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Paul Gilbert

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Paul Gilbert

Born November 6, 1966
in Carbondale, Illinois
Alias(es) The Electric Bat
Dick Image
Genre(s) Heavy metal
Hard rock
Affiliation(s) Mr. Big
Racer X
Label(s) Universal Japan
Notable guitars Ibanez PGM signature series
Years active 1985–present
Official site Official website

Paul Brandon Gilbert (November 6, 1966) is a guitarist best known for his work with Racer X and Mr. Big. Following his departure from Mr. Big in 1996, Gilbert pursued a solo career.

Contents

[edit] Early history

Born in Carbondale, Illinois, he started playing guitar at the age of 5, but soon gave up, becoming frustrated with just learning simple nursery rhymes. Around age 11, he took up the guitar again, but with a skewed memory of the technique; he played only with upstrokes, and only used his middle finger to fret notes. Frustrated after trying to play a fast metal song with a galloping rhythm using this technique, he took lessons, and his teacher explained the error of his ways. His technique corrected, Gilbert continued practicing, and by the age of 15 he got his start at local clubs with his band Tau Zero but was even spotlighted in Guitar Player alongside fellow up-and-comer Yngwie Malmsteen.

[edit] Racer X

Formed in Los Angeles, this heavy metal band was originally formed by 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 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. Scott Travis was later known for being the Judas Priest drummer. Paul Gilbert gained recognition as one of the fastest guitar players in the world due to incredibly technical pieces like "Frenzy", "Scarified", "Technical Difficulties" and "Scit Scat Wah". Gilbert left Racer X in 1988, but he eventually would rejoin the band in 1999. In that year he recorded "Technical Difficulties", followed by "Superheroes" (2000), "Snowball Of Doom" (2002) and "Getting Heavier" (2002). Currently the band is inactive, but he hasn't issued any statements that he left the band.

[edit] 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 in 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. Gilbert continued playing in Mr. Big until the late 90s. He left the band in 1997 in order to start his solo career, and was replaced by virtuoso Richie Kotzen.

[edit] Influences and Style

Talking about his influences, Paul mentions many different artists, including Judas Priest, Yngwie Malmsteen, KISS, Van Halen, The Ramones and Green Day. He is also a great fan of The Beach Boys and The Beatles. He claims that George Harrison is one of his favorite guitar players.

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. He is also considered to be one of the best proponents of alternate picking, tapping and string-skipping.

[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 way before that, he contributed instructional articles to Guitar Player Magazine (late 80s/early 90s). 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). He works a great deal with GIT's division in Japan, where he lived for a time before relocating to LA. He also was the former teacher of Brian Carroll also known as Buckethead.

[edit] Projects

In 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. They take their name from a lyric in "I Am the Walrus": "Yellow matter custard, dripping from a dead dog's eye".

Gilbert along with Mike Portnoy, Gary Cherone, and Billy Sheehan performed three concerts in the end of May 2006 as Amazing Journey: A Tribute to The Who.

He also played with Portnoy, Dave LaRue, and Daniel Gildenlöw in a Led Zeppelin tribute band called "Hammer of the Gods", and with Portnoy, Sean Malone, and Jason McMaster in the Rush tribute band "Cygnus and the Sea Monsters".

He recently recorded his first instrumental album titled "Get Out Of My Yard!" in Los Angeles.

He was also revealed to be the guest guitarist on the new, as of yet untitled, Neal Morse solo album.

Paul Gilbert is currently going back on tour with Bruce Bouillet for his "Get Out Of My Yard" Tour.

[edit] Trivia

  • He is about 6' 4" (193 cm) tall.
  • He is half Polish
  • His wife, Emi, is Japanese
  • Speaks Japanese
  • Lived in Las Vegas for many years.
  • He became somewhat famous on the internet for showing a "basic" lesson of a fast tapping solo from a Japanese DVD for learners. This solo is "The Four Seasons" by Vivaldi
  • Is known to have a rather unusual sense of humour.
  • At one point had over 100 guitars.
  • Has recorded a cover of The Spice Girls' song 2 Become 1
  • Has recorded a cover of ABBA's song Dancing Queen
  • Played on the Joey Tafolla record Out of the Sun. Joey Tafolla is also a former student of Paul Gilbert.
  • Is a former instructor at Musician's Institute in Hollywood and a dean of the Musician's Institute in Tokyo, Japan
  • He sometimes plays using a drill with three picks attached to the end.
  • Contrary to much speculation, Paul Gilbert is not Buckethead.
  • He creates and updates his own website, www.paulgilbert.com [1]

[edit] Gear

Paul has an endorsement deal with Ibanez guitars, and uses the PGM signature series. His main guitar is a PGM300, however a few years ago he decided to convert it to a fixed bridge model, so Ibanez produced a model based on it which is called the PGM301. The majority of his guitars feature painted "f-holes". He is often seen with Laney amplifiers, and praises them as having "the best natural distortion of any tube amp ever heard." Gilbert uses few effects, especially in comparison to some of his peers. He uses a Dunlop Wah, a BOSS chorus and delay, 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 an 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 Laney. He currently uses the GH100L head and various 2x12 cabinets.

Paul has also used a vintage ADA Flanger from the 70's, you can hear it on tracks like 'Bucket of Rocks' and he also uses it on the 'Snowball of Doom' DVD. Paul claims the Flanger has been modified and he uses it to change the pitch from high to low to create a sound simular to a dive bomb.

[edit] Discography

[edit] With Racer X

[edit] With Mr. Big

[edit] Solo

[edit] Other appearances

  • Humanary Stew - A Tribute to Alice Cooper
  • Light at the End of the Tunnel - War & Peace (with Richie Kotzen, John Norum, Jeff Pilson)
  • Guitars That Rule the World (1992)
  • Merry Axemas - A Guitar Christmas (1997)
  • Guitar Wars (2003)
  • One Night in New York City - Yellow Matter Custard (2003)
  • 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)

[edit] Videography

  • Intense Rock - Sequences & Techniques
  • Intense Rock II
  • Guitars from Mars
  • Guitars from Mars II
  • Terrifying Guitar Trip
  • Eleven Thousand Notes
  • Guitar Wars
  • Space Ship Live

[edit] External links

es:Paul Gilbert fr:Paul Gilbert it:Paul Gilbert nl:Paul Gilbert ja:ポール・ギルバート pl:Paul Gilbert pt:Paul Gilbert fi:Paul Gilbert sv:Paul Gilbert

Retrieved from "http://en.wikivisual.com/index.php/Paul_Gilbert"
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