world of the guitar hero: PAUL GILBERT god of alternate picking

Paul Brandon Gilbert (born November 6, 1966 in Illinois) 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.Born in Carbondale, Illinois, into a middle class family, Paul started playing guitar at the age of 5, 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.

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, Steve Vai, Zakk Wylde, 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.

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 from a Floyd Rose tremolo model 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." In the gear section of Paul's website, he claims through playing with Joe Satriani and John Petrucci, he was inspired 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 Laney. 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.

Discography

Racer X
Street Lethal (1986)
Second Heat (1988)
Live Extreme, Volume 1 (1988)
Live Extreme, Volume 2 (1992)
Technical Difficulties (1999)
Superheroes (2000)
Snowball of Doom (2002)
Getting Heavier (2002)
Snowball of Doom 2 (2002)

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)

Solo albums
Tribute to Jimi Hendrix (EP) (1992)
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)
SILENCE FOLLOWED BY A DEAFENING ROAR (2008)

Videography

Intense Rock - Sequences & Techniques VHS version
Intense Rock II VHS version
Guitars from Mars Japanese DVD release
Guitars from Mars II Japanese DVD release
Terrifying Guitar Trip VHS version
Eleven Thousand Notes DVD
Guitar Wars DVD
Space Ship Live DVD
Complete Intense Rock (DVD)2006
Terrifying Guitar Trip (DVD)2006
Get Out of My Yard Instructional (DVD)2007
Get Out of My City Instructional (DVD/VCD)2007
One Night in New York City - Yellow Matter Custard (2003)
Two Nights In North America - Hammer of the Gods (2006)
One Night in Chicago - Cygnus and the Sea Monsters (2006)
One Night in New York City - Amazing Journey (2007)