THE FINE PRINT - Paul Gilbert's Guitar World Column

Paul Gilbert warming up We've done numerous lessons with Paul Gilbert over the years, but none as extensive as the one we did here at Guitar World headquarters today! We flew Paul in just for this lesson with Andy Aledort, which will be used for a series of columns in the near future.Paul was a true gent and came in fully prepared for a day of guitar teaching...he brought his full pedalboard, a dry-erase marker board for some visual aid, and of course his signature Ibanez PGM301 electric guitar. A Paul Gilbert pick Paul even hung around a bit after the lesson was done to talk technique with some of the multimedia crew, showing them various exercises that might improve their playing and imparting some of the fretboard wisdom he's acquired over the years. The Guitar World office guitar as of July 2008 And of course, we couldn't let Paul leave without letting him sign the Guitar World office guitar. As you can see from the photo, the guitar is filling up fast...actually, it might be time to retire this baby and find a new axe for people to sign. This Les Paul Studio has been signed by such ace players as Rudolf Schenker & Matthias Jabs from the Scorpions, Yngwie Malmsteen, Glenn Tipton & K.K. Downing from Judas Priest, Dave Mustaine, John Petrucci, Michael Angelo Batio, Steve Howe, Slash and others.Special thanks to Paul Gilbert for spending the day with us--watch for his new Guitar World column soon! Click on any of the thumbnails to see the photos full size.

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As a teenager, Jeff Kitts began his career in the mid ’80s as editor of an underground heavy metal fanzine in the bedroom of his parents’ house. From there he went on to write for countless rock and metal magazines around the world – including Circus, Hit Parader, Metal Maniacs, Rock Power and others – and in 1992 began working as an assistant editor at Guitar World. During his 27 years at Guitar World, Jeff served in multiple editorial capacities, including managing editor and executive editor before finally departing as editorial director in 2018. Jeff has authored several books and continues to write for Guitar World and other publications and teaches English full time in New Jersey. His first (and still favorite) guitar was a black Ibanez RG550.

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