1. Paul Brandon Gilbert was born on November 6,1966 and is an American hard rock and heavy metal guitarist.
48 Facts About Paul Gilbert
1. 2.
Paul Gilbert is the co-founder of the band Mr Big, and was a member of Racer X, with whom he released several albums.
3.
In 1996, Gilbert launched a solo career, for which he has released numerous solo albums, and featured in numerous collaborations and guest appearances on other musicians' albums.
4.
Paul Gilbert was voted fourth-best on Guitar One magazine's 2007 "Top 10 Greatest Guitar Shredders of All Time".
5.
Paul Gilbert was ranked in Guitar World's 2008 list, "50 Fastest Guitarists of All Time".
6.
Paul Gilbert was ranked number one in Loudwire Magazine's list of "10 Stupidly Fast Guitarists in Metal".
7.
Paul Gilbert was raised mostly in the Pittsburgh suburb of Greensburg, Pennsylvania.
8.
Paul Gilbert began playing music at age six; by age 15, he was playing local clubs with his band, and had been featured in Guitar Player magazine.
9.
In 1982, Paul Gilbert attended a guitar seminar hosted by Randy Rhoads, whom he saw perform live twice.
10.
Around 1981, Paul Gilbert first contacted Mike Varney, asking for a gig with metal mega-star Ozzy Osbourne.
11.
Paul Gilbert was hired as a GIT instructor in 1985, and recorded Racer X's debut album Street Lethal soon after.
12.
Around this time, Paul Gilbert recorded his first instructional video, Intense Rock, in which he demonstrated a number of his famous techniques and practice regimens in detail.
13.
Paul Gilbert left Racer X in 1988, but reformed it after the 1996 breakup of Mr Big.
14.
Paul Gilbert contacted the members of Racer X, and all agreed to return with the exception of Bruce Bouillet, who could barely play guitar at the time due to a severe bout of carpal tunnel syndrome.
15.
When bass guitarist Billy Sheehan left David Lee Roth's solo band in 1988, he and Paul Gilbert co-founded Mr Big, which included Pat Torpey on drums and Eric Martin on vocals.
16.
Mr Big broke up in 1996, at which point Paul Gilbert launched his solo career.
17.
When Mr Big reformed soon after, Paul Gilbert, who was already committed to his own record contract, was replaced by Richie Kotzen.
18.
Mr Big disbanded again in 2002, but Paul Gilbert reunited the original members in June 2009 for a worldwide reunion tour.
19.
Paul Gilbert's last show took place at the Wulfrun Hall in Wolverhampton on November 23,2017.
20.
In May 2003 Paul Gilbert performed twice with the project Yellow Matter Custard, a Beatles cover band consisting of Mike Portnoy, Neal Morse, and Matt Bissonette.
21.
Paul Gilbert rejoined Portnoy along with Dave LaRue and Daniel Gildenlow for a Led Zeppelin tribute band called Hammer of the Gods in November 2003.
22.
Paul Gilbert was revealed to be the guest guitarist on the 2007 Neal Morse solo album Sola Scriptura.
23.
That same year, Paul Gilbert toured with Bruce Bouillet to promote Paul Gilbert's first instrumental album Get Out of My Yard.
24.
Paul Gilbert joined Joe Satriani and John Petrucci on the 2007 G3 tour.
25.
On January 23,2008, Paul Gilbert released an instrumental album titled Silence Followed by a Deafening Roar.
26.
On October 22,2008, Paul Gilbert released an album with vocalist Freddie Nelson entitled United States.
27.
Paul Gilbert performed with Racer X at the 2009 NAMM Show at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California.
28.
Paul Gilbert joined George Lynch and Richie Kotzen on the Guitar Generation tour.
29.
On June 25,2014, Paul Gilbert released his studio album Stone Pushing Uphill Man.
30.
Paul Gilbert is currently the Rock Guitar instructor for ArtistWorks, an online music school.
31.
On many occasions, Paul Gilbert has stated that his uncle Jimi Kidd was vital in heavily fueling Paul Gilbert's childhood interest in playing guitar.
32.
Paul Gilbert grew up a great fan of Rush, Todd Rundgren, Cheap Trick and The Beatles, artists who frequently influence his songwriting style.
33.
Paul Gilbert stated on the Space Ship Live DVD that George Harrison is one of his favorite guitar players.
34.
Paul Gilbert composes music in a wide variety of styles, including pop, rock, metal, blues, and funk.
35.
Paul Gilbert is best known for his shredding, stylistic versatility and efficient staccato picking technique.
36.
Paul Gilbert combines fast picking and legato techniques in the same phrase, usually instinctively.
37.
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.
38.
Paul Gilbert teaches at the Guitar Institute of Technology regularly, and is an "honorary dean" of the GIT division in Japan.
39.
Paul Gilbert is known for his instructional videos, which are often comical in nature.
40.
Paul Gilbert now writes a column for Premier Guitar entitled "Shred Your Enthusiasm".
41.
Paul Gilbert primarily uses his Ibanez PGM signature series guitars, identified by the unique painted on "F-holes".
42.
Recently, Paul Gilbert has been using Ibanez "Fireman" guitars, which he designed himself.
43.
In 2014, Paul Gilbert announced his new Ibanez signature model guitar, FRM250MF, at the NAMM Show in 2014.
44.
Paul Gilbert endorses Direct Sound extreme isolation headphones, using the EX-29 model.
45.
In 2020, Paul Gilbert collaborated with boutique pedal maker JHS Pedals and released the "PG-14" tube-like distortion pedal.
46.
Paul Gilbert is a long time user of Ernie Ball strings and has used a variety of different gauges on his electric guitars, and he has stated he has used as light as their.
47.
For picks, Paul Gilbert currently uses several variations of Dunlop Tortex.
48.
Paul Gilbert was married from 1993 to 1998 to Patricia Paul Gilbert.