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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.

Trivia

Gear

Gilbert 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.

Discography

With Racer X

With Mr. Big

Solo

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)

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

External links

1966 births | Living people | Rock guitarists

Paul Gilbert | Paul Gilbert | Paul Gilbert | Paul Gilbert | Paul Gilbert | ポール・ギルバート | Paul Gilbert | Paul Gilbert | Paul Gilbert

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Paul Gilbert".

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