Paul Gilbert
 |
Paul Gilbert |
Paul Brandon Gilbert (
November 6,
1966) is the guitarist of band
Racer X and formerly of the band
Mr. Big. After he parted ways with Mr. Big in 1996, Gilbert pursued his career as a solo guitarist and has evolved into a successful solo artist/singer/songwriter.
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 was not only touring local clubs with his band Tau Zero but was even spotlighted in
Guitar Player alongside fellow up-and-comer
Yngwie Malmsteen. Now, he is recognized as one of the best metal guitar players, a status due to his undeniably amazing technique, clarity, creativity and versatility.
Talking about his influences, Paul mentions many different artists, including
Judas Priest,
KISS,
Van Halen and, rather surprisingly for a guitar
shredder,
the Ramones. He is also a great fan of
Green Day.
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. His guitar work is characterised by his floating right hand contrary to the more common anchored right hand that guitarists like
Pink Floyd's
David Gilmour favour. He is also considered to be one of the best proponents of
alternate picking.
Contrary to much speculation, Paul Gilbert is not
Buckethead. Buckethead was Paul's student for approximately a year, during this time was when he decided to wear a mask. The KFC bucket came later.
Paul Gilbert writes his own section of the British guitar magazine,
Total Guitar. He normally demonstrates guitar techniques in the magazine and the accompanying CD. Paul also teaches at the
Guitar Institute of Technology (GIT) which he attended, along with Gary Hoey and many other talented guitar players. He works a great deal with GIT's division in Japan, where he lived for a time before relocating to LA.
Gilbert along with
Mike Portnoy,
Gary Cherone, and
Billy Sheehan will be performing three concerts in the end of May 2006 as
Amazing Journey: A Tribute to The Who.
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".
*He is about 6' 4" (193 cm) tall.
*He is half
Polish*His wife, Emi is
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.
*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*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,
JapanGilbert is endorsed by
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.
With Racer X
*
Street Lethal (1986)*
Second Heat (1988)*
Extreme Volume - Live (1988)*
Extreme Volume II - Live (1992)*
Technical Difficulties (1999)*
Superheroes (2000)Live At The Whisky: Snowball Of Doom (2001)
*
Snowball Of Doom (2002)*
Getting Heavier (2002)*
Snowball Of Doom 2 (2002) (only available as a bonus with the japanese version of 'Getting Heavier')
With Mr. Big
*
Mr. Big (1989)*
Raw Like Sushi (1990)*
Lean Into It (1991)*
Raw Like Sushi 2 (1992)*
Bump Ahead (1993)*
Japandemonium (1994)*
Channel V At The Hard Rock Live (1996)*
Hey Man (1996)*
Big Bigger Biggest (1996)Solo
*
Tribute to Jimi Hendrix (1992)
*
King of Clubs (1997)*
Flying Dog (1998)*
Beehive Live (1999)*
Alligator Farm (2000)*
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)Other albums involving Gilbert include:
*
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)
*
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*
The official Paul Gilbert site*
Paul Gilbert song lyrics*
The official Racer X site*
Schematic of Paul's live rig*
Paul Gilbert's Official Myspace Page
