Paul Brandon Gilbert (born November 6, 1966 in Illinois) is an American guitarist best known for his work with Racer X, Mr. Big, and his more recent instrumental albums. 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, and string skipping technique, and was named #4 on GuitarOne's "Top Shredders of All Time".
Early history
Bornin Carbondale, Illinois, into a middle class family, Paul started playing guitar at the age of 6, but soon gave up, becoming frustrated with just learning simple nursery rhymes. Around age 9, he took up the guitar again, but with a skewed memory of the technique. Paul revealed at an Ibanez sponsored guitar clinic August 12, 2005 in Concord, CA at Spitzer's Music, that he "played only with upstrokes, used only the low 'E' string and only used [his] middle finger on the fretboard." Frustrated after trying to play the intro to "Barracuda" by Heart, he took lessons and his teacher explained the error of his ways. His technique corrected, Gilbert continued practicing and by the age of 14 he developed a local band in Greensburg, PA named Missing Lynx. They played together for approximately two years and wrote their own material. After Missing Lynx he then went on to join another local band called Tau Zero, but left shortly after, and headed for California. He was spotlighted in Guitar Player Magazine alongside fellow up-and-comer Yngwie Malmsteen.
Racer X
Formed in Los Angeles, 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", "Y.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.
Projects
In May of 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, and in Europe on March 31, 2008. It is slated to come out in America on April 8, 2008. This is Paul's second instrumental album.
Influences and Style
Talking about his influences, Paul mentions many different artists, including Jimmy Page, Judas Priest, Yngwie Malmsteen, Akira Takasaki, 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.
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 and string skipping.
Instructor
PaulGilbert 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 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.
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 has also used a 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.
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.
Trivia
- Like guitarist Eric Johnson, Gilbert suffers from tinnitus, primarily in his left ear, due to playing at excessive volume, and now wears headphones on stage to prevent further hearing damage. When Johnson and Gilbert each did their first G3 (tour)'s, (Johnson in 1996 and Gilbert in 2007) they both were wearing headphones during the closing group jam.
- In the track "Daddy, Brother, Lover, Little Boy (The Drill Song)" by Mr. Big, the final 16 bars of the solo were played using a cordless drill with three picks attached to the end. After playing this song, Mr. Big got a sponsorship from Japanese power tool manufacturers, Makita, whose drills were used on all occasions from then on.
- He appeared several times on Marty Friedman's Japanese music show Rock Fujiyama as they are good friends.
- On the 31st of March 2006 Paul got married to Emi, a Japanese woman from Tokyo. She has been playing keyboards during Paul's tours in 2007. This is Paul's second marriage, the first was in the late 90's.
- On April 14 2007, during the G3 tour of 2007 at Sayereville, New Jersey, Paul orchestrated a small prank on stage during John Petrucci's song "Glasgow Kiss". He and his entire band dressed up in kilts and came on stage unexpectedly just after the guitar solo, performing a mock Scottish highland dance during the song's main theme melody.
