006, as Amazing Journey: A Tribute to The Who, playing three shows. The band (excluding Sheehan) destroyed their equipment after the show in homage.

He was also revealed to be the guest guitarist on the Neal Morse solo album, Sola Scriptura.

In 2007, Paul Gilbert toured with Bruce Bouillet for promotion of his first instrumental album, Get Out of My Yard, which was released in 2006. Paul Gilbert also joined Joe Satriani and John Petrucci in the 2007 G3 tour. This was the 5th North American G3 run and the 12th tour worldwide since its inception.

Paul's new instrumental CD titled Silence Followed By A Deafening Roar was released in Japan on January 23, 2008, in Europe on March 31, 2008, and in America on April 8, 2008. This is Paul's second instrumental album.^[1]

[edit] Influences and Style

Talking about his influences, Paul mentions many different artists, including Tony Iommi, Alex Lifeson, Jimmy Page, Robin Trower, Judas Priest, Yngwie Malmsteen, Akira Takasaki, Jimi Hendrix, Kiss, Van Halen, Randy Rhoads and The Ramones. He is also a great fan of The Beach Boys and The Beatles. He states on the Space Ship Live DVD that George Harrison is one of his favorite guitar players. Guitar World magazine declared him one of 50 of the world's fastest guitarists of all time, along with Buckethead, Eddie Van Halen, and Yngwie Malmsteen.

Gilbert composes music in a wide variety of styles including pop, rock, metal, blues, jazz, funk and classical, but is perhaps best known for his versatility and speed, which helped him be named as one of the "Top 10 Shredders Of All Time" by Guitar One Magazine.

[edit] Instructor

Paul Gilbert wrote his own section of the British guitar magazine, Total Guitar, where he normally demonstrated guitar techniques in the magazine and accompanying CD. Even before that, he contributed instructional articles to Guitar Player Magazine in a late 80s/early 90s series entitled "Terrifying Guitar 101". His period of working with Total Guitar spanned thirty-one issues until the November 2006 issue. Paul also teaches at the Guitar Institute of Technology (GIT) regularly, and is also an "honorary dean" of the GIT division in Japan. Before relocating to Henderson, NV and more recently LA, Paul lived in Japan in hopes of learning Japanese like his Shrapnel labelmate Marty Friedman, who to this day still lives in Japan and speaks Japanese fluently.

[edit] Gear

Paul Gilbert primarily uses his Ibanez PGM signature series guitars, identified by their unique painted "f-holes". Although earlier PGM models featured the Ibanez Lo-Pro/Edge double locking tremolo system, many of his guitars (such as his main PGM300) have since been modified to accommodate a fixed bridge, hence the Ibanez PGM301 series. Along with his signature guitars, Gilbert often uses his sticker-covered "Dino" Ibanez RG750, in addition to a wide variety of Ibanez solidbody and semi-hollow electric guitars. Recently, Gilbert started using specially-designed Ibanez Iceman guitars with reverse bodies. Regarding amps, Gilbert has used Laney amplifiers for many years, praising them as having "the best natural distortion of any tube amp ever heard". Since the G3 2007 tour however, Gilbert stated that playing with Joe Satriani and John Petrucci inspired him to take a closer look at his own guitar sound. As a result of his search he found the Marshall Vintage Modern series. Paul will be using two 2266c combo amps on the European G3 tour. Gilbert uses few effects, especially in comparison to some of his peers. He uses a Dunlop Wah, a delay, t.c.electronic flanger/chorus, Electro-Harmonix electric mistress flanger and an MXR phase 90, running the delay pedal in the effects loop of his Laney amps. On stage he has also been seen using a Fulltone OCD Overdrive, most recently at The Benefit for Cliff concert that took place at the House of Blues Los Angeles September 30, 2006.

He used ADA preamps and rack effects units prior to switching to Marshall. He currently uses the Marshall Vintage Modern 2266c combo amps.

Paul also used a modified vintage ADA Flanger from the 70s. You can hear it on tracks like 'Bucket of Rocks' and he also uses it on the 'Snowball of Doom' DVD. He also uses the Psilocybe phaser and THC chorus pedals from Home Brew Electronics.

Paul claims the Flanger has been modified and he uses it to change the pitch from high to low to create a sound similar to a dive bomb.

In the intro to "Get Out Of My Yard" Paul uses a Boss DD-3 Delay pedal to achieve the altered pitch looped effect at the beginning of the track. This was also demonstrated by Paul on the instructional DVD of the same name.

[edit] Discography

[edit] With Black Sheep

Trouble In The Streets (1985)

[edit] Racer X

[edit] Mr. Big

Mr. Big (1989)
Raw Like Sushi (1990)
Lean Into It (1991)
Raw Like Sushi II (1992)
Bump Ahead (1993)
Japandemonium: Raw Like Sushi 3 (1994)
Channel V at the Hard Rock Live (1996)
Hey Man (1996)
Big Bigger Biggest: Greatest Hits (1996)
Deep Cuts (2000)

[edit] Solo albums

Tribute to Jimi Hendrix (EP) (1991)
King of Clubs (1998)
Flying Dog (1998)
Beehive Live (1999)
Alligator Farm (2000)
Raw Blues Power With Jimi Kidd (2002)
Burning Organ (2002)
Paul the Young Dude/The Best of Paul Gilbert (2003)
Gilbert Hotel (2003)
Acoustic Samurai (2003)
Space Ship One (2005)
Get Out of My Yard (2006)
Tough Eskimo (limited edition EP) (2007)
Silence Followed By A Deafening Roar (2008)

[edit] Other appearances

Revelation - Darrell Mansfield Band (1985)
Pump It!' - Jeff Berlin (1986)
Out of the Sun - Joey Tafolla (1990)
Humanary Stew - A Tribute to Alice Cooper
Guitars That Rule the World (1992)
Smoke On The Water: A Tribute (1994)
Jeffology: A Guitar Chronicle (1996)
Merry Axemas - A Guitar Christmas (1997)
Mikazuki "In Rock" Sound Track, Guitar on tracks "Crescent Moon" & "Theme for Kazeo" (2000)
Becker 2001, Warmth in the Wilderness -A Tribute to Jason Becker(Guitar and vocals for Hawkin)
Hughes Turner Project - HTP (2002)
Atomic Basement Tapes - Missing Lynx
Battle Gear III: The Edge (played on "Charge and Discharge," "Morning View," and "The Machine of Rage" bonus tracks) (2003)
Kim Fox Return to Planet Earth (2003) Guitar on track 4
Guitar Wars (2003)
Return to the Planet Earth - Kim Fox (2003)
One Night in New York City - Yellow Matter Custard (2003) Available @ MikePortnoy.com
"Mieze" - Marco Minnemann (2004)
"Contraire de la chanson" - Marco Minnemann (2006)
Light at the End of the Tunnel - War & Peace (2006)(with Richie Kotzen, John Norum, Jeff Pilson)
Two Nights In North America - Hammer of the Gods (2006) Available @ MikePortnoy.com
One Night in Chicago - Cygnus and the Sea Monsters (2006) Available @ MikePortnoy.com
Live with Sex Machineguns - Tokyo (2005)
One Night in New York City - Amazing Journey (2007) Available @ MikePortnoy.com
Spin The Bottle - An All Star Tribute To Kiss (guitars on "I Want You") (2004)
Numbers from the Beast - An All Star Tribute to Iron Maiden (guitars on "The Evil That Men Do") (2005)
Evil Lives: A True Metal Tribute to Black Sabbath (with Racer X on Track 4: "Children of the Grave") (2006)
The Fool - Jeff Martin solo album (2006)
Sola Scriptura - Neal Morse (2007)
G3 Tour (2007)
Anthem For Tonight - Halifax