Paul Gilbert may be a virtuoso shredder, and he may have been Eddie Van Halen’s pick to teach guitar to his son, Wolfgang. However, he’s also very much aware of the importance of quality songwriting and the idea that, sometimes, less is more – and it all goes back to Todd Rundgren.

“I remember being about 22. I was teaching every day at GIT [L.A.’s Guitar Institute of Technology] and having a blast, and every day I'd come up with a new 16th note phrase,” he says on the No Cover Charge Podcast.

“Every time I'm a 16th note genius, every day I get something new, and what I realized, [is that] they all sound the same emotionally. They're the same. They're all some version of [the same time thing].”

However, his obsession with mastering 16th notes and virtuosic technique soon abated when he went to a concert that wholly changed his perception.

“With an eight-minute song, [it] completely changed my life,” he says matter-of-factly. “So Todd Rundgren [was] doing a song called Hawking. It was almost like a gospel song, a really slow tempo – all these harmony background vocals and horns, two keyboard players – and there's Lyle Workman [renowned session and touring guitarist] playing guitar.”

Although Gilbert admits that Workman “was great,” it wasn’t the guitar that truly moved him. Rather, “it was the song and the vocal and this arrangement”.

He remembers, “I was sobbing for eight minutes, and after that I was like, ‘I don't care so much about guitar solos anymore.’

“I want to write something that follows that beacon of emotion, whatever it is,” he continues. “It didn't have to be that emotion all the time, or everything I do be a crying festival, but just something moves myself and hopefully some other people.

And, speaking of stepping back from crazy guitar solos, earlier this year, Gilbert released his first album in 10 years featuring vocals, WROC, which stands for “Washington’s Rules of Civility.”

“To me, that is actually a courageous thing to do, to not go crazy all the time, and rely on the fact that it works for the song – and not have to prove yourself every single second,” he told Music Radar about practicing restraint when it comes to shredding.

Elsewhere in that same interview, he talks about the universal need for guitar players – even ones as established as himself and Joe Satriani – to prove their skills with every album.

Today, in what is yet another sign that the give-me-tubes-or-give-me-death attitude is dying out among guitar players, Paul Gilbert has joined the ranks of digital converts – at least so far as the Fender Tone Master series of modeling amps is concerned.

The shred pioneer shared his latest rig on Instagram. Gone are the traditional Fender amps, and in their stead comes a pair of Tone Master Twin Reverbs.

“I’ve got one in front of me for a monitor, and one behind me to rock the house,” he wrote. “Classic tone that gets my pedals across loud, clear and full of WROC!”

Gilbert’s dual digital combo amp setup is a change of pace for him. This was not his rig for the recording of WROC, the album he wrote using lyrics adapted from George Washington’s guidebook for social etiquette, Rules of Civility.

WROC, tracked mostly live (those promo videos of him jamming with the band are largely what you hear on the record), saw Gilbert deploy a ‘90s Fender Custom Vibrolux Reverb into a Randall Isolation cabinet, with a Vibrolux from the ‘60s being used as a wedge monitor. Gilbert also used a Victoria Club Deluxe (ostensibly a single-channel Deluxe Reverb-style amp) as a volume boost for solos. All three are tube amps.

Is this shift to the digital Tone Master platform a permanent change? Time will tell. But it proves that, to Gilbert’s ear, the digital Twin is just as effective as the analog when it comes to pedal platforms – and with the right ‘board that makes for a compelling hard-rock rig.

Still, it’s kind of blowing people’s mind. As one commentator noted: “If you would have told me 15 years ago that Paul Gilbert’s main amp in the future would be a solid state Fender Twin, I’d have said you were off your rocker.” And you would have been right to say so.

This post also gives us a chance to examine Gilbert’s signal chain. There are a few familiar favorites on that pedalboard – the MXR Stereo Chorus, the “holy grail” A/DA flanger, the Jam Pedals RetroVibe – but some notable absentees. Where has his signature gain pedal, the JHS PG-14, gone? Where is the TC Electronic MojoMojo?

Well, maybe this is a job that the JHS Moonshine V2 overdrive pedal is now undertaking. But the big question is whether the tube amps will make a return, or if their digital alternates prove themselves to be just too effective and low maintenance to leave behind.

Earlier this year, Guitar World sat down with Paul Gilbert to discuss all-things-guitar, and asked why he was unable to give Wolfgang Van Halen a guitar lesson when Eddie came calling...

“What could be more of a concept than this?” Paul Gilbert asks rhetorically, speaking about his new solo album, WROC. “It’s as concept album as it could possibly be, but hopefully, with repeated listenings, the music will take over and the concept will fall like the scaffolding of a beautiful building.”

The guitarist certainly has a point: WROC (which stands for “Washington’s Rules of Civility”) is indeed one wild and wacky concept album, an utterly unique and unorthodox set of tunes based around a French etiquette guide from the late 1500s that America’s first president copied as a school penmanship exercise.

“It was an English translation called Rules Of Civility & Decent Behavior In Company And Conversation,” Gilbert explains. “George Washington wrote it all down, and he took the ideas to heart. While everybody around him behaved like ruffians, he was decent and stoic, so people were like, ‘Well, we’ve got to listen to George.’ I think that’s why the book became attributed to him.”

Gilbert had first read the book decades ago, but on a flight home to Portland, Oregon, from Tokyo, where Mr. Big concluded their farewell tour, he poured through it again – and was seized by a crazy idea.

“I kept thinking, ‘Does a record have to be about something in the first place? And if it does, what should that be?’” he says. “I’ve never been particularly enamored with that part of songwriting and record making. My favorite part is the melodies and the guitar riffs and what pedal I'm using. But I decided that if the record had to be about something, I ought to try to do it as well as I could.”

Drawing on his own experiences as the basis for songs has never been Gilbert’s forte. “I’m just not that interesting to myself,” he says. “Either that or the things I think about in my daily existence just aren’t great food for material.”

For years, he had been looking for a proper lyricist – “my own Bernie Taupin or Neil Peart” – and he jokes that “George Washington became my collaborator. The rules of a centuries-old etiquette book is an unusual place to draw from, but something about it puts a smile on my face.”

Gilbert notes that such an uncommon collaboration yielded another, totally unexpected but convenient benefit: No need to pay royalties to a co-writer. “Public domain!” he laughs. “That worked out nicely.”

He admits that he turned to another source – AI – for lyric-writing assistance, which delivered mixed results. On the one hand, the technology rendered elaborate and cumbersome lines from the book as actual song verses and choruses – to a point.

“AI did provide some structure, but it’s not a real songwriter,” Gilbert says. “I would have a conversation with it and say things like, ‘We need to work on this. It needs more repetition in the chorus. So it did that, and I’d say, ‘Okay, but it’s too long and it needs a bridge.’ After a while, I realized what needed to be done to make the words feel like song lyrics, and I didn’t need AI anymore.”

There’s nothing genteel about the music on WROC – these are some of Gilbert’s hardest rocking tunes yet. Go Not Thither is a heavy artillery loadblower that sees the guitarist knocking out gnarly, Billy Gibbons-esque blues riffs, while Keep Your Feet Firm and Even is a stomping and raging twin-lead guitar behemoth.

George Washington Rules is a double-musket boogie burner, and for madcap, blitzing prog-rock there’s Maintain a Sweet and Cheerful Countenance.

Throughout the set, Gilbert sounds fresh and alive, and it’s no wonder: Most of the time, guitarists are rehashing their usual routines; the tunes are stiff and dead before they’re even laid down.

But Gilbert is way out of his comfort zone on these songs, and he’s having the time of his life.

“I’m like anybody else – I pick up the guitar and play what I know,” he says. “But these tunes made it impossible for me to go to the same old places, and it all started with the writing. I mean ‘let your discourse with men of business be short and comprehensive, be not tedious unless you find the company pleased there with’ – I can only remember that because I figured out a melody for it.

“Oh, my God, I was tearing up laughing when I sang that. It was so much fun to take this archaic English, plus the meaning of it, and put it to a rock groove.”

Gilbert convened a tight team of players – drummer Nick D’Virgilio, bassist Timmer Blakely, and guitarist Doug Rappoport – at Portland’s Hallowed Halls Studios and ripped through the album’s 13 songs in four days.

“Budget-wise, the temptation is to record everything at home, but I just find it harder to rock that way,” he says. “I like playing with a band. Making music is a lot more fun in the studio, and the other benefit is, it forces you to decide and move on.

“You go in and hear it, and you’re like, ‘Oh, absolutely. This is great.’ At home, you’re tempted to tinker and go over the top with everything. It’s constantly, ‘Well, I don’t know… Maybe if we put on another double guitar part – that’ll fix it.’ You can spend forever making a song worse.”

In the video of Go Not Thither, Gilbert brandishes one of his Ibanez FRM350 signature guitars while decked out in a bespoke reproduction of a Revolutionary War outfit, complete with tricorn. He’s considering wearing the costume on tour, but that depends on whether he can order some duplicates in time.

“I’ll definitely need another pair of pants, a little longer and not as baggy. I didn’t do such a good job of measuring myself,” he says. “They’re not actually called ‘pants,’ they’re called ‘breaches.’ Once I get my breaches in order, I should be in good shape.”

• WROC is out now via Music Theories
• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Paul Gilbert is a rare example of a musician who has pushed the envelope of his instrument while also achieving commercial success.

He's a virtuoso guitarist who is respected worldwide for his work with shred metal pioneers Racer X. He's a bona fide rockstar who has topped the charts and filled arenas with Mr. Big, as well as maintaining a prolific and varied solo career. His latest album, WROC (which stands for Washington's Rules of Civility), could be his most outlandish offering to date.

Before all this though, Paul was a student and a tutor at LA's G.I.T. (Guitar Institute of Technology, later Musicians Institute) who stunned and informed '80s students with his speed and precision. He was the Yoda of rock for countless Jedi Padawans.

We asked him to look back at his trademark G.I.T. era licks, taking them from technique-building exercises to effective musical phrases. So grab your guitar and amp for this fun deep dive into the heady days of '80s shred licks to boost your chops and musicality!

Example 1a: A Dorian lick (0:21 in the video)

This example features the A Dorian mode (A B C D E F# G) and is played using legato (fretting hand hammer-ons and pull-offs) and outside picking (up-pick the first string, downpick the second string – the pick to string contact is outside the strings).

The sequence stays the same on the second string while the note on the first (high E) string moves up and down the scale. For the highest note (C on the 8th fret, first string), you will fret with the fourth finger and then roll it across so it frets the G note (8th fret, second string).

The first string notes are played with an upstroke, while the lone picked note on the second string is played with a downstroke. Paul suggests digging in hard to the picked notes to draw out pinched harmonics. This lick also works great with every note picked using strict up-down alternate picking.

Example 1b: A Dorian Lick, version 2 (6:35 in the video)

The same phrasing and picking articulation from exercise 1a can be extended to other note groupings from the A Dorian mode. Moving the sequence up a minor third introduces larger stretches that Paul frets with the first, third and fourth fingers again.

Experiment with the second finger in place of the third finger if this is uncomfortable, but be sure to pay attention to the wrist and elbow positioning.

As Paul points out in the video, the whole arm and hand play an important role in accessing speed and dexterity, a commonly overlooked part of good guitar technique.

Example 1c: Chromatic lick (7:50 in the video)

To demonstrate that this concept can work with any scale or set of notes, we have a chromatic version of the original exercise. Consider expanding this by starting on the third or fourth strings and introduce string skips.

Example 2a: E minor pentatonic lick (8:33 in the video)

This begins with an ascending E minor pentatonic (E G A B D) sequence favored by Jimmy Page and Ace Frehley who were big influences on Paul. It moves into classic Gilbert territory by adding the second degree of the minor scale, and a repeating pull-off motif on the top two strings.

The wrist roll from the first exercise is again employed. The liberal use of pull-offs makes the picking less of a concern, but players who want to replicate Paul’s approach (he often uses outside picking to cross strings) will want to play close attention to the pick strokes indicated below the tab.

Example 2b: E minor blues lick (14:45 in the video)

Here's a great minor blues companion to exercise 2a that features rolls, bends, hammer-ons and pull-offs. Mr. Big recordings and Paul's more recent solo albums feature plenty of ideas like this, and players such as Nuno Bettencourt, Zakk Wylde and John Sykes use similar concepts.

Take your time and work in small sections before piecing it all together – a common approach to shred guitar creativity.

Example 2c: E minor blues lick, version 2 (15:00 in the video)

This variation of Paul's previous minor blues lick breaks up the phrasing with strategic rest strokes and staccato picking. All three exercises here demonstrate the power of rearranging familiar pentatonic box shape with select notes from the minor, Dorian and blues scales. Lots of fresh options and lots of fun!

Example 3a: The Hip A7 scale: A Mixolydian+b3+b5 (16:48 in the video)

Paul’s creative approach to playing over dominant chords often features a hybrid Mixolydian, Dorian and Blues scale he simply calls 'The Hip A7 Scale'. It's A Mixolydian (A B C# D E F# G) plus b3 (C note) and b5 (Eb note).

The example below simply lays the notes out on the fretboard - learn this first then you'll appreciate the next example on a deeper theoretical level. This fully rounded approach to tuition was a key element of G.I.T – expand student's theory and technique for wider musical expression.

Example 3: The Hip A7 lick (15:31 in the video)

Paul's Hip A7 lick is a perfect example of venturing beyond rigid scale shapes and embracing the bluesy foundations of rock guitar, where conviction and style reign supreme.

Building on the ingredients from exercise 3a, this sequence sounds sophisticated by contrasting chord tones from A7 (the notes are A C# E G) with extensions and alterations like the minor third (#9 - C), flattened fifth (#11 - Eb) and sixth (13th - F#).

Adding these notes to a dominant 7th chord's notes (or even the minor or major pentatonics) is a great way to morph rock and blues licks into jazz and fusion lines.

Paul Gilbert discusses his fretting hand technique

How did your fretting hand’s third and fourth fingers get strong and independent of each other?

My first two years on guitar were all self-taught. For some reason, I only used my middle finger. When I finally started taking lessons, my teacher suggested an exercise to get my other fingers moving. The exercise was one-finger-per-fret, across all six strings, starting on the 1st fret. I had big hands as an 11-year-old, so I could handle playing F, F#, G, G# with all four fingers on the sixth string. That became a habit.

So when I learned an A minor scale with A, B, C on the first string, I used my first finger, third finger, and pinky (fourth finger). It worked right away, so I never considered an alternative. I must admit that few of my '70s guitar heroes use this fingering, and I certainly wouldn't have them change anything. In most cases, I don't think there is a particular advantage. It's more a personal quirk. But once in a while that fingering will offer something unique, plus I'm just used to it.

How did you develop strength and stamina for big stretches?

I used to play [Van Halen's] Spanish Fly over and over again when I was a teenager. That was my daily warm-up. I also practiced trills between all my fingers. A trill between the third finger and fourth finger takes some doing! And I would even practice these on a bass, to build more stamina. I was 18 years old. Now if I need stamina, I just use 7s!

How did you develop your fourth finger vibrato?

I do pinky vibrato all the time, with help from the other fingers! And it's actually the wrist (a much larger and powerful body part) that's driving the whole thing. I wouldn't dare send the energy of my wrist into my pinky by itself. I'd get an injury, fast! So the pinky is just getting the note, and the other fingers are providing more skin and stability.

What is good rock vibrato?

Let's take a look at bad vibrato first, as we can learn from it. The most common bad vibrato is when the vibrato starts fast... then freezes. To fix it, just flip the order around. Start with no vibrato. Then gradually speed it up. Then you need to have a stylish transition out of it. That can be a slide, a pitch scratch, an intentional stop, or a muted sweep into the next chord. Use anything to get out of the vibrato before it freezes!

In terms of technique, frozen notes typically come from the wrist being in a classical position under the neck. Look up some photos of the vibrato masters of the '70s. Jimi Hendrix, Brian May, Gary Moore, Jimmy Page, Ace Frehley, and Leslie West all have their thumbs hanging over the top of the neck. This is an indication of where the wrist is. The wrist drives the vibrato. The wrist is powerful! Frozen notes disappear!

Nobody told me any of that when I was a kid. I just wanted to look and sound like Jimmy Page. And the low-slung guitar helped, as it banished classical hand position. For rock vibrato, the low-slung guitar gets the wrist in just the right place. I wear my guitar up a bit higher these days, but my vibrato technique was honed with a long guitar strap and '70s heroes in my ears.

What is a common fretting hand problem you could help everyone solve?

So much of my style is dependent on a "wrist up" rock wrist position. Besides the power and control of wrist-driven vibrato, it also makes it easier to do finger rolls from string to string on the same fret. It makes noise-control easier, as it gets you in position to mute adjacent strings to the one you're playing. And I believe the rock wrist position gives extra strength and speed to hammer-ons and pull-offs as well.

The only time I make an exception is on barre chords, or big stretches on the lower strings. For those, I just tilt the neck up a bit to get my wrist in temporary classical position until the phrase is done, and then I'm back to rock wrist. For all of this, the most important part of your hand is... your ears!

Paul Gilbert's new album, WROC, is out now.

More Paul Gilbert!

Racer X - Street Lethal

While Mr Big launched Paul to bona fide rock god status, the title track of the debut Racer X album established him as a shred superhero. Blistering three-notes-per-string sequences, intense vibrato and surgical diad riffing make Street Lethal stand out!

Paul Gilbert - Go Not Thither

Paul channels the pentatonic swagger of Mahogany Rush, Pat Travers and Montrose with this uptempo groove from his latest album WROC. The solo seamlessly blends Mixolydian, Dorian and blues scale phrases with a syrupy tone and vibrato which highlights the influence of Robin Trower.

Once Doug Rappoport felt the guttural howl of Angus Young’s Gibson SG, he was hooked on rock for life. “I heard the first crushing chords of Back in Black and it just knocked me to the back of the wall,” he says.

As a result, he accidentally stepped into session work in his late teens; then, once again by happenstance, he landed a gig with Edgar Winter, which he hung onto for 20 years.

“I ended up immersed in the whole classic scene,” Rappoport says. “That’s where I connected with Rick Derringer. He started inviting me to play with him and took me out on the road.”

While he had chops early on, he loved to learn from his elders. “I was pretty green when Edgar hired me – I was younger than the rest of the guys in the band by quite a bit. Edgar saw potential; I’d pester him, saying, ‘How am I doing? What can I improve on?’

“I watched those guys closely and picked up a lot about rhythm guitar, chord voicings, and tone. And I heard a lot of stories of rock ‘n’ roll debauchery! It was a great hang.”

COVID ended Rappoport’s run with Winter, but he’s busier than ever. He’s landed a gig with Asia, and worked on Paul Gilbert's latest record, Rawk, with a tour to follow. Then he has sessions, solo work, and more.

“Paul has the same basic influences,” he says. “We work really well together. I’m able to keep up with him – barely!”

What are your earliest memories of music in your life?

I heard Back in Black, and that was it. But I’d discovered music through Queen when I was about 4. When I was 10 I went to a small private school in West LA, where the kids were rockers. When we went out in the schoolyard they’d have their boomboxes playing Journey, Zeppelin, Aerosmith, AC/DC, and Van Halen. I liked it all!

What inspired you to pick up the guitar?

My mom had a piano and I used to noodle around on it. Later I got some money together and bought Back in Black and For Those About to Rock, and I’d play them over and over again, air-guitaring with a tennis racket. When I heard Hell’s Bells and that guitar solo, I said, “I have to do this!” I begged my parents to get me guitar lessons. That’s the DNA of my playing – Angus and Malcolm Young.

How did you step into session work?

Kind of by accident. For me, music was a solo journey; I didn’t have any mentors or anyone to measure myself against. I didn’t know if I was any good; so by the time I was 18 or 19, I was just trying to find out. I called people and asked to play for them.

A guy named Andy Brower in LA, who had a little studio, agreed to let me. That was good because he knew all the session guys. I just wanted him to go, “You’ve got to do this,” or, “You’re no good!” But he really liked me and ended up bringing me in on lots of sessions.

What gear were you using back then?

Whatever he loaned me! All I had was a crappy Strat and a practice amp. So I’d go to his studio and he’d loan me gear.

You eventually joined Edgar Winter’s band, staying on for 20 years. How did that come about?

I was working in Beverly Hills in the packing and shipping department of a Chinese art auction house. The owner wanted to record an album of jazz dances – he’d always wanted to be a singer. Now that he had zillions of dollars, he hired some guys to record, and my job was to drive the engineer around and hump his gear. I said, “Hey, man, I’m a musician,” and gave him a demo CD.

He ended up calling Edgar, saying, “I know you just hired somebody, but I found this guy who you might wanna check out.” Edgar listened to my CD, and out of nowhere I got a call from him. The audition was me sitting in his house while he sang me a bunch of licks, or played them on the piano, and I copied them.

He was like, “Oh, good, good!” and we’d sort of trade blues licks back and forth. He’d put on a track, and say, “Play a solo over this.” That was it. I got a call a couple of weeks later telling me I got the gig. I ended up touring with him for 20 years.

How did your rig evolve over those years?

I had that same beat-up old Strat and a Yamaha digital amp. When we did a short tour I shipped the amp, and Edgar was horrified! He said, “Doug, your tone is atrocious!” I think I just called someone and said, “Hey, I’m in Edgar Winter’s band. Can you give me a nice deal on an amp?”

Beyond that, I had a beat-up Les Paul that never stayed in tune, but I really liked the sound of it. I brought it on the road, and we always had some sort of beat-up JCM2000 Marshall. I tried all kinds of different pedals.

What was the key to nailing classic songs like Frankenstein?

Edgar’s not very particular about the notes you play, just as long as you hit the key parts of the song. He showed me the parts, but overall he was pretty free. He wants you to do what you wanna do.

When I first joined the band he extended Frankenstein to over 20 minutes. There were multiple solos, and I had a long solo, and the thing just stretched out. In the 20 years that I played with Edgar, we maybe did the radio version three times – and I don’t know that we ever did it the right way!

What led to the end of your run with Edgar?

We toured all the way up until the COVID shutdown. For lack of a better term, Edgar is a bit of a germophobe. He was really nervous, but he ended up feeling a bit more comfortable once the vaccines came out. He went out with Ringo, and now he’s pushing 80, and it’s just stopped after that. So it’s not that I quit; it just stopped.

You recorded a pretty shred-heavy solo for Metro PCS a bunch of years back. What’s the story there?

I got that gig from Tosh Yanagi. He called me out of the blue and asked if I could sub for him. I said, “Yeah,” and that was it. I have this Bogner 412 amp, which is my go-to. I spent hours micing and testing each speaker until I found the sweet spots, so I brought that. I might have had a Friedman too.

I showed up at a really fancy studio, which I think Fleetwood Mac built for Tusk, and it looked like they had about 100 microphones on my cab! They just cut me loose – they just said, “Shred!” and that was it! I did a few takes; it was pretty quick and easy. That’s the only time I got mail money – you know, money sent in the mail. I got it for as long as that thing was running.

Now you’re focused mainly on your solo work and sessions, what’s the latest in your toolkit?

I moved up to Oregon about 10 years ago. I’m not readily available to show up at all the studios around bigger cities, so I do everything remotely. I use my Universal Audio OX 99 percent of the time. And man, that thing records just incredibly.

It’s got two circuits – one is the clone of Jimmy Page’s Marshall, and the Eddie Van Halen circuit is the second part. Between those two I can hit every killer Marshall tone ever. I’ve been using it for virtually all of my sessions.

I also picked up an ENGL artist edition, which started out as a Doug Aldrich signature amp many years ago, before they parted ways. Everybody who tried it loved it; Gary Moore was using it. But they never really put it out. I got my hands on one, and it’s fantastic. I use that for all the heavier stuff.

I’ve got a Les Paul Gold Top, which is my go-to. And a couple of years ago, I picked up a guitar I’d dreamed of having forever – a white Gibson Les Paul Custom, like Randy Rhoads’. It’s got a magic tone so I use that quite a bit too.

You just wrapped up the Rawk album with Paul Gilbert. What’s that been like?

Paul is unbelievable. First of all, however fast you think he is, he’s faster! Things that are effortless for him are just mind-boggling to me. It’s really pushing me to my limits. He also knows every song ever written! You can name anything from The Carpenters to AC/DC; he knows all of it, and loves it. We match well because he loves classic rock.

Beyond that, you’ve joined Asia and have your solo career. What’s next?

I would love to get an album done. I haven’t done one since 2008, but I’ve got tons of riffs recorded. Other than that playing with Asia has been a blast. We’ve got some dates coming up. And I’m still working with Paul. I’m playing rhythm guitar, of course, because it’s Paul Gilbert!

We’re getting ready for a tour; we’re gonna do about five weeks. I’ve been working like crazy on that, because I gotta have all these Racer X licks under my belt.

And I’ve been playing with a Japanese artist named Eikichi Yazawa. He’s like Elvis over there but no one outside of Japan knows him. I’ve been playing with him for about eight years. I’m gonna go over there in the fall and winter to tour with him.

Paul Gilbert’s completely unplanned Jimi Hendrix tribute set – which he performed in 1991 after a gig with Albert Collins fell through – is set to be released digitally for the first time.

It’s been described by a press release as “the album that almost never was, or never should have been”. An accidental blessing that, had things panned out slightly differently, may never have existed.

As the story goes, Gilbert – flying high on a Mr. Big Lean Into It wave at the time – was invited to trade solos with blues icon Collins at the Frankfurt Jazz Festival in Germany. Gilbert, who was on tour in Europe at the time, said yes.

Unfortunately, the Gilbert/Collins collab never came to be, after Collins suffered health issues that rendered him unable to perform. The festival organisers were scrambling. They needed someone to fill the headline slot.

Gilbert was the obvious choice. But he had come alone. He had no band, no material, no idea what to play. He and the promoters had to salvage something at the last minute. Naturally, Gilbert was up for the challenge.

“The promoter was panicking and asked me to be the headlining act instead,” Gilbert remembers. “I didn't have a band with me. And I didn't have any solo material prepared.”

With the help of the promoters, Gilbert assembled a backing band comprising the bassist and drummer from the Alvin Lee-led Ten Years After. Then it was just a question of figuring out what to play.

“The only thing I could think to do was to quickly rehearse some Jimi Hendrix songs, and make the solos long enough to fill up a whole set. I told the promoter, "We only have time to learn 5 songs, so I'm going to have to play REALLY LONG SOLOS.”

Really long solos at a jazz festival? The promoters were sold. A few hours of rehearsals alter, and Gilbert and his makeshift band were hurtling through fiery renditions of Red House, Hey Joe, Highway Chile, Midnight and Purple Haze – all with suitably lengthy leads to fill the slot time.

“It turned out great,” Gilbert says. “I don't think I've ever played such long solos in my life!”

It was not only an excellent exercise in the discipline of improvising, adapting, and overcoming, but also a suitable opportunity for Gilbert to honor one of his heroes.

He continues, “Jimi’s songs are such great vehicles for jamming. His writing invites musicians to play with each other and listen to each other. The songs are flexible enough to allow musicians to keep their own style and still make the song work.

“In the end, the pressure of pulling everything together quickly in front of an audience – and being worry-free about endless guitar jamming – may actually have brought me closer to Hendrix’s spirit than if I had planned everything while sitting in a chair.”

Tribute To Jimi Hendrix will be released on June 12 to celebrate the set's 25th anniversary, marking the album’s first digital release. The first track, that scorching cover of Purple Haze, is available now.

Wolfgang Van Halen has proved himself a phenomenal guitar talent – but he didn’t learn it from his dad, who he has previously called a “great guitarist but a terrible guitar teacher”.

So much so, in fact, that Eddie once phoned fellow virtuoso Paul Gilbert to ask if he could give Wolfgang lessons – but they never took place.

In a new interview with Guitar World, Gilbert has revealed what caused him to pass on teaching the young Van Halen.

“I would have loved to get together with Wolfgang, but we were just getting ready to go on a really long tour,” he says.

“[I said,] ‘Ed, that would be great. But you know, the flight’s tomorrow and I won’t be back for three months.’ By that time, I think whatever Wolfgang needed to know he had figured out.”

Ultimately, the lessons never came to pass. But were Gilbert to approach them today, he would likely take a different tack, as his teaching style has changed over the years.

“I realized not everybody should play like me,” he reflects. “So I try to listen to them. My goal is, I want to make things easier, see what they're doing and go, ‘There's an easier way to get that done.’

“I always have a plan B, like, ‘Well, if it doesn't work for you, that's OK.’ If I took a lesson from a Nashville guy on hybrid picking, I'd be like, ‘That's impossible for me.’ I'm never going to do that technique ever, for whatever reason. It just doesn't match my physiology.”

Gilbert isn’t going to force anyone to learn a technique that won’t help with what they want to play. But he isn’t adverse to showing them abilities they may never be able attain, either.

He admits he has developed a certain nostalgia for his early VHS instructionals – and is thinking of reviving the kind of woodshedding that changed the game for many aspiring shredders.

“The original way I taught was I wanted to show off a lot… and everybody loved it! I was very popular. Then I was also like, ‘Well, you shouldn’t do that, because you're just showing people stuff that is out of reach.’

“Lately, I've been thinking I should probably get back to that. I think it's inspiring, and [students] will still get something from it.”

In fact, Gilbert has found the urge to burn up the fretboard hard to resist of late, as evidenced on new album WROC (Washington’s Rules of Civility).

“There’s this athletic element where you want to prove that you can still swim – like you’re [23x Olympic medalist] Michael Phelps, ‘I can still swim just as fast as I did when I was 22!’” he said.

“That’s a hard thing to resist. And obviously, there are a lot of places where I didn’t resist and went crazy.”

It’s been 10 years since a Paul Gilbert album featured vocals, and the stalwart shredder says he’s back behind the mic because it helps him resist the urge to litter his music with too many backflips and arpeggios.

He's released four albums since 2016's I Can Destroy, including an acrobatic Dio tribute, and the most virtuosic Christmas album we're likely ever going to hear. For a guitarist whose reputation has been on testing the limits of what the electric guitar can do, he admits it's far too easy to get carried away.

“It was funny, I did a [guitar] camp once with Joe Satriani, and he said something like, ‘Every time I do an album, I feel like the first song I have to prove that I can play guitar,’” Gilbert tells MusicRadar. “And he said, ‘I don’t like that. I wish I could let that go. But it’s just really hard!’ I thought, ‘I know exactly what you mean.’”

Gilbert understands the one-upmanship of guitar solos; there’s a fierce competitiveness that comes with the territory. On his new album, WROC (Washington’s Rules of Civility), he’s trying to show a little restraint.

“There’s this athletic element where you want to prove that you can still swim – like you’re [23x Olympic medalist] Michael Phelps, ‘I can still swim just as fast as I did when I was 22!’” he laughs.

“That’s a hard thing to resist. And obviously, there are a lot of places where I didn’t resist and went crazy.”

For evidence of him behaving himself on the album, he points to his U2-coded solo on Orderly and Distinctly, which sees “playing a three-note melody over and over again,” rather than treating his trusty Ibanez Fireman guitar – complete with a slide magnet – as if it owes him money.

As someone who has been teaching guitar for decades, he understands the sex appeal of shred. But he also wants to instil the right mindset into his students.

Speaking to Guitar World in 2024, he explained: “Whenever a guitar student of mine brings up BPMs, I’m like, ‘Oh no!’ That mindset is not a musical mindset. That’s the wrong door to get in the building!”

For many guitar fans, the term 'shred' evokes speed, precision and virtuosity. Desired and admired in equal measure, building your shred guitar skills lies in learning short patterns and sequences that can be repeated and varied. With enough learnt and playable at high speeds, you can reach Shred Heaven.

These shred patterns can be formed from many types of scales, typically derived from 2 note per string based pentatonic shapes and 3 note per string based modes such as Dorian, Mixolydian and Aeolian. Techniques-wise, you'll typically find a mix of picking (alternate, economy and sweeping), legato, and tapping.

A tried-and-trusted way to develop your shred chops is to use speed bursts. This typically involves a short pattern-based figure (a 'cell' sequence, typically 4, 6 or 8 notes long) that is (once mastered) played quickly for a brief duration before resting, giving your hands time to recover.

This process is repeated while gradually pushing up the metronome tempo and elongating the repetitions without stopping. Speed burst practice is a fantastic way to building strong left and right hand technique, as well as increase your speed and stamina.

Some of the biggest names in shred mastery make use of stunning speed patterns in their solos including Zakk Wylde, Yngwie Malmsteen, Nuno Bettencourt, Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai, John Petrucci and many more. Paul Gilbert is a great advocate of patterns:. through his teaching videos, Paul has demonstrated stunning lead lines based around the minor pentatonic scale and three-note-per-string sequences.

In this tutorial, you will learn some of the best and most relied on patterns of the fast and famous. Ranging from pentatonics to modes, it's time for you to turbo boost your playing to whole new levels. Let's go!

Ex 1. A minor pentatonic pattern 1 with burst playing

Here's an A minor pentatonic (shape 1) sequence using the notes A-C-D-E-G. Inspired by Slash and John Petrucci, this starts with an 16th note pattern that involves 8 notes and repeats twice using alternate picking and pull-offs.

The second bar is where you catch your breath and lessen any tension in your hands as you only play a short E note on each beat. This burst approach (play fast then play slow) is a popular way to sharpen your technique, allowing you to increase speed without straining for too long.

The example concludes by continuing this sequence across the remaining string groups.

Ex 2. A minor pentatonic pattern 2 with burst playing

Here's a variation of Example 1, still based in A minor pentatonic. This ascending and descending fragment uses both alternate picking and fretting hand legato.

The eight-note pattern repeats for one bar, and is once again followed with a 'chill out' bar, keeping time by playing a short D note on each beat. This example concludes by continuing the sequence across shape 1 and across the top three strings of shapes 2 and 3.

Ex 3. A minor pentatonic pattern 3 with burst playing

This is your final pentatonic example, evoking the shred style of Randy Rhoads and Zakk Wylde. Here you're using shape 1 of the A minor pentatonic scale plus its b5 blue note, Eb.

Remember, A minor pentatonic + an Eb note (this is the diminished 5th/blue note interval for A minor) results in the six note A blues scale (A-C-D-Eb-E-G).

Once again, a fast 16th-note based repetitive sequence is followed by a one note per beat chill out bar for energy recuperation. To conclude, the sequence travels across the remaining string groups of A minor pentatonic, shape 1.

Ex 4. A Aeolian sequence 1 with burst playing

Here is your first three-notes-per-string sequence, as used by the likes of Paul Gilbert, John Petrucci and Steve Vai. It's based around the A Aeolian mode (A-B-C-D-E-F-G). The shred element is an eight note pattern that ascends and descends on the low sixth and fifth strings, using strict alternate picking.

Once again, you will use the repeating speed burst practice method, with a rest bar played. You then continue the sequence across all six strings, including position shifts as you climb the neck. It concludes by continuing the sequence on the top two strings.

Take care with this one, as the additional position shifts add to the complexity of the run. It sounds absolutely fantastic once you've got it to 'beast shred' levels (ie 4 notes per click from the metronome at 140 beats per minute or more).

Ex 5. A Dorian sequence with burst playing

Inspired by Eddie Van Halen and Paul Gilbert, this exercise is based around A Dorian (A-B-C-D-E-F#-G) and uses a 16th note triplet rhythm (othrwise known as sextuplets) to ascend on the top two strings.

The three notes on the second string should be played with legato and the first string's three notes are performed with alternate picking. Experiment with alternate picking for all notes, or if you find this too demanding, pick every three notes (ie pick, hammer-on, hammer-on).

This sequence is pretty demanding at the 100 bpm tempo – 6 notes per click at 100bpm is often considered shred speed territory – so practice slowly then gradually build up your speed. Pay attention to the timing of your fretting hand, as this is vital when synchronizing with your picking hand.

Ex 6. Mini Piece - putting it all together

To close the examples, this is a mini piece that combines the approaches you've worked on in the previous examples.

Bars 1-4 feature a repeating pentatonic sequence inspired by Zakk Wylde. You develop the phrase in the first bar, which repeats before continuing the sequence across the remaining string groups.

The pentatonic sequence has been embellished with additional notes, including the b5, resulting in the A Blues scale, plus the minor 6 interval which gives the lick an Aeolian vibe.

Bars 5 and 6 include a pattern that ascends and descends with the A minor pentatonic and include some double picked notes plus fretting hand legato. This concludes with a sequence that shifts through three positions of the A minor pentatonic on the top three strings.

Bars 9-10 include an ascending sequence based around A Aeolian. This includes position shifts, so take care with your hand synchronization. The solo concludes with an ascending sextuplet pattern on the top two strings using notes from A Dorian. This sequence uses both legato and alternate picking.

Shred speed burst classics

Paul Gilbert - Scarified

This is a shred instrumental classic originally recorded by Paul Gilbert's first big rock band, Racer X. It more than lives up to its name and is full of picking and legato licks, many of which are built on foundations of small 6 or 8 note cells/patterns. If you want proof of the benefits of this article, this is one of the best pieces to be inspired by. Prepare to have your face melted!

Ozzy Osbourne - Miracle Man

This was a new era for Ozzy Osbourne with Zakk Wylde. Hard rocking and powerful, Miracle Man is a full-on rock assault with a stunning solo!

Following a climbing arpeggio sequence, Zakk rips through an outrageous fast picking pentatonic sequence that still perplexes guitarists to this day.

Check out his blues scale lead licks at 2:21 – you will notice example 3 pays tribute to this. Much of Zakk’s playing makes use of fast pentatonic sequences, but this solo shows how far he (and in turn, you) can push it!

Dream Theater - As I Am

As I Am features a blistering solo that demonstrates why John Petrucci is hailed as one of the greatest rock guitarists to have emerged during the early '90s.

This solo is chock full of sequences including both pentatonic and three note per string, performed with precise alternate picking. The solo includes single string figures that develop into extended runs across multiple string groups. The pentatonic sequences are also breathtaking.

You may need a lie down after watching this, all born from Petrucci's admiration of Steve Morse's alternate picking style and his teenage years' intense shred pattern practicing.

Founded in Japan all the way back in 1957, with roots stretching to the Hoshino Gakki company in 1908, Ibanez stands today as one of the key players in the guitar market.

The brand has always been synonymous with high quality – so much so, in fact, that there’s even a now-collectable ‘lawsuit’ period of instruments from a time when American brands felt threatened by their Eastern imitators.

And while it’s easy to think of Ibanez as a company that’s at the cutting edge of metal machines for the modern age, it's also innovated much further afield: producing timeless acoustics, semi-hollows, and hollowbody instruments – not forgetting, of course, some of the world’s best-selling overdrive pedals in the Tube Screamer series. Which is exactly why this list of the 25 most important Ibanez players crosses through various genres and styles.

It's become the go-to brand for all kinds of players, from original jazz cats like George Benson and fusion pioneers like Pat Metheny to acoustic renegades like Jon Gomm and Marcin and modern trailblazers like Nita Strauss and Yvette Young.

Steve Vai

Could Steve Vai be the most quintessential Ibanez player of them all?

After all, it was his first JEM signature in 1987 that inspired the RG series, which quickly became a bestseller for the company. And then just a few years later, his Universe signatures made history as the world’s first mass-produced seven-string electric.

More importantly, however, Vai ended up cementing his name as one of the greatest guitarists of all time, from his stints with Frank Zappa, Whitesnake, and David Lee Roth and game-changing solo records like Passion And Warfare, Real Illusions: Reflections, and his latest instrumental masterpiece, Inviolate.

Joe Satriani

How many guitarists can say they taught the likes of Steve Vai, Kirk Hammett, and Alex Skolnick? Joe Satriani is truly one of a kind in that sense, but more significantly, he took rock guitar to new heights with the double Grammy-nominated album, Surfing With The Alien, and continued to innovate on the releases that followed, most notably Flying In A Blue Dream and The Extremist.

The legato-loving legend has also been prolific as a collaborator, having conquered arenas as part of Mick Jagger’s band and Deep Purple, as well as starting the G3 supergroup alongside Steve Vai. More recently, he’s been busy working with ex-Van Halen members on the Best Of All Worlds tour.

Paul Gilbert

Alongside Vai and Satch, Paul Gilbert completes what many would consider to be ‘The Big Three’ of Ibanez shredders.

His work in Racer X and Mr. Big sets him apart as one of the most advanced minds to pick up a guitar, as well as one of the most ferocious alternate pickers the world has ever seen, fusing the neoclassical edge of Yngwie Malmsteen with the impromptu bluesiness of Edward Van Halen.

He’s had all kinds of Ibanez signatures through the years, from the PGM series to the Fireman models he’s usually seen with today, having designed the latter, reversed-body model himself.

Pat Metheny

Since the release of his debut album in 1975, Pat Metheny has continually proven himself to be one of the most revolutionary minds to ever work in jazz, cross-pollinating elements of the traditional with more worldly and experimental meditations.

He currently has two Ibanez signature models, the PM200 and PM3C, and his most famous works include Still Life (Talking), Letter From Home, and Bright Size Life.

As well as these sizeable contributions to the world of electric guitar, he’s also recorded unaccompanied acoustic albums like 2003’s One Quiet Night and last year’s MoonDial release, which saw him wielding a custom-built baritone guitar made by the luthier Linda Manzer.

Tim Henson and Scott LePage

The genre-smashing guitarists from Polyphia could very well be two of the most ground-breaking names in the company’s roster of signature artists, at least in terms of recent additions.

Their most recent album, 2022’s Remember That You Will Die, was voted as the best guitar album of that year by GW readers and was also notable for featuring fellow Ibanez endorsee Steve Vai on its mind-melting closing track, Ego Death.

By that point, both guitarists already had their own signature electrics, but what really got the industry talking was Henson’s TOD10N nylon-string electric, as prominently featured on the album’s lead single, Playing God.

Ichika Nito

As the very first Japanese guitarist to become an Ibanez signature artist, you could say Ichika Nito is making history for all the right reasons.

Much like Tim Henson and Scott LePage, his take on guitar is an incredibly contemporary one – combining the sounds of tech-metal with spanky and funky cleans while dazzling listeners with an array of legato and two-handed techniques.

He currently has two Ibanez models, the Talman-inspired ICHI00 and the headless Q Series-style ICHI10.

John Scofield

Having worked with everyone from Miles Davis and Charles Mingus to Herbie Hancock and Weather Report, John Scofield’s jazz credentials are as impressive as they come.

His most famous works include 1986’s Still Warm, 1994’s Hand Jive, and 1997’s A Go Go, as well as 1994’s I Can See Your House From Here – which saw him team up with fellow Ibanez signature artist Pat Metheny for an absolute tour-de-force of modern jazz. He’s also ventured into bluesier sonic pastures, having collaborated with John Mayer and Gov't Mule.

Josh Smith

Continually featured in lists of the best blues guitarists in the world today, it’s no wonder that Josh Smith ended up being recruited by Joe Bonamassa and has become a regular face in the blues giant’s backing band. The pair also work together regularly as producers, lending their expertise to fellow blues powerhouses like Eric Gales and Larry McCray.

The guitarist/singer currently has two T-style signatures, the FlATV1 and FlATV2, and is also highly regarded for his informative tutorials, some of which he has authored for this very publication.

Manuel Gardner Fernandes

As the driving force behind progressive metal band Unprocessed, German guitarist Manuel Gardner Fernandes is someone who knows how to blend the power of gargantuan riffs with blistering lead work.

Last year he was awarded his own signature guitar, the MGFM10 – a stunning headless model in Obsidian Black Low Gloss, boasting the same advanced switching system he uses to make his guitar go from apocalyptic roars to spanky cleans.

This year’s latest Unprocessed album, titled Angel, served as yet another firm reminder of his all-encompassing talents.

George Benson

Now at 82 years old, George Benson is one of the dyed-in-the-wool veterans of jazz guitar – a multiple Grammy-winning master who influenced the sound of an entire genre and ended up inspiring countless players that came after him.

Over the years, as well as releasing an extensive solo discography, he’s worked with mainstream greats such as Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, Aretha Franklin, and Frank Sinatra, making him one of the most prolific jazz artists of all time. He currently has six Ibanez signature models, all of them hollowbody designs.

Yvette Young

There’s a wonderfully abstract quality to Yvette Young’s sound – of course, there’s plenty of dexterity and technicality, but the real magic lies in the sheer amount of personality the Covet guitarist throws into every note she plays.

Part of this comes down to her alternate tunings, which she has often cited as a secret weapon for yielding interesting results, as well as her experimental approach to tone, but then there’s also her piano background – which has led to her unique sense of phrasing and ear for melody.

Marcin

Having just turned 25, it would be fair to say Polish wunderkind Marcin Patrzałek is spearheading a new generation of daredevil acoustic guitarists.

He rose to fame partly thanks to his viral videos that shocked listeners in how they were able to blur the lines between classical and contemporary music. This all led to the release of his first signature in 2022, the Ibanez MRC10, and a major label deal that started with last year’s debut full-length, Dragon In Harmony.

Nita Strauss

In 2018, Nita Strauss made history as the first woman to have her own Ibanez signature model, which she named the JIVA. It was certainly well-warranted, given her background playing in Alice Cooper’s band, as well as the all-female tribute band The Iron Maidens.

Since then she’s worked with pop sensation Demi Lovato and has also released two solo albums, the latter of which featured an array of high profile guest stars, including Marty Friedman, David Draiman, and Lzzy Hale.

Andy Timmons

When it comes to tasteful shredding, Andy Timmons is up there with the likes of gold-standard legends like Eric Johnson and Steve Lukather.

He knows how to impress people, but more importantly, he knows when to focus on the melody. Which is exactly why he’s worked with high profile names like Olivia Newton-John, Paula Abdul, and fellow Ibanez endorsee Paul Stanley.

He currently has three Strat-style Ibanez signatures, which come fitted with three DiMarzio humbuckers, including his own AT-1 pickup in the bridge.

Jon Gomm

English guitarist Jon Gomm became one of the early standouts in the modern percussive acoustic scene thanks to the 2011 track Passionflower going viral, which led to both national and international coverage.

In 2020, he announced he’d joined the Ibanez roster, and two years later he unveiled a pair of signature models – the JGM5 and the JGM10 – tailor-made for wanting to implement two-handed ideas based on open tunings, while also using the body of the guitar for drum beats.

Lari Basilio

Over the last decade or so, Brazilian virtuoso Lari Basilio has established herself as one of the most tasteful players of her generation – striking that perfect balance between technical wizardry, emotional phrasing, and an inimitable sense of feel.

Her Seymour Duncan-equipped LB1 signature was debuted in 2021, making her the third female signature artist for Ibanez, with the latest update being this year’s version in black.

Her latest album, Redemption, was also released earlier this year, with no shortage of dazzling fretwork and earworm melodies.

James ‘Munky’ Shaffer and Brian ‘Head’ Welch

Steve Vai may have helped invent the world’s first mass-produced electric seven-string with Ibanez, but it was Korn who took that extended range to new (or nu) metallic heights, inventing a whole subgenre in the process.

For guitarists Munky and Head, the extra low-end only intensified the heaviness and helped them reinvent guitar music in the mid-90s.

Head left Ibanez for ESP back in 2016 but made his official return to the fold earlier this year with the launch of the K7 series.

Fredrik Thordendal and Mårten Hagström

Much like Munky and Head from Korn, Meshuggah guitarists Fredrik Thordendal and Mårten Hagström were early adopters of the seven-string, as demonstrated on the 1995 tech-metal landmark, Destroy Erase Improve.

Other releases like Chaosphere, Nothing, and Obzen would also become hugely influential on the tech-metal scene, with bands like Animals As Leaders, Periphery, and Tesseract taking metric modulations and polyrhythmic concepts to new sonic horizons.

The Swedish pair would later move onto eight-strings, leading to signature models like the M8M, M80M, and FTM33.

Paul Stanley

It’s easy to think of Kiss as a Gibson band, given the kind of instruments usually seen in the hands of lead guitarists like Ace Frehley and Tommy Thayer.

Singer and rhythm guitarist Paul Stanley, however, has been using Ibanez guitars on and off since 1977 – most notably the company's Iceman offset – which led to the five signature models that currently bear his name, including the striking Cracked Mirror PS1CM.

Kiko Loureiro

There’s a golden rule for anyone who plays lead guitar in Megadeth – you have to be, without question, one of the best shredders on the planet.

Brazilian virtuoso Kiko Loureiro had already proven his merits in Angra and was a perfect fit for the thrash titans when he joined in 2015. He recorded two albums with the band, 2016’s Dystopia and 2022’s The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!, before announcing his departure in 2023.

He currently has three Ibanez signature models, all of which feature his custom DiMarzio pickups and a double-locking tremolo system.

Dexter Holland and Noodles

As the two guitar players in The Offspring, Dexter Holland and Noodles are well-known for dialing in tones that are guaranteed to cut through any mix.

The pair were at the very forefront of the 90s punk rock scene, with key albums like Smash and Ixnay On The Hombre setting them up for the mainstream success that followed with the 1998 bestseller Americana, which yielded hit singles like Pretty Fly (For A White Guy), Why Don’t You Get A Job?, and The Kids Aren’t Alright.

Holland sticks with ARZ and RG models while Noodles has had several signatures, the latest being 2020’s NDM5.

Daron Malakian

Joining Paul Stanley, Fredrik Thordendal, and Tom G. Warrior in our list of Iceman devotees, System Of A Down guitarist Daron Malakian is someone deeply connected to the striking offset shape.

“I went to Guitar Center, and I saw this Iceman sitting there, and I was like, ‘You know, that’s a guitar that not too many people use’,” he once explained.

The Armenian-American group became one of the biggest bands of their generation thanks to the world-conquering success of tracks like Chop Suey!, Toxicity, and Aerials.

Nili Brosh

Well-renowned for being one of the most versatile musicians in the Ibanez roster, Israeli-American shredder Nili Brosh has performed with Danny Elfman, Cirque Du Soleil, Dethklok, The Iron Maidens, and Tony MacAlpine – a list which perfectly demonstrates just how well-rounded her skillset is.

Her third solo album, titled Spectrum, was released in 2019 and her main guitars include an Ibanez LA Custom RG770 and a Desert Yellow RG550.

Jake Bowen

The sole Ibanez endorsee in Periphery’s trio of hotshot guitarists, Jake Bowen is also their longest-serving member after founder Misha Mansoor.

Over the course of seven full-length albums, they’ve become torchbearers for the modern tech-metal scene and in many ways typify the ‘djent’ wave of bands that arrived roughly 10 years after the new millennium.

He currently has three signature models: the JBM9999 and JBM10FX six-strings as well as the JBM27 seven-string.

Martin Miller

Martin Miller is a man of many talents. The German musician is a highly respected educator, with books and video courses to help rock guitarists expand into fusion.

He also writes, records, and tours original music, but his biggest calling card has been a series of live studio performances that find him enrolling guitar heroes old and new to cover hits of every kind. Hey Jude with Paul Gilbert, Kiss from a Rose with Lari Basilio, and Get Lucky with Kirk Fletcher are just three prominent examples.

He has a pair of Ibanez signatures to his name, the most recent being the MMN1, which was released in 2023.

It would be safe to assume that if your dad was one of the greatest guitar players who ever lived, your own guitar-playing journey would be in safe hands. But that, surprisingly, wasn’t the case for Wolfgang Van Halen – his dad was a “terrible” teacher.

The Mammoth multi-instrumentalist is on the promo trail for his third album, which has already given us a cheeky Hot For Teacher tribute and tapping licks that Ola Englund daren’t try to imitate; now, he’s revealed that he has Paul Gilbert to thank for his earliest six-string skills.

“My dad was a great guitarist but a terrible guitar teacher – he’d tell you that himself,” Wolfgang reveals to Guitar.com. “He even called Paul Gilbert one time and asked him if he would give me a lesson, and he laughed his ass off.”

Aside from his exemplary shredding in Mr Big, Racer X, and across his multi-faceted solo career, Paul Gilbert has got plenty of teaching experience under his belt. He had a column in Total Guitar, spanning 30-plus issues, had previously done likewise for Guitar Player, and has taught the likes of Buckethead and Satchel from Steel Panther.

“That just shows you how he felt about being a teacher,” Wolfgang continues. “And, yeah, he was right. He’d be like, ‘Just do it like this.’ ‘Well, how?!’ You’re at such a different level, you’re just not even thinking in the same way.”

That doesn’t mean his pop didn’t impart any knowledge to his son. Speaking with MusicRadar last summer, he said the biggest guitar solo lesson he ever got was from his dad, who instilled the need for melody over virtuosity to make them stand out.

“Not every song needs a solo,” he had said. “You can play a solo that's one note that can be way more impressive than a solo that's 2000 notes. It's not really the speed at which you play.”

He pointed to Intervals’ Aaron Marshall – whom he recently gifted his new signature guitar – as an example of a player taking his dad’s philosophy on board. He had called him “a singer as a guitar player.”

Elsewhere, Wolfgang has spoken of the risk of covering Van Halen songs live, and why recording Mammoth songs with Eddie's infamous Frankenstein Strat makes him feel “closer to Pop.”

With Mötley Crüe, John 5 has a job to do. There are expectations and a legacy. Of course, 5 has plenty of cache; he doesn’t allow it to impact what he does with the ‘Crüe. “In my eyes, that’s what the people want,” he tells Guitar World.

“They want the songs performed how they were written because that’s what they hear every day.”

5’s commitment to the ‘Crue brand runs deep, which is why Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee, and Vince Neil tabbed him for the gig as Mick Mars’ replacement in 2022. Clearly, the band took a shine to what he’s done during his various stops, and according to 5, the feeling is mutual.

“It is so exciting for me,” he says. “I love nothing more than getting up on stage with those guys and playing these songs. It’s so fun, and we have a blast doing it. We are all up there just yucking it up and having a great time.”

By the looks of it, the good times will keep on rolling, as Mötley Crüe has an impending Vegas residency kicking off on October 3, 2025. “I don’t take it for granted,” 5 says. “I’m just so thankful to be playing these songs and having a good time doing it.”

“And I love Vegas,” he says. “To do a residency with my friends, dude, it’s ridiculous. You don’t have to travel. You just go down and play. I’m more excited than anybody. I’m super psyched. It’s going to be a blast, man. We’re going to have a rock ‘n’ roll party. That’s for sure.”

5’s enthusiasm for Mötley Crüe’s Vegas adventures is sky high. But that’s not all that’s stoking his six-string flame. Also in October, he’s kicking off a joint tour with fellow Tele-toting shred-head, Richie Kotzen. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God, this would be a great tour for me and Richie,’” he says.

“Rehearsals for Mötley start next month, and then there’s the tour with Richie, and it’s off to the races until the end of the year,” 5 says. “I’m super excited. I’ve always loved looking forward to things, even when I was a little kid; I was that way. And these are all things that I’m super-excited about.

One last bit that 5 leaves out, which he’s certainly excited about, is the release of his 11th solo album, Ghost. The album is his first solo effort since 2021’s Sinner, and to be sure, he’s jazzed about it, as he kept it old-school. “I was very draconian with how I approached this,” he says. “I play the songs from the beginning to end like they did back in the ’30s or ’40s.”

“It was all live recordings,” he says. “I just started playing, and if I messed up, I’d start again from the top. So, all of these songs that you hear on this record are completely live takes.”

That approach is based on lost-in-time simplicity. And that mindset extends to 5’s gear, too. “I could probably just play the show with the amp and a guitar, and do it that way,” he says. “I just love when things are simple.”

5 has been brandishing his signature Fender Ghost Tele of late, giving his beloved Goldie a much-needed break. Along with the Ghost Tele, an all-black version, the Phantom is on the way, and he’s been using that, too. “You can pretty much do anything on that guitar,” he says. “I’m very proud to be a Tele player, and I’ll always be a Tele player. I love it.”

But besides that, 5’s rig is decided under the radar. “Like, if anything happened to my rig, I could just go to Guitar Center and have anything replaced,” he says. “Nothing is custom, nothing is anything like that.”

If all of this seemed like a lot, meaning it looks like John 5’s schedule is packed to the point that it would exhaust a typical human, you’d be right. But John 5 isn’t your typical human. Sure, he suffers from OCD, but he’s also deeply driven by perfectionism, and a haunting need to learn more, be better, and switch things up.

And so, aside from the Mötley Vegas residency, his tour with Richie Kotzen, and the impending drop of Ghost, he’s got an idea: to perform 50 shows, in 50 states, in 50 days. But it’s not just an idea; it’s officially a thing.

“It’s 50 shows in a row,” he says. “But that answers the question of how obsessive I can be, but I can’t wait. Everybody is dreading it, like, ‘Oh, no,’ but we have backups for everybody in case somebody gets sick, hurt, or anything like that. God forbid, we’ll bring in another guy until they heal up, you know?”

John 5 will need to stock up on extra strings, have his amps serviced, and harden up his calluses, as he prepares to do what most wouldn’t even think of trying. “I’m ready,’ he says. “I play so much every day into the night, so this is gonna be like a vacation for me. [Laughs]”

There’s a lot of players who probably would have vied for the Mötley Crüe gig. What made you perfect for the role?

“I think I have such respect and fondness for the music. I’ve been playing these songs – and this is going to sound funny – but I’ve been playing these songs for as long as they have. I was in my bedroom or at a talent show, and those guys were on a huge stage, but I’ve been playing these songs since they came out.

“So, when Nikki [Sixx] said, ‘Okay, here’s the setlist to learn,’ I was like, ‘I know all these songs.’ Like, of course, we all know the songs, but I could have done the show that night. And that’s just because I have such a fondness and respect for the music, and for those guys.

“And I’ve known Nikki, Tommy [Lee], and Mick [Mars] for years and years and years. But the very first time I met Vince [Neil] was at Tommy’s birthday party when I got in the band, so that was cool.”

Seeing as these are classic parts that Mick crafted, which come with expectations, what’s the key to interpreting songs like Home Sweet Home and Shout at the Devil, for example?

“It’s such a great question. I think when you go to the music store, and you see sheet music written out, and how it was performed, and how it was written by the artist, and how it was recorded, that’s how I look at learning these songs. I look at them as, ‘This is how they were written. Am I to throw a couple of arpeggios in there? No. If that’s what they wanted, they would have done that.’”

There’s also a mystique about bands that stick to what’s on the record, rather than deviating.

“I play these songs live, how they were written, because of the fact that I would go and see these bands when I was a kid, like AC/DC, or Rush, you know, I saw everything when I was growing up. And some of the bands played it just like the record, which I loved. You grow up listening to these songs, and there’s certain guitar licks that you play air guitar to.

“With Mötley, I play the songs exact, exact, exact. And then, at the end of the song, I’ll do some crazy guitar work, or something like that. But what these songs deserve is to be played like they were written. We grew up listening to Home Sweet Home a certain way, and you want to hear them performed how they were written.”

You’ve proven that you’re comfortable with any style, but Mick’s playing is filled with subtle nuance. Are there any licks that don’t come naturally to you?

“Well, how I do everything, how I look at guitar playing, is if things are a challenge… I have such horrible OCD now, I mean awful. Ever since I was a little kid, if I couldn’t get something, I would stay home from school fake sick, and I would just play it over, and over, and over, until I mastered it.

“So, that’s what I do; if I have any kind of trouble with any song whatsoever, I will obsess and just make sure it’s like breathing to me. So, there’s not really anything in my music, or anybody’s music, that I’ve learned that I’ve really had a hard time with because of that fact. I’m not saying, ‘Oh, I could play anything,’ I’m saying that I will sit and obsess about it until it’s like breathing.”

Over the last few years, you’ve made a few additions to your rig as far as amps, pedals, and especially guitars go. Will your rig for Mötley’s Vegas residency be essentially the same as the rig you’ll use while touring with Richie Kotzen?

“I’m so glad we’re talking about this because these are great questions! So, what I’m using are EVH [5150] amps, and I’m using a pedalboard with Boss stompboxes. I’m using a Super Overdrive [SD-1], a Chorus [CE-2], a Digital Delay [DD-5], and a Noise Suppressor [NS-2]. So, I have four stompboxes.

“And then I’ve got the EVH amps and cabinets, so it’s simple. It’s so simple that it’s almost comical. My guitar tech probably has the easiest job ever. [Laughs] And so, I use the exact same thing for my solo tour as I do with Mötley.”

You’ve had your signature Gender Ghost Tele for a few years now. Are there any updates there?

“With my guitars, I have my Ghost, with a Floyd [Rose] on it. And then, I have my new Fender that’s coming called the Phantom, and it’s all-black. It’s just blacked-out. Everything is in black, and then, I’ve got a white binding; it’s just a monster.

“So, that’s what I’m going to be using for the residency, and it’s just beautiful. You can see pictures of it on my Instagram. I’ve been playing it lately, it’s got a black Floyd on it, and it’s just gorgeous. So, I’ve got the Ghost and the Phantom.”

Aside from the looks, are there any updates to the specs of the Phantom compared to the Ghost Tele?

“Actually, there is. It’s minute, but it’s also imperative in my hands and my eyes. Like, there’s the cutaway, which I love… there’s this beautiful cutaway that you can get way up on the neck. And I never knew that, you know? Originally, it got in the way because I had a non-cutaway.

“But there’s also a contour that seems so minuscule, but it’s so imperative to me. And it’s just beautiful because I have the Phantom with a hardtail, you know? And there’s nothing, and it doesn’t have the cutaway, and it doesn’t have the contour. And I’m like, ‘Oh, man, I really miss that cutaway and contour,’ so it’s really cool.”

Your upcoming tour with Richie seems apropos since you’re both versatile players who do things with hot-rodded Teles that traditionally, people think you shouldn’t or can’t do.

“I love the Telecaster so much. It was really our first electric guitar, and pretty much, a huge part of rock ‘n’ roll. I grew up loving the Telecaster because, of course, I saw it on Hee Haw, and everybody on there played Teles. So, I just thought that it was the only electric guitar.

“I thought that was it. I was like, ‘Oh, I want an electric guitar,’ and I saw that shape, and thought that was the only shape. I mean… I was like six years old, and the Tele was just burned in my brain. But there are some Tele players that are terrifying, and it’s just the greatest thing ever.”

How do you see your joint tour with Richie shaking out?

“I love Richie. What a voice, what a player, and what a musician. I always loved how Richie plays, and his voice, of course, is incredible because, you know, I don’t sing. [Laughs] I leave that to the singers. So, I’m really super-excited. We’re playing everywhere, at tons and tons of places.

“I always look at it like, ‘Oh, man, this would be a great night out. This would be something that I would want to see myself.’ I always look at packages that way. I’ve always loved it when an eclectic array of these artists comes together, you know, an amalgamation of different styles of music. I was like, ‘Oh, my God. This would be a super-great tour.’ We bought it to the powers that be, and it was just a runaway hit.”

Elsewhere, you’ve got a new solo album set for release in Ghost. The ghost imagery is something that’s followed you. What’s the genesis of that?

“Well, it’s odd. It didn’t use it just because it’s a cool name, or it’s my guitar, or something. I’ve lost so many people around me in my life, and there’s ghosts all around me. They’re not bad ghosts, but there’s just ghosts all around me, all the time. And I’m aware of it. I’m just in tune with it. So, that’s why I named the guitar that, and that’s why I named the record that. I’m in tune with it, and it’s good.”

So, there's a symbology to it. With your primary form of expression being guitar, how does that extend into the ghost symbology, and how are you relaying that through your music?

“I started writing a long time ago. What I would do is I would do is, well, like I mentioned before, I have OCD, and I’d play, play, play, and that’s all I did. I looked at this music like I was a musician in the ’30s or ’40s, where I’d play everything from beginning to end, with no mistakes.”

Why do you prefer that process compared to punching in and out and editing with multiple takes?

“I just like to have that sense of dedication and authority to go into the studio like that. I hate to be like, ‘Oh, I’m going to punch in,’ or ‘That was out of tune, I think I’d like to start over.’ Doing the way I did is a lost art that we don’t see anymore. Now, we can pretty much do anything, but back in the ’30s or ’40s, sometimes you didn’t even get a chance to practice. Sometimes, you just got charts, and it was like, ‘Alright, don’t mess up.’” [Laughs]

While recording, did you mainly use your Ghost Tele, or was Goldie part of the process?

“Goldie is taking a rest. [Laughs] It’s funny because I played that guitar so much that they had to replace the chrome metal pickguards because there were dips in it. I went through two chrome pickguards, so that’s a lot of playing. I don’t want it to, like, fall apart, and break, so what’s when I adopted the Ghost, and made that my new toy.”

Have you enjoyed connecting with the Ghost Tele as you did with Goldie?

“I’ve been playing it like crazy. And now, I have the Phantom that I’m playing, too. It’s funny… my dad was the kind of person who bought one really good thing, and he had it forever. Like, if you buy one really nice backpack, for example, and it was the best backpack, and you kept it for your whole life, that’s kind of how I am with guitars.”

You’re a guitar minimalist.

“Like, I’ll get a guitar, and I’ll use it so much until I have to be like, ‘Okay, we’ve got to retire that.’ That’s just how I am with things. I have like four pairs of shoes, like 10 shirts, and like five pairs of pants. [Laughs] It’s very strange… I’ll just wear those certain things, along with a couple of jackets, that I’ll wear every day. So, I guess you would say that I’m a minimalist in certain aspects… until it comes to my Kiss collection. [Laughs]”

I can relate with you on the wardrobe and the Kiss stuff! But as far as your connection to the instrumental, how does that tendency impact that? Can you track your growth as a player, and maybe how it’s apparent on Ghost?

“Let me tell you… you are the first one – because I’ve done a billion interviews – you are the very first one that has that question. And I think that if I ever did interviews, that would be like that first question you would ask because of the fact that there are a lot of players where you’re like, ‘Wow, their last record could sound like their first record,’ but I never stop learning. I learn things like once a week. I will learn different styles, tricks, or certain vibes, and I will put them in the record, so I don’t forget them.”

So, if we listen to your early records, we’re not going to say, “Wow, his first record sounds just like his new record.”

“You can listen to my first instrumental record [Vertigo] and then listen to this [Ghost], and it almost sounds like a different player in my eyes. There’s so many different things going on, so many different kinds of licks, and all that stuff. So, I really love to evolve. It’s one of my favorite things to do. I love it.”

About a year ago, you chatted with Guitar World in person, naming a few of your favorite solo licks. You called out My Name is John 5, Land of the Misfits, and The Chorus. As you’re always evolving, has your list of favorite licks evolved, or would you add any of your new licks to that list?

“Oh, yeah. There’s so many to add to the list. I love my song called Fiend. I’m using four-fingered tapping, and like a Jeff Watson thing. And then, I have this song, an old standard, called Moonglow, which is this beautiful jazz standard that I grew up listening to with my parents and grandparents.

“So, I’d add that. And then, there’s a song called The Devil Makes Three, which kind of has a Robert Johnson flash in it. And there’s string skipping, which is kind of Paul Gilbert-esque. So, I’m just so proud of this record.”

Is there any music that influences you that people might not expect?

“One of my all-time favorite bands is Steely Dan. I love Steely Dan more than anything. I love how they were so obsessive. Like, it took them six weeks to pick out a chair, you know? [Laughs] I love Aja, I love Gaucho, I love Royal Scam, and Pretzel Logic. I love everything they’ve done.

“And I love their use of studio musicians. I understand and I love that. I love having a certain musician for a certain song, and having the perfection. I mean… the perfection on this record [Ghost] is not with Pro Tools, or anything like that. It’s with the obsessiveness. With this record, when you hear it, everything there is performed and meticulous. That’s what I love. I’m very proud of it.”

Your attention to detail and drive to progress seem to keep you constantly active. Do you plan to give yourself a break, or is it pedal to the metal for the foreseeable future?

“I think it’s getting worse because, well, I will tell you this, which I haven’t really talked about at all, but I have to stay busy, or I go crazy. I’ve worn out my agent. I’ve worn out my manager. I make them nuts. [Laughs] But next year – and I think only a couple people have done this – I’m going to do 50 shows, in 50 states, in 50 days.”

That’s an aggressive undertaking. How will you pull it off?

“So, I’m going to have a backup road crew. I’m going to have a backup bus that we’ll be able to jump on if something goes wrong. I will have doctors on call. And everybody, you know, after the show, will eat, and then everybody has to go to bed. It’s going to be really militant because of what we’re going to pull off. So yeah… 50 shows, 50 states, 50 days. We’re going to start in Alaska and end in Hawaii.”

• Ghost is out on October 10. Mötley Crüe's Las Vegas residency continues until October 3. See Mötley Crüe for dates and ticket details.

Back in 2016, bassist Billy Sheehan reconvened with longtime Mr. Big sidekicks Eric Martin (vocals), Paul Gilbert (guitar), and Pat Torpey (drums, with help from stand-in Matt Starr) – to record the band's ninth studio album, Defying Gravity.

Known for such songs as Daddy, Brother, Lover, Little Boy, Green Tinted Sixties Mind, Just Take My Heart, Wild World, Addicted to That Rush, and the international smash To Be With You, the group tracked the new album's 11 songs during an intensive creative burst at California's Ocean Studios.

“We all had a spot open up in our schedules that gave us six days to record with Kevin Elson, our producer from the early days, so we jumped on it,” Billy Sheehan explained in the September 2017 issue of Bass Player.

“Prior to that, we had a couple of songwriting get-togethers – a couple of us, not the whole band – and by the time we got into the studio, we had about four songs completed and another six that were partial, and a few other pieces, too.

“There was a good kind of high pressure that lit a fire under us, and it really made us dig deep and think on our feet. We recorded as a group; that's pretty much how we did our early records, so it's natural for us to work in that fashion.”

Characteristically, the album brims with memorable hooks, radio-friendly choruses, and top-drawer axe-work from Sheehan and Gilbert, while straddling a wide range of genres. “I like it like that. Some classic records are all over the map stylistically: heavy, quiet, melodic – all kinds of things.”

Tracks include such rock stompers as Everybody Needs a Little Trouble, for which Sheehan employed a Hipshot XTender to nail earth-shaking low C#s; acoustic-flavored outings such as I'm in Love Again and Nothing Bad (About Feeling Good); a blues-drenched shuffle, Be Kind; and songs featuring explosive unison guitar/basslines, such as Open Your Eyes and the autobiographical 1992.

“We've known each other for a long time now, so the unison work is usually pretty quick and automatic. I'm used to Paul's note choices, which are ever-evolving and ever-changing, and he's kind of used to mine, too.”

Mean to Me (inspired, according to Gilbert, by the groove of Christina Aguilera's What a Girl Wants) is one of the album's standout rockers, with a blazing main riff and scintillating solo section, during which the guitar and bass trade blistering licks.

In the studio, Sheehan used his Yamaha Attitude III strung with signature Rotosound round-wounds (.043, 065, 080, 110). “The neck-position pickup went to the low amp, while the P-Bass pickup went to the high amp, with clean and distortion mixed together.”

“We also took a separate direct from that P-Bass pickup. I do that often – just have a separate regular, straight-up bass tone on a separate track. If I need it for anything, it's there.”

Following the gritty unison slide of the pickup bar, the song kicks into gear with Sheehan and Gilbert sharing duties for the track's primary motif: a descending two-bar-long 32nd-based figure that underpins the intro and chorus sections.

“Paul came in with the song; it was a pretty wild sound with those 32nd-notes. That's kind of my specialty, doing those fast clusters of notes, so I didn't think it would be a problem. But the pattern of the cluster was such that I had to actually pluck with four fingers (pinkie, ring, middle, index) instead of three, to get that burst of four really solidly.”

The chord sequence from the intro continues into the verse, with sledgehammer accents and strongly syncopated downbeats.

As the guitar rolls out the song's first sustained chords through the verse's second half, Sheehan helps build steam toward the chorus with increasing use of repeated 16ths; dig his hip E major pentatonic fill at 00:37.

The chorus kicks in at 00:46, using the same material as the intro, which leads in turn to a second verse and chorus.

At 02:16, Sheehan conjures a cascading fountain of sound using a tapped, 4th-based pattern, which he deftly traverses down the neck. Following Gilbert's two-bar response, Sheehan unleashes another flurry of tapped 32nds which, like the first, draws primarily on notes from the C# natural minor scale.

“I think I got that section by about the third take. I was in the zone, and it was going pretty good. In earlier takes I was hitting the notes I was going for, but they weren't notes I was happy with. I wanted to change the musical structure, so I went back and reconfigured that pattern to make it musically more to my liking.”

Sheehan taps with his left index and middle fingers, but the index and ring fingers of his right. “It may not be normal for everyone to do it that way, but as long as you get the notes, you're doing it right.”

Gilbert's second response leads into a nine-bar guitar solo, during which Sheehan outlines the chords from the intro/chorus. A final chorus and a hard-hitting two-bar outro bring the song to a close.

“Just take it slow and figure it out. I believe there's nothing I do that someone else can't do. It might take you a while, but you can do it."

I connected with Paul Gilbert as he was taking some well-earned R&R – that’s rest and relaxation, not rock ’n’ roll – shortly after completing the final dates of Mr. Big’s global farewell tour.

Gilbert, a lifetime guitar nut, was eager to share the secrets behind his three favorite instruments. Unsurprisingly, given his long association with Ibanez, all three of his choices come from the Japanese shred manufacturer of choice for so many guitar heroes. Not only does he play a bunch of signature Ibanez axes, but he also likes to track down ’80s models such as the Blazer and Roadstar.

“I have a student at my online school who got me into vintage Ibanez guitars,” he says. “During lockdown, I had too much time to look at Reverb.com, and I found some really good prices on those ’80s models. The tremolo bridge on the RS315 has one of the best tones I’ve ever played.”

Gilbert was a little conflicted when it came to the three electric guitars that would make the cut. “I was tempted to include my new FRM350 signature in today’s list, but it’s a very new guitar, so I figured I’d give the honor to some instruments that have been around a little longer.”

Ibanez Kikusui Fireman (2009)

“This guitar is so beautiful. I remember opening the case, and it took my breath away. Then I picked it up and played it, and the tone and resonance were stunning as well. I think the spark of the idea to use a sake bottle to inspire the design was from Michael Anthony from Van Halen. He had that Jack Daniel’s bass, and I thought, ‘What drink would I like to model a guitar after?’

“The light blue Kikusui bottle always stood out when I went shopping for sake, and the drink itself was certainly good. I sketched out some ideas on Photoshop and brought a couple of big bottles of Kikusui to the Ibanez custom shop so they could use the bottle caps to make the volume and tone knobs. I imagine they enjoyed the sake as well!

“The other notable thing about that guitar is the baseball bat neck – it’s huge and deep. This really gives a guitar maximum sustain and resonance. I have large hands, so I don’t mind the extra reaching that a big neck requires, and this guitar has possibly the deepest neck in my whole collection.”

“I used it to record Everybody Use Your Goddamn Turn Signal on I Can Destroy. I have the pickups wired out of phase, as I got into that sound for a while. I might rewire them back at some point; it’s an easy mod.

“The pickups are DiMarzio Air Classics. They sound beautiful with any level of distortion, compression or EQ. I’ve taken the Kikusui on the road a lot. It barely has any dings or scratches. I think anyone who gets near it gives it respect, including me. This would be the one I’d grab in the event of a fire.

“All three of these guitars are actually very normal-sounding to me. I like normal as a starting place. Then I can use pedals and amps to shape the sound for whatever I’m doing. They’re all fitted with humbuckers; single coils can be fun, but since I usually play with a healthy amount of gain, I almost always switch to hum-canceling versions.”

Ibanez PGM 1000T (2022)

“This guitar just feels like a Cadillac. The neck shape is very different from the Kikusui. It’s quite wide and shallow – more like the Wizard neck Ibanez is famous for. I was surprised how quickly I got used to it, and I found that I can often get more clarity, as there is more room between the strings.

“The combination of the neck-through design and having a painted neck feels really good to me – super-luxurious. The color was inspired by Randy Rhoads’ aged Les Paul. I liked how the aging process didn’t seem to affect the finish evenly. So I asked Ibanez to make a very subtle ‘cream burst’ for my guitar. It looks so good close up, and on stage. This one also has DiMarzio Air Classics.

“I used the guitar on the new Mr. Big album, Ten [2024], and it was my main guitar on our Big Finish tour. Unfortunately, all the guitars in our equipment trailer were stolen during a day off in Frankfurt, Germany, so I haven’t seen this guitar since then. If anyone out there hears any news about it, please let me know! I’d love to have that great instrument back.

“Right before going on the road, I put large erasers under the pickups. I play pretty loud with Mr. Big, so I take extra precautions to keep feedback to a minimum. There is one more very subtle thing that I did (by accident) that will let me easily identify the guitar if I ever need to prove it’s mine. I’ll keep that a secret. If I get this guitar back, I’ll definitely take it back on the road; it’s one of my favorite guitars to play live.

“I was lucky to be near a big Ibanez distributor when my guitars were stolen. They got me a PGM50, an FRM300 and an FRM350 within hours so I could get through the rest of the tour. The only setup I needed to do was to put on my favorite string gauge (Ernie Ball Mighty Slinky with a .46 on the low E) and lower the middle pickups on the guitars that have middle pickups.”

Ibanez FRM200 (2016)

“This was a factory sample that I got in order to approve it for production, which began in 2017. It just always sounds, feels and looks so good. Every time I play it live or in the studio, I seem to sound a little better than myself.

“The shape of the neck has just the right touch of ‘baseball bat’ – big enough for great tone, wide enough for clarity, but not so big to stop you from getting around the neck easily.

“The DiMarzio PG-13 mini-humbuckers are the best I’ve ever heard. If I could put this guitar in the hands of any guitar player, I’d love to hear Johnny Winter play it a bit, but then I’d get jealous and want my guitar back. I use this one in the studio and on the road.

“I played it a lot on Behold Electric Guitar [2018]. One of my favorite performances with this guitar was from a jam at Sweetwater. I played the Albert King song C.O.D., and I must have counted it off too fast by accident, because the tempo is much quicker than what I’m comfortable with.

“Also the song is in F, which is not the easiest key for me. Those two factors would usually derail me a bit, but I still managed to play one of my best solos. There’s video of it on YouTube. It hasn’t received a lot of attention, but I check it out when I want to feel good about myself.

“This was the first guitar that I tried using a magnet in the body for holding a slide in place. Ryan Lynn at Eastside Guitars in Portland routed a slot in the pickguard to prevent the slide from turning. After some playing, we realized the magnet was strong enough to hold the slide straight, and no slot was necessary.

“This guitar still has that slot though, and looks pretty stylish. The slide magnet gives me easy access to a slide all the time. It was fun developing my quick-draw technique of grabbing the slide and quickly putting it back. It allows me to add a new and expressive voice to my playing, and then jump right back to my normal shreddy self. [Laughs]”

Guitar Player magazine, the world's oldest continuously published magazine devoted to guitarists, guitar gear, and instruction, will cease print publication after 57 years, its Editor-in-Chief, Chris Scapelliti, announced today.

The magazine's final issue will go on sale next week, October 15, and will feature a conversation with Jimmy Page about the gear he used in Led Zeppelin's catalog, and his newly re-kindled relationship with Gibson.

Founded by Bud Eastman, Guitar Player was a pioneering publication, capturing the excitement and innovation driven by the electric guitar's post-Beatles explosion into a regular print publication for the first time.

Even decades after the Summer of Love, GP continued to drive the guitar conversation.

To name but one example, the February 1983 issue alone introduced to the world two guitarists you might have heard of: Paul Gilbert and Yngwie Malmsteen.

Talking to Guitar World earlier this year about his legendary guitar-slinging performance in the 1986 movie, Crossroads, Steve Vai explained that it was none other than Guitar Player that landed him the role.

“The guitar duel scene with Ry Cooder wasn’t working,” Vai said. “Ry Cooder [the film’s composer] called up Guitar Player and asked who the new hotshot on the block was.”

“You have witnessed a revolution,” Chris Scapelliti writes in his final GP magazine editorial.

“When Guitar Player made its debut in 1967, it marked a new era for guitar. For the first time, the instrument was celebrated in a regularly published magazine devoted to furthering guitarists, guitar gear and its makers, and guitar virtuosity. What founder Bud Eastman began laid the first stone of an empire that would go on to launch many other magazines – including Bass Player, Frets, and Keyboard – publish books, release records and videos, and much more.

“Guitar Player’s success also opened the door for numerous other titles, including our sister magazine Guitar World, further enriching the lives of guitarists everywhere. And now our print run has come to an end.

“With this [December 2024] issue, Guitar Player will move fully online to guitarplayer.com, where we’ll continue to bring you the same great content you’ve come to expect, as well as video interviews and lessons, and more.”

The December 2024 issue of Guitar Player will be available for purchase starting next week, October 15, on Magazines Direct.

String skipping is a technique often required when phrases feature wide intervals that would prove too stretched if attempting to use only adjacent strings. Traditionally, melodic phrases have favoured small interval based lines using adjacent strings, moving fret by fret, string by string.

This yields wonderfully musical results. However, string skipping allows us to create phrases with wider intervals that often sound more arresting. It also allows for fluid arpeggios to be performed without having to resort to sweep picking; an approach favoured by both Paul Gilbert and Nuno Bettencourt to emulate the fluidity of Yngwie Malmsteen’s sweeped arpeggios.

As with any new guitar technique, string skipping can be challenging at first. One of the obstacles to overcome is not accidentally striking adjacent strings when skipping over them. Paul Gilbert, whose playing is fantastically fast and fluid, often opts for an outside picking technique to help avoid this situation.

Outside picking is where the lower string is picked with downstrokes and the higher string is picked with upstrokes. While this may be challenging for players who prefer other styles of picking, its advantage is that it avoids hitting any unwanted adjacent strings.

Of course, there will be times where conventional picking is preferred, such as when playing two-notes-per-string pentatonic lines. So observe the picking directions provided in the following five examples and study piece, to see what approach I have used and, at times, a suggested alternative approach. As always, experiment to see which suits you best.

As well as using this technique to play arpeggios in the style of Paul Gilbert, string skipping can also create intervallic licks and phrases. Guthrie Govan’s track Waves is a great example of this. The main melodic themes couldn’t have been created without the use of string skipping. Guthrie’s use of wide intervals here creates a sound somewhat different to the norm, making it melodically interesting and appealing.

Another player known for his use of string skipping is LA session guitarist, Carl Verheyen. Carl released a tutorial video back in 1992 entitled Intervallic Rock and it was quite a game changer for those learning guitar via REH and Hot Licks videos. Again, the technique helps to create lines and phrases that sound modern, not least because it pushed guitar technique forward.

String skipping can be found in many classic songs too. Slash’s intro to Sweet Child O’ Mine by Guns N’ Roses is a great example, where Slash skipped strings to create one of the most iconic guitar intros in history. Another would be the octave string jumps in Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song.

The following examples offer ideas for integrating string skipping into your playing. Enjoy your journey into string skipping!

Get the tone

Amp Settings: Gain 5, Bass 4, Middle 5, Treble 6, Reverb

The more gain you use for any new style like string skipping, presents opportunities for unwanted noise that can negatively impact the final results. Therefore start the process using a clean or mildly overdriven amp tone, so you get the fundamentals sorted first. Then be very mindful of using any spare fingers and your picking hand’s palm to reduce string noise.

Examples

Example 1
Diatonic 6ths are good intervals to work on your outside string-skipped picking. Hybrid picking could be used to play this example, although using a plectrum exclusively is a fantastic way to improve your overall picking technique.

Example 2
Playing octaves is another great way to help develop your string skipping skills. The challenge here is to not accidentally strike the skipped string either side of the picked notes due to nature of the picking direction.

Example 3
We build on the octave idea with this example by adding the 5th interval degree to the second string. A combination of inside and outside picking – economy picking – is used here. However, the lower strict alternate picking suggestion is more akin to how Steve Morse, John Petrucci and Martin Miller would play this.

Example 4
Paul Gilbert style string-skipped arpeggios feature here. Legato is used for two notes on a string alongside outside and inside picking, adhering to strict alternate picking principles. This may take some practice to begin with but it is well worth the effort.

Example 5
Here’s an A minor pentatonic idea using a descending lick on the first and the third strings. Intervallic lines such as this can help you break out of those tried and tested licks to breathe new life into your playing. Try both outside and inside picking suggestions to see what works best for you (hint: ideally master both).

Study Piece

We begin in bars 1-8 with a repeated melodic idea where you are required to skip between the fourth and second string before a final leap up to the first. Outside picking is preferred here to help avoid striking the adjacent strings by accident.

Bars 9-16 follow the same basic chord progression but with string-skipped arpeggios outlining each chord. Outside picking is featured as well as strict alternate picking principles, to help navigate the strings.

The initial theme is reintroduced between bars 17-20 before a string-skipped descending A minor pentatonic lick in bar 21 is followed by an ascending run (also A minor pentatonic) using octaves in bar 22. I have notated my preferred picking directions, but feel free to experiment with your own.

Paul Gilbert made his name in the ’80s as one of the fastest shredders around. But in his recent solo albums he’s focusing on melody. In hard rock group Mr. Big he’s still perfecting the art of the quick-action solo. And while he retains a side hustle as a tutor, he’s still learning new tricks…

What guitar did you cut your teeth on?

“It was a Stella acoustic. I didn’t know anything about scalings, but it was a bit of a short scale, which was kind of good because I was about nine! I had big hands for a nine-year-old, but still, small hands in general. So, it was a lucky accident that I ended up with a student guitar. I didn’t even know how to tune it, and I solved that by only using the bottom E string for about two years!”

What was the big game changer for you in your early years?

“Figuring out how to tune was a big deal! And then I learned how to downstroke because I only played upstrokes for the first two years, so learning about other fingers was great because I’d only been using my middle finger.

“But the advantage of using such primitive tools, only upstrokes and one string, was I got good at that. As an eleven year-old, I probably had as much authority over those things as I do now, which made me feel confident when I was learning something new.”

Which guitarist is your biggest influence?

“I love to listen to other instruments, singers, and piano players, like Oscar Peterson. But I’ve always liked Eric Johnson and Allan Holdsworth. They’re not new players, but they kind of remind me of each other with a similar feel.”

In terms of technique, what’s the last new trick that you learned?

“Oh, just five minutes ago I was figuring out the chords for Constant Craving by k.d. lang. She sings the melody, and a moment later there’s a harmony that answers and they don’t happen at the same time. It’s like a call-and-response thing, and that’s been my passion lately.

“With Mr. Big there’s a singer, but with my own stuff I play the vocal melodies on guitar, so I like to find ways to do that. And also slide – which is a very recent development in my playing. It’s a new sound that I couldn’t do before, but I realised, ‘Wow, I can play slide – and it’s in tune!’ I’m best known for whipping through scale patterns, so to have that new element and a strong melody is thrilling to me because it’s opening up a brand-new door in the House of Music for me.”

What was the last piece of gear you were excited about?

“It’s a combination of pedals that sound good and that will fit if the voltage works out. I’ve brought out my old Fulltone Deja Vibe, which is a great-sounding Univibe copy. And I have a Ross Phaser, a reissue by JHS, and I like the phase-shifter sound better, so I use that one. I seem to have found the magic combination!”

What do you still have to work at?

“One of the challenges of Mr. Big is the solos are short, and when I’m playing them I’ll think, ‘I’m not done yet!’ But you have to be, because the song says so. I’ve had to work on wrapping it up in eight bars and make it fiery but not ridiculous, and melodic but not boring.”

What’s the fastest you’ve ever played in BPMs?

“Oh, I have no idea! And I find whenever a student of mine brings up BPMs, I’m like, ‘Oh no!’ That mindset is not a musical mindset. Some songs have tempos, and that’s where BPM matters. But to me, the practical way of dealing with BPM is to move your body with the groove of the song and be able to keep physical motion while you play. But worrying about BPMs – that’s the wrong door to get in the building.”

As a player, do you have any bad habits?

“Well, the technique is fine. It’s more like compositional stuff. For example, I look at some of the stuff I did years ago and say, ‘That was an interesting idea’, but in reality, when it comes out of the amp, it doesn’t come through sonically as strong. Now, I’m more aware of how it sounds, regardless of whether the explanation behind it is cool.”

Is there anything that you can’t play that you’d like to?

“If it’s studio tempo, I think I can play anything I played when I was younger. But live, things never get slower, and often, tempos go up, so you have to go for a plan B. I don’t care how old I am, if it gets to a certain tempo, it’s like, ‘That’s not going to work anymore the way I’m doing it.’

“I’ll sit down and rethink it, and it’s funny: we have a song in Mr. Big called Colorado Bulldog, and I’ve got a habit of skipping through this one part because it’s too fast – and I’ve developed a habit from that. And now that we’ve gone back to the normal tempo, I’ve had to relearn it because of that old habit.”

What technique did you have to work hardest to master?

“Anything that involves whatever hand technique that I had to work on, I would get frustrated with quickly. Maybe if I felt progress, I wouldn’t. My heroes were technical heroes. I was trying to sound like Eddie Van Halen or Yngwie [Malmsteen].

“So, what I work on more is fretboard knowledge. I’ve been working on vocal melodies, so there’s a lot of buzzing up and down a scale using a pattern. Even though I’ve been playing for decades, I’ve been concentrating on melodies. It’s getting easier, but it’s still challenging.”

What is one song or performance that you’re most proud of?

“I know this is a guitar interview, but I really like the harmony vocals in Mr. Big. A lot of times when I teach, I say, ‘I’m not teaching people how to be a guitar player – I’m trying to teach them how to be a musician’.

“It’s about being able to feel groove, hear the melody in your head, and move your body to the tempo, and be able to sing when the harmony comes up. I think some guitar players are reluctant to do those things and think: ‘No, I only want to read tablature and play scales’, And I’m like, ‘Well, it is what it is’.”

What do you play when you’re just relaxing and playing for the fun of it?

“Mostly, I go back in time. Lately, I’ve been listening to a lot of Oscar Peterson, the jazz piano player. And a lot of his stuff is blues, and it’s whipping by at a breakneck pace. To me, that stuff connects to Van Halen. If you listen to Hot For Teacher, there’s a full-bug blues boogie there, and Oscar Peterson’s stuff fits right in there.”

And after all the great times you’ve enjoyed in your career, can you recall a moment when you felt like you’d failed as a player?

“Definitely! I’ve made huge mistakes sometimes. But the one I remember most is when Mr. Big was at the peak of its popularity in Japan, and we were doing multiple nights at Budokan with all these cameras documenting it for a TV special.

“So, my wife at the time said, ‘Oh, you should learn this famous Japanese melody called Sakura’, which means Cherry Blossom. She hummed it to me, and I said, ‘Yeah, this is perfect’. Well, I opened my guitar solo with it, got it perfect, and then I played my whole solo, and everything went great.”

“My solo was somewhat improvised, so at the end, I thought, ‘I should play Sakura one more time at the end, but an octave higher’. And, again, I’m much more fluid now with melody because I’ve worked on it, but back then I wasn’t. I’d worked on it in the lower range for the opening of the solo, but I had not worked on it in the high range, and I messed it up really badly.

“If you mess up something that’s fast, nobody notices, but if you mess up a melody, it’s really obvious. And I remember after that show, which was broadcast across the country on television, I was in a dark place for about a week! Maybe that was the seed of me wanting to get more fluent in playing melodies – just to make up for that horrible mistake!”

• Ten is out now via Frontiers.

[UPDATE: Paul Gilbert has issued the serial numbers of the stolen guitars. A full list can be found below]

Paul Gilbert has issued a stolen guitar alert after four of his touring instruments were taken ahead of Mr. Big’s show in Frankfurt, Germany yesterday (August 13).

The instruments include three of his Ibanez signatures guitars and one Godin acoustic guitar and are therefore all distinctive builds.

On the electric side, a purple Ibanez FRM300 Paul Gilbert signature Fireman, a yellow Ibanez PGM1000T semi-hollow (likely the Aged Cream Burst finish) and Ibanez PGM50 (finished in black with gold hardware) have all been taken. The Godin is a Multiac Steel Duet Ambiance.

Writing on Instagram, Gilbert shared images of the instruments and appealed to fans and guitar buyers to keep an eye out for them and contact him should they have any information.

“STOLEN GUITAR ALERT!” said Gilbert. “These 4 guitars were stolen in Frankfurt, Germany today. I’ll post serial numbers soon, but please keep an eye out for them, and DM me, or write to paulvsgodzilla@paulgilbert.com if you have any information.

“Huge thanks to Ibanez for quickly getting some instruments to me so the show will go on tonight! @officialibanezguitars”

The guitars – discounting their celebrity association – would cost around $12,000 if they were purchased new, so it’s a significant loss to any player, even if they are not vintage models.

Still, it’s every touring player’s nightmare and a number of fans and fellow shredders, including Alex Skolnick and Nita Strauss, have responded to the post to offer their sympathies.

In the meantime, Gilbert appears to have secured some loaners from Ibanez but remains keen to secure the originals’ return. As ever, Guitar World would encourage readers – particularly those based in Europe – to keep an eye out for the instruments in shops and re-sale platforms.

For further updates, head to Paul Gilbert’s Instagram.

A list of the stolen guitars' serial numbers can be found below.

• Ibanez PGM1000T – LA0448
• Ibanez Purple Custom Shop – LA0348
• Ibanez PGM50 – 230301054
• Godin Multiac Steel – 17152165

Ibanez has dropped a feast of new signature guitar models for all-time greats and new generational talents.

The latest release is headlined by a seven-string version of Tim Henson’s sleek TOD10 Strat-alike and a new Fireman for Paul Gilbert, which marks the first guitar to feature a slide magnet as stock.

There is also a new axe for Andy Timmons and two big-bodied builds for jazz legends John Schofield and Pat Metheny.

What’s new? World firsts, chunky rhythms and the lead tone of a generation, that’s what. Let’s dive in…

Ibanez TOD70

Launched in 2022 to coincide with Polyphia’s guest-filled album, Remember That You Will Die, Henson’s gruntier, extended-range signature counterpart, the TOD70 ($1,699.99), comprises the same modern-minded specs.

See a set of Tim Henson Signature Series 7 Fishman Fluence pickups with a versatile tone-switching system via a push/pull tone pot, Gotoh MG-T locking tuners, and Luminlay side dots for evidence.

Of those pickup voices, Ibanez promises everything from “hyper-clean” and “nylon string surrogate” tones to a classic hot-rodded voice and “the quintessential lead tone of a generation”.

There’s also a Gotoh T1527S fixed bridge with a whammy bar for dumps, dives, and wavers.

Again, the silver-finished, double cutaway guitar is built from an American basswood body, and an AZ Oval C neck carved out of roasted maple – which is always a head-turner.

Its ebony fretboard is enlivened by Henson's signature Tree of Death inlay and crafted to a 25.5” scale length with a 12” radius.

It’s fair to say that extended-range versions of Henson’s signature instrument have been eagerly anticipated – and fans are already clamoring for an eight-string incarnation. Surely it can’t be long now…

Ibanez FRM350

Paul Gilbert’s inverted Iceman has returned with some headline changes.

The FRM350 ($1,299), as Paul Gilbert says with pride, is “the first guitar in the world to come with a slide magnet”, meaning steel slides can effortlessly mount onto the guitar via an invisible magnet on its lower horn.

That means external gizmos – from mic stand attachments to well-trained roadies – are no longer needed as your slide is there whenever you need it.

“There's so much to do with this guitar… the rhythm is so chunky too,” Gilbert enthuses.

In addition, he attributes the Fireman’s body style – and large surface area – for its booming resonance, “huge rhythm tones and screaming solos.”

The build itself pairs an okoume body with a three-piece okoume/maple set-in neck and a bound ebony fretboard featuring acrylic and abalone block inlays and 22 narrow/tall frets.

Its gold hardware includes a Gibraltar Performer bridge with a Quik Change Classic tailpiece and two DiMarzio Air Classic passive Alnico humbuckers.

Sure Grip knobs also allow glue-like grip for abusing the volume and tone controls.

Ibanez ATZ300

Next up is a new DiMarzio The Cruiser/AT-1 pickup-loaded build, which combine to offer vocal-sounding mids, strengthened bass and extra clarity for Andy Timmons.

The ATZ300 – at a pricey $3,499 – boasts an S-Tech roasted maple neck, with the treatment set to increase durability and resistance to temperature changes, and a rosewood fingerboard with jumbo frets and Prestige fret edge treatment that promises “effortlessly fast playing”.

Its African mahogany body prioritizes a rich mid-low end, with Gotoh Magnum locking tuners with height adjustable posts helping optimize string tension.

A Wilkinson-Gotoh VSVG tremolo adds that classic Stratocaster feel, with a smooth tapered volume filter delivering a “uniform tone”, whatever position it's rolled to.

Ibanez JSM10EM

For jazz players, John Schofield has been bestowed the semi-hollow JSM10EM ($699) in a vintage-oozing two-tone burst.

For its tonewoods, the prolific jazz guitarist has opted for a flamed maple top with Linden back and sides for a “flat and accurate tone”, a set-in nyatoh neck, and a bound walnut fretboard with acrylic block inlays.

Like Gilbert, gold specs are the aesthetic choice here, with another Gibraltar Performer bridge, and this time a Quik Change III tailpiece. Each of its Super 58 pickup offers dedicated Volume and Tone pots.

The humbuckers are said to deliver a “moderate output and vintage tone”, and a Tri-sound switch expands their tonal versatility with three different voices, including a split-coil neck.

Ibanez PM3C

Last but not least, players can choose between Natural Amber and Black Low Gloss colorways for Pat Metheny's new PM3C ($1,599) signature.

Another big-bodied semi-hollow six-string, there's a decidedly less vintage, more modernistic flavor to its looks – especially the gold-hardware adorned Black model.

At one end of the body is an ornate-looking VT200 tailpiece to ensure tuning stays true and a third Gibraltar Performer bridge with low-positioned saddles for comfortable playability.

At the other end, its PM Special S pickup catches the eye. With angular sides and a strip magnet, the single-coil pickup has been carefully created in collaboration with Metheny – including that standout visage – for a pickup that “embraces a well-balanced classic jazz tone which is essential to Pat's music”.

Wood-wise, a spruce top pairs with maple back and sides, a three-piece nyatoh/maple set-in neck, and a bound ebony fretboard that has been given medium frets and Artstar fret edge treatment for a spherical surface – which should deliver improved note accuracy and smooth performance.

Head over to Ibanez to learn more.

Matteo Mancuso, one of the guitar world’s most electrifying talents in recent memory, has released his latest single – and it’s a tribute to fellow electric guitar virtuoso Paul Gilbert, titled Paul Position.

By now, Mancuso’s playing shouldn’t need an introduction. After sharing his equally-inspiringly-named debut single Drop D (yes, it’s performed in drop D tuning) last year, Mancuso’s clout has continued to increase exponentially, with many guitar fans – pros and amateurs alike – hailing his mind-melting technical abilities.

Said abilities are spearheaded by a sound barrier-breaking fingerstyle speed that sees Mancuso play faster than most people can think, coupled with an inexplicably grounded grasp on dynamic phrasing and melody.

There’s a reason why he was tipped for greatness by the likes of Steve Vai, Joe Bonamassa, Al Di Meola and Tosin Abasi well before Drop D’s release, but now we’re truly living in the era of Mancuso, and, with the release of Paul Position, it seems to be entering its next chapter.

Swapping his favored Yamaha Revstar for a Bacci baritone guitar, Mancuso embraces his funk fusion side, supercharging a Snarky Puppy-style sound and serving up four-minutes of bouncy riffs and, of course, some sublime soloing.

The track, in all honesty, could quite easily be an ode to Mark Lettieri, but there’s more than enough shred – and Mr. Big-informed licks – to cement it as a particularly potent Paul Gilbert tribute track.

“I wrote it some days after receiving this wonderful Baritone Guitar from Bacci,” Mancuso explains. “If you are wondering why it's called Paul Position, it's because I was inspired by one of my favourite players, Mr. Paul Gilbert! You may recognize some of his signature licks in the solo section.”

It’s a nice full-circle moment for Mancuso, who back in 2014 uploaded a video of him covering Gilbert’s Technical Difficulties – one of just many renditions that put his name on the radar of his countless A-list admirers.

Speaking to Guitar World after breaking onto the scene, Mancuso discussed the origins of his unorthodox approach to the guitar, explaining, “I started playing with fingers when I was around 10 years old. That was my first approach.

“I never played with a pick because I often saw my father playing a lot of classical guitar with fingers back then, and I just thought every guitar was meant to be played like that.”

Since Mancuso’s debut, players across the globe have been left mesmerized by his technique. In a series of chats with Guitarist, the young virtuoso worked to demystify his approach, previously highlighting his top tips for playing better lead lines and the secrets behind his unorthodox style.

Following the release of Paul Position, Mancuso is now in, erm, pole position to start paving the way for his second studio album. Here's hoping more baritone tracks will follow...

Electric guitar shopping is an enjoyable activity at the best of times, but doing it in the presence of one of the instrument’s greatest champions is perhaps even better, as this anonymous player – who was casually jamming in Johnny Roadhouse Music store, before Paul Gilbert decided to join in – can probably attest.

In a social media post shared by Gilbert, said player is first seen minding his own business at the family-run store in Manchester, UK, testing out what (from a distance) appeared to be a Buttercream Fender Player Jazzmaster.

Little did he know, though, that while he was making his way through a loose jam of Jimi Hendrix’s Little Wing, Paul Gilbert himself was also doing a spot of gear browsing at the same time.

The Little Wing rendition clearly managed to capture the attention of the Mr. Big virtuoso, though, with Gilbert deciding to set up on an amp of his own and spontaneously join in with the jam.

In what makes for an excellent viewing experience, Gilbert can be seen armed with an ‘80s-era green Ibanez Roadstar, which he then uses to roar through some lithe Little Wing licks.

Of course, it’s not long before the player who started the spontaneous jam clocks on to the masterclass that is unfolding behind him in real time, and when he turns to face his guitar-playing peer, his face is an absolute picture: one of sheer disbelief and dumbfounded amazement.

Now, to be fair, Gilbert had opted for a rather incognito outfit for the occasion, and he does have his back to the anonymous guitarist, resulting in some commenters theorizing the guitar shopper was wholly unaware who he was jamming with. 

However, that doesn’t seem to be the case at all, with one Instagram user writing under Gilbert’s post: “The ‘other guy’ is my partner. He very quickly stopped once he realised who he was up against.”

We can’t say we’re not surprised. We’d probably pull exactly the same face if we ever managed to witness Gilbert in the wild, noodling over Little Wing using a vintage Ibanez. We, too, would also simply stop and look on in awe.

“Imagine you are buying your first guitar and the most legendary guitarist in the world is playing right next to you,” one individual wrote on Instagram. “The other guy doesn’t even know that’s god playing guitar right next to him,” commented another. “If only he knew who was playing guitar behind him!” offered a third.

It’s unclear whether the player left the store as a proud new owner of the Jazzmaster, but what is known is that Gilbert himself decided against purchasing the Roadstar. Apparently, it didn’t fit in his suitcase.

Few people are fortunate enough to bump into their guitar heroes at gear shops. Back in 2013, though, one lucky super fan crossed paths with John Mayer, who ended up buying the aspiring guitarist the acoustic of her dreams.

A new single fashioned from an unreleased Jason Becker demo has been released, and it assembles an astonishing collection of contemporary guitar giants.

We’re not joking, either: the new single features solos from an army of electric guitar heroes, including Nita Strauss, Chris Broderick, Lari Basilio, Joe Bonamassa, Steve Vai, Zakk Wylde, Jennifer Batten, Steve Lukather and Paul Gilbert.

We’re not done: there are also lead efforts from (breathe in) Gus G, Angel Vivaldi, Steve Stevens, Rob Scallon, Nili Brosh, Richie Kotzen, Marc Rizzo, Alex Skolnick, Phil Demmel, Marty Friedman, Jared Dines and Herman Li.

Titled Some Assembly Required, the concept of the seven-plus-minute track was first conceived by Strauss and Josh Villalta, both of whom were initially planning on working on a song for Strauss’ own album.

“However, as the idea materialized, we realized this could be a much bigger project and more importantly, have a bigger impact to help Jason raise awareness and funds,” Strauss says in a statement. “From there, it took on a life of its own.”

The pair landed on an old demo of Becker’s, which had originally been penned in the early 1990s and recorded with Matt and Gregg Bissonette, with the aim of becoming a track that could be used by David Lee Roth.

“It was a lot of fun. Dave passed on it. Cool, because now all these fantastic players get to jam on it,” Becker said in his own statement. “A few years ago, Nita and Josh came over to go through some of my unreleased music to see if they wanted to do some kind of collaboration.” 

Now, the demo has been injected with a new high-octane lease on life, and has been revived to host an all-star guitar jam that will help raise awareness and funds for the Jason Becker Special Needs Trust.

Becker was diagnosed with ALS in 1989, and money raised through donations to the Trust will help finance his on-going medical and care costs. In recent months, the necessity to raise funds to finance his bills forced him to part ways with the guitar that Eddie Van Halen gave to him during their emotional first meeting.

“We reached out to tons of Jason's friends and peers, from all genres and eras, and amassed an army of friends to trade solos on this track,” Strauss explained. “We left Jason's original demo solo where it was, where it shines to this day alongside so many of the players that love and look up to him.”

As put in an accompanying statement, the track is “an unforgettable, unmissable display of guitar mastery”. It’s jam-packed with solos that span styles, genres and techniques, from the sweep-laden effort from Broderick and dizzying blues-rock contributions from Bonamassa. 

Then there’s Brosh’s uber-melodic shred-laced solo, furious wah-tinged musings of Wylde and Strauss’ own legato-littered solo that, at one point, she performs one-handed while, erm, yo-yo-ing with the other.

But perhaps the highlight is Becker’s own solo, audio of which is played underneath footage of Becker shredding at various concerts from his early years.

“Man, what a gift!” said Becker, who was presented with the track during Christmas. “Not only from them, but from everyone involved. I am such a big fan of you all! Thank you all so very much.”

Visit Jason Becker's website to find out more and to support the cause.

Back in December, we reported on a study published by Cambridge University Press titled Rock Guitar Virtuosos. It charts advances in electric guitar playing, as well as technology and culture, from the ‘60s to the present day.

Of course, we’re always delighted to see the wonderful world of shred being deemed worthy of academic discussion. But beyond providing a historical deep-dive into the instrument we all know and love, the study serves up some thought-provoking takeaways for contemporary creators.

“For a virtuoso, working situations have changed considerably since the last century,” reads the study’s abstract. “The aloof rock star has been replaced by the approachable virtuoso-guitarist-composer-innovator-producer-promoter-YouTuber-teacher-entrepreneur.”

As we witness everyone from Tim Henson to Manuel Gardner Fernandes to Sophie Lloyd juggle multiple disciplines while growing their careers – on social media as well as in more traditional arenas – the comment certainly chimes with our own observations from the last decade or so.

In addition, the study finds that modern virtuosos face greater scrutiny than those who went before, often being torn between opposing creative priorities: perfection vs. authenticity, innovation vs. consistency and technical ability vs. personality. Artists must balance those priorities in order to keep audiences hooked.

We met with the study's two authors, Dr. Jan-Peter Herbst and PhD student Alexander Vallejo. They aren’t your average intellectual bods – they absolutely know their way around a fretboard, too.

Herbst is a Los Angeles Music Academy alumnus and acted as Vallejo’s master’s degree supervisor, and he comes from the Paul Gilbert school of speed. Vallejo is a progressive rock aficionado who worships at the headless altar of Strandberg guitars. He’s recently released an album titled I’ll See You Soon, taking stylistic cues from the likes of Plini and Intervals’ Aaron Marshall.

Together they make a great team. “I’m more into the older generation of those guys we’re discussing in the book, whereas Alex is certainly more in the more recent camp,” smiles Herbst. “We’ve bundled our expertise!”

How did the study come about and what intrigues you about this particular moment in the evolution of guitar virtuosity? 

Herbst: “It really started with Alex’s master’s thesis. I’ve been more in the traditional world of virtuosity and Alex introduced me to so much in the more recent domain, and I found it hugely exciting. It opened a whole world to me, which academically is completely unknown.”

Vallejo: “I did my master’s on the development of guitar techniques, looking at sweeping, thumping and tapping, and seeing how these techniques have developed by looking at certain guitarists. While doing all of that, I was writing my own music.

“I follow many guitarists on Instagram. I look at guitar content every day. I’m looking at the quality of their content in terms of the videography, the editing and everything else that goes along with it – even guitarists that don’t necessarily have music out, but who are guitar influencers. What intrigued me was how they make a living and a name for themselves.”

How has virtuosity to have evolved from originators like Hendrix to today’s crop of artists-come-influencers?

Herbst: “One of the observations we’ve made – maybe more of a theory we’ve developed – is that the first generation of guitar players were really innovative in a multitude of ways.

”They were not just focused on lead guitar playing; they approached it quite holistically. They were exploring with technology, with effects, with distortion, with modulation and music production to enrich what they could perform live. 

“We don’t see so much of that in the second generation. The ‘80s were really just about exploring what you could accomplish on the instrument, and pushing technical boundaries. Usually, those players are really renowned for only one thing, maybe two.

“There are a few who are renowned for more, like Paul Gilbert, Dimebag Darrell or Zakk Wylde. They often went beyond pure technique or had a particular affinity to blues and emotional playing. Maybe they have some rhythmic chops – Nuno Bettencourt comes to mind – or they’re particularly academically minded like John Petrucci, Steve Vai or Joe Satriani.

“In the ‘90s and ‘00s it opens up again. Tom Morello went back to the ‘70s spirit of approaching things more holistically; as we continue into the ‘10s and ‘20s, our argument is that it’s a return to this idea of being very holistic.”

Vallejo: “We’ve come back around the circle to being innovative, and I think a really cool example in terms of guitar tone would be Unprocessed’s latest album, ...And Everything In Between. The tones aren’t incredibly orthodox – mixing all the heavy stuff with Manuel’s very clean playing. 

“Some guitarists look at the shred techniques and might find them cringey. When Tim Henson made the passing comment of ‘boomer bends’ he got a lot of backlash from the community. But it illustrates, within that circle, the whole ideology of moving forward and progressing.”

Are modern virtuosos under pressure to find new ways of making playing more difficult in order to be seen as more impressive? 

Vallejo: “I don’t think it’s about making playing harder; it’s about making playing more exciting. There’s always something coming up that people are doing slightly differently.

“I don’t think people will ever be content with what there is, as with Tosin Abasi and thumping. Now you have Ando San’s version and Tim Henson’s version, and they’re each different versions of the technique. Eventually something will come along that will shake the world up again and suddenly everyone has to learn how to do that.”

Herbst: “I think there are three areas in which technical playing can develop. The obvious one is that it can get faster. Then it can get cleaner – and that’s possibly even more challenging than just being faster.

“I think cleanliness is part of the progression because distortion has always been accused of disguising technical problems in execution. So it’s a natural progression in this regard to achieve more cleanliness.

“Then, the last one is borrowing from other musical influences.  What we’ve discovered about many players who have something new to offer is that they usually take inspiration from other instruments – from the piano to the koto, or brass instruments. Usually it’s some kind of adaptation that is developing technique, but also adding some originality.”

You’ve noted that virtuosos now have to take on multiple roles beyond writing and playing in order to succeed commercially. What’s changed? 

Herbst: “The fact that the recording industry has changed over time is widely known. Streaming has been blamed a lot – and rightly so – for the demise in decent salaries in the music industry, especially in more niche genres. Anything that’s more DIY and gets you closer to a fanbase definitely puts creatives at an advantage. 

“It’s also no secret that YouTube, if someone’s really accomplished, can pay quite a decent salary – not only from the direct streams, but also from affiliate links and other products that you can market. 

“Most of the guitarists we’ve studied offer video tutorials. Maybe they sell merchandise. So YouTube in itself can probably sustain a career, but if it can feed into all of these other revenue streams, it becomes really powerful.

“We can only speculate what the more established, older guitar players are earning based on their record sales, but it stands to reason that this new model might be more successful. But that doesn’t mean it’s less stressful!”

And the stress associated with these new responsibilities can have detrimental effects, particularly on artists’ mental wellbeing…

Herbst: “The indications we’ve seen in our research show that it’s very stressful to have this kind of lifestyle, because these creators have to produce content all the time – almost on a daily basis – and it needs to be perfect. 

“The expectation of creating content every day, being original and engaging with fans is something that wasn’t there previously. The earlier generations of guitar players were quite distant. They could go on tour and, for half an hour after the gig, sign some autographs – and that was it!”

Vallejo: “With guitarists on social media, lots of people follow them not just for being good at their craft, but also for their personality. 

“Keyan, the Australian guitarist, said that one of the biggest things that led to his growth was engaging with any fan that would comment – creating this personal relationship with whoever.

“Tim Henson used to do live streams on Twitch and that keeps a fanbase close. Fans admire your work ethic. They admire how you play and they want to also admire you as a person. They want to get to know you, more like a traditional celebrity.”

So what are the greatest challenges facing modern virtuosos? 

Vallejo: “If you’re starting out, it’s juggling everything. You have to get your technique and musicality there, and reach a level of competence that people will say, ‘Wow, that’s a great player.’

“Then you need to get your branding sorted; get your website and all of your social media up-to-date, and then you need to start engaging with fans.

“Let’s say you’ve done all that. Then you might start touring. So on top of social media, you have to organize live shows,  and that involves working with other people and more logistics.

“Then fans want to see things you do at live shows: how you prep for them and your gear. Then clinics happen. Then endorsement deals happen – and although endorsements help you, you must help them, and that’s another pressure.”

Herbst: “Virtuosos need to do maybe 10 things that used to be 10 full-time professions that one could perfect and train in for 50 years, making a whole career out of it. It’s just so much work and expertise in so many different domains: it’s technical, it’s creative, it’s economic.”

What are your predictions for the future?

Herbst: “I think what we’re seeing at the moment will continue. Musically, the compositions will hopefully develop and progress. The ‘80s was very much focused around the display of guitar technique and the song was really almost meaningless. Nowadays it’s more about songwriting and even groove and rhythm guitar playing. Virtuosity is not only in the solo guitar.”

Vallejo: “The guitar world and the whole virtuoso world is very much linked with progressive rock and metal. Take a look at Polyphia, who are incorporating lots of hip-hop and trap influences. More genres are coming in and influencing the music that these creatives are making. 

“Everything is developing in a very creative trajectory, and I think it will continue for a long time. I don’t think the guitar has reached its limits in any capacity – physically or with technology. It’s just going to keep on growing. I think it’s a very exciting road ahead.”

• Rock Guitar Virtuosos: Advances in Electric Guitar Playing, Technology, and Culture is available digitally from Cambridge.org.

Andy Timmons and Paul Gilbert recently sat down with Sweetwater to discuss gear and trade tales, and they concluded the video segment with an epic improvised jam of The Doors’ classic Light My Fire.

Gilbert gave Timmons a total of seven seconds to understand the chord progression – which alternates between A min and B min, with both anchoring on the open A string - before hurtling into the jam.

Timmons leads the way, weaving through Robby Krieger's iconic licks before twisting into his own stylings. 

There’s then a rare sighting of Paul Gilbert proving he’s human as he lands on a duff note shortly after taking over soloing duties. He dutifully brushes himself off and rips into the kind of short bursts intertwined with sharply bent note kind of playing he’s  synonymous with.

It’s interesting to hear the tonal differences between both their guitars and rig setups, with a gentle wash of flanger giving Gilbert’s licks a warmer, more rounded quality. The single coils of Timmons’ guitar and flanger-free tone, meanwhile, provides a much cleaner, sweeter sound.

Gear-wise, it’s a double-headed Ibanez affair. Timmons is playing his workhorse signature guitar, the ATZ10P-STM whilst Gilbert sports the black edition of his PGM50 signature model.

The ATZ10P-STM boasts the classic Stratocaster combo of an alder body and bolt-on maple neck. It's loaded with a triple threat of single-coil DiMarzio pickups comprising Cruisers in the neck and middle positions, and an AT-1 in the bridge.

In contrast, Gilbert’s guitar offers a HSH setup. Also equipped with a trio of DiMarzio pickups, its Air Classic humbuckers boasting black and gold bobbins to match the guitar's finish, with a PGM single coil in the middle.

The candid jam session ends with a quickfire lick trade-off which finds the pair at their improvisational best. They even lock into a harmonized run (with a few missed notes for good measure) that threatens to go down Technical Difficulties territory.

It’s pulled back, though, as they lock into the vocal melody instead of beaming off into the shred stratosphere.

“There you go ladies and gentlemen,” says Gilbert to punctuate the jam, whilst Timmons heralds the Mr. Big guitarist's playing, saying: “He’s the best. It's beautiful playing with you man; so inspiring.”

Timmons, who launched his signature Keeley Electronics Muse Driver at NAMM 2024, is no stranger to jamming with the greats. Earlier this week producer Josh Smith posted a clip of him trading licks with Joe Bonamassa in the studio, with the Guitar World columnist featuring on the follow-up to Timmons 2022 album, Electric Truth.

Paul Gilbert recently shared his tips learned from a lifetime of studying Van Halen with Total Guitar.

“I was lucky enough to see every Van Halen headline tour from 1979 until 1984,” he said. “To be there in person was amazing.

“With all of the fiery things, especially Eruption, Eddie was like a new sun appearing in the sky. You could sense that the world would never be the same. So I was lucky to see them with my own eyes and take in what Eddie had to offer. I actually still have recurring dreams about those experiences because they were so exciting.”  

After Edward Van Halen stunned the world with his fretboard pyrotechnics in the late ’70s, a new breed of technical guitarists rose up in the mid-’80s.

One such player was Racer X/Mr. Big axeman Paul Gilbert, who is still considered one of the most advanced alternate pickers and most musical shredders to this day – using rapid-fire blues lines in tandem with lightning-fast arpeggios.

Paul now recalls how his life was changed by witnessing the magic of EVH live on stage, and how this served as an education in what it takes to be a guitar great…

Eruption!

“I was lucky enough to see every Van Halen headline tour from 1979 until 1984. To be there in person was amazing. Because of technology changing and MTV coming out, the band were much better documented in terms of quality during the Sammy Hagar era. 

“Anyone young discovering Van Halen now will have a hard time experiencing what I did because the video quality is quite bad [see for yourself below – Ed]. You really had to be there. 

“With all of the fiery things, especially Eruption, Eddie was like a new sun appearing in the sky. You could sense that the world would never be the same. So I was lucky to see them with my own eyes and take in what Eddie had to offer.

“Those were some really astounding years. I don’t often use words like spiritual or religious but it had that kind of profound effect on me. I actually still have recurring dreams about those experiences because they were so exciting.”

Fluency

“I think Eddie’s talent demonstrated the benefits of being a nerd! He would practice eight hours a day and it showed. I don’t get to do that anymore at home, but when I was a teenager and wasn’t cool enough to have a girlfriend, I would spend my entire day working on my guitar playing. 

“That’s how you get fluency and feel. It’s really hard to sustain, though, because as you get older it’s really hard to find eight hours in one day! I think Eddie was telling the truth in those interviews… he really was spending every hour he could with his guitar.”

Impact

“It felt like everything exploded when Eddie came out. Everyone after him took some influence. It’s actually hard to think of anyone who wasn’t influenced by him! I guess Eric Clapton didn’t change and B.B. King didn’t start tapping, so the older generation managed to not be too affected by it. Anyone who was a little more current, however, learned a lot from Eddie. 

“You can hear it in how Joe Satriani was tapping and, of course, Steve Vai. I think Vito Bratta from White Lion got a lot of his feel from Eddie. I was like that, too – in fact when I was putting together Racer X, Mike Varney from Shrapnel Records was our producer and he was concerned we sounded too much like Van Halen with just me and suggested we get another guitarist in the band.”

Tapping

“After the first Van Halen album, you started to notice the gain knobs getting turned up to 11… yeah, just like Nigel Tufnel! That became the standard. Eddie did the Beat It solo for Michael Jackson and after that you started hearing Van Halen-style solos in all kinds of music. 

“You might listen to funk and soul songs that would suddenly have this rock guitar solo instead of saxophone or keyboard. And tapping quite often has a keyboard-ish feel to it. In fact, when Eruption came out, a lot of people were wondering if they were hearing keyboards!”

Feel

“It’s so easy to fall into the whole ‘he invented tapping’ thing. I think, ‘Well, that’s nice, but his genius was truly across the board!’ You could have him play anything, even a Chuck Berry riff, but it wouldn’t sound like Chuck Berry. It would have this elevated feel to it. 

“When I started hearing Eddie on the radio, the DJ wouldn’t have to say, ‘This is Van Halen’ for me to figure it out. I remember hearing two notes of (Oh) Pretty Woman, with no tapping whatsoever, and knew it was him straight away. That’s what we should be aiming for, having an instantly recognisable tone and feel. 

“His riffs affected me just as much as the big solos. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, Eddie’s gone back to the rhythms now and isn’t using his superpowers!’ He could play a power chord and there would be something about it. 

“The rhythms were not particularly easy. But he was so accomplished he’d make things that weren’t practical sound seamless and feel good. As a teacher, I often say to my students, ‘You’ve got the notes, you’ve got the rhythm but we’ve got to sort out the feel – that’s where the magic is!’”

Control

“When you have that much distortion and volume, your guitar really becomes a fire-breathing beast that needs to be harnessed. Issues arise because you will play one note and the other five strings will be howling unintentionally and creating feedback, making your world full of danger! 

“Eddie’s ability to mute and control the noise was a huge part of his technique. You don’t notice it because it’s the silence he was creating. You would only hear what he wanted you to hear. And if you were to pick up a guitar and try it yourself, your guitar would start screaming uncontrollably like a monster! 

“I learned all of this stuff from rehearsing with a band in a small room at stadium volume and I suspect Eddie did it that way too, especially with a drummer brother because he had to turn up to compete in volume and that would have been a dangerous instrument to tame. 

“A lot of bedroom players never learn that, so it’s another thing I focus on when teaching. You have to get the unplayed strings under control and listen out for all the extra noise. Eddie had a supremely good ear. He could instinctively control it all with his hands.”

Picking

“There’s a picking exercise I learned from a 1979 live bootleg of the song I’m the One. Eddie was, of course, tuned down a half-step, but in regular tuning it would be the notes B, C and D on the fourth, fifth and seventh frets of the G-string. 

“The second time round, he’d swap the last note for an A on the seventh fret of D-string. The trick is to start on an upstroke. I worked on that lick for a whole summer, going across the other strings.

“Eddie would start slow and speed it up. It’s one of the best picking exercises I’ve found and one I always recommend to my students, direct from Eddie! And I think he might have gotten it from the end of Fairies Wear Boots by Black Sabbath.

“So it could very well be a Tony Iommi lick sped up by Eddie, making it way better than the one I’m known for, which I stole from Al Di Meola!”

• Paul Gilbert’s The Dio Album is out now.

In just over two weeks’ time, Kiss will play their final-ever show, donning the iconic makeup and taking to the stage at Madison Square Garden on December 2 for the ultimate farewell performance.

In anticipation of a truly momentous occasion – one that comes 50 years after the band’s formation – we’ve been asking some of our favorite guitarists for their favorite Kiss guitar moments. 

Kiss has always been about the live experience – the gathering of the faithful at the altar of rock’s mega brand. Indeed, it was 1975’s Alive! that marked their true commercial breakthrough.

For Paul Gilbert, then, it’s the live albums that hold the most “magic” and, in a mammoth forthcoming feature, the Racer X guitarist and shred legend hones in (with his typical laser focus) on sections of two tracks from 1977’s Alive II.

“[On that album] Ace Frehley has infallible feedback magic!” Gilbert tells Guitar World. “The intro feedback note of King of the Nighttime World quickly transforms into its high harmonic, and Ace sustains it at full force with soulful, dramatic, and perfectly controlled vibrato. 

“Then Ace's unaccompanied solo at the end of Shock Me has more of this beautiful guitar feedback and vibrato. I love it!”

There’s a redemption arc, of sorts, in hearing a player of Gilbert’s unquestionable technical ability showering praise on Kiss, particularly given Frehley once told Guitar World that “a lot of musicians, serious musicians, wrote us off as clowns”. 

Indeed, it’s Frehley’s compositional talents that Gilbert singles out for his highest praise. 

“Ace's solos on the first two Kiss live albums [Alive! and Alive II] are so perfectly composed,” Gilbert tells us. “They remind me of what Bach would do if he had a Les Paul, a Marshall, and a space alien costume."

In the aforementioned 2009 Guitar World interview, Frehley summed up his own talent as a younger player, with somewhat brutal clarity. 

“I was good; I wasn’t great,” said Frehley. “I still don’t think I’m a great player. There are guys that play circles around me. But it’s a combination of my songwriting, my voice, my attitude, my persona... It’s the package. I know great guitar players that don’t have any image or personality. And you need it all.”

Keep an eye on the site for our full star-studded feature, in which Gilbert is joined by the likes of Nuno Bettencourt, Dave Mustaine and even Eric Johnson – all of whom single-out their own greatest Kiss guitar moments.

In 2022, Gene Simmons said he’d like to see Frehley onstage for Kiss’ farewell shows – or, at least, the encores.

The chance of a reunion happening is now looking increasingly small, though as Frehley hinted back in 2021: “anything is possible.”

GUITAR SHOWCASE 2023: Paul Gilbert exploded onto the 1980s rock scene with his exciting brand of speedy and highly technical soloing. He has been part of two great rock bands, Mr. Big (soon set to embark on their final tour) and Racer X, but has also maintained a fabulous solo career.

In this article, Paul sets out to explain the goal of the lesson, which is to adapt vocal phrases for use on the electric guitar, in order to play with expression. We have notated the seven live performances so you can study the fingerings and try these ideas out yourself.

A strong melody is of course the obvious starting point and provides a launch pad for other lead phrases and soloing variations. Paul encourages you to test out melodies by singing them.

He stresses there are many great phrases that aren’t singable, too, but for this feature, it’s all about the vocal phrasing. As Paul performs the melody he taps his foot to create a strong relationship with the pulse.

The scale of choice for the first example is E Mixolydian (E-F#-G#-A-B-C#-D), which sounds great over an E7 chord. To get the Mixolydian sound in your head, Paul says he thinks of it more as the E minor pentatonic with a raised 3rd. Indeed, minor 3rd notes (G) can be bent slightly sharp within a Mixolydian framework.

Paul adds expression to the melody with the inclusion of long and short notes. This provides contrast and breathes life into the phrases. He chooses the long and short notes on the fly, simply calling it a ‘feel thing’. 

Once the pitches, rhythm and duration of each note is decided, it’s time to add a variety of articulations including string bends, finger vibrato, finger slides and raking of the pick (fake sweeps), which adds attack to the notes. All of this articulation is necessary to provide the kind of emotion and feel that Paul wants us to inject into the solos.

The bottleneck slide is also a great tool for injecting a more vocal-like quality, so Paul uses the slide to swoop in and out of notes, and in this first example it’s easy to compare the sound of playing the melody with standard fretting and then with the slide. 

Another key concept that Paul employs is taking the melody up an octave. This increases the excitement and gets double the mileage out of a single idea. Moving the melody up an octave can take some planning, so it’s vital to ensure that the fingering for the low version is playable on the high end’s much smaller frets.

As the video lesson progresses, Paul moves through different keys and time feels. A minor, C minor, D major, A major and E major are all explored to great effect. Each time, Paul checks the phrases to see if they are singable.

This melodic vocalising is a great thing to practise when creating your own phrases. The process also makes it less tempting for extended and constant fast widdling, which can numb listeners and prove difficult to relate to.

Take a close look at the way Paul fingers and picks his phrases. For your benefit, our notation contains all articulations and fretboard positions from his performances.  

Hopefully there will be a new technique, lick or phrase here that inspires you. If you find one you like, then memorise it and tweak it to your liking. Once you have mastered some of the concepts in Paul’s vocal style examples, aim to create singable melodies of your own. Above all, be expressive!

Technique focus: Using the slide

Paul uses his slide quite a bit to perform the examples, so here are a few tips that may help you to develop a consistent tone and technique. You can experiment with different slide designs until you find one that is comfortable to use and has the right tone for you. Guitar slides come in all shapes and sizes, and some of the most popular types are made from chrome, steel, brass, glass, and ceramic. 

The next step is to be mindful of the guitar setup; basically, the heavier the string gauge and the higher the action, the easier it is to use the slide. If you have a low action or light strings, the slide will work no problem, but there may be a danger of it rattling against the frets, finding that strings are buzzing, and notes not sounding as clear as they should. So spend time learning the correct pressure to get a good tone with your own guitar setup. 

The next thing is string muting. The strings will ring both sides of the slide until you stop them. Many slide players place the slide on the fourth finger of the fretting hand, leaving the other fingers free to fret the odd note or to prevent ringing behind the slide. 

Paul places the slide on his second finger, like Brett Garsed and Jeff Beck. It also allows the slide to be placed at a sharp angle to create a minor 3rd interval on the second and third strings.

You will need to mute the strings that you don’t play with the picking hand – lots of slide players use fingerstyle for this reason. The final thing to consider is intonation. Make sure the slide is directly above the fretwire. Moving from position to position quickly and in tune will require practice. Adding vibrato helps, too.

In addition to standard tuning, many slide players favour tunings like open G (D-G-D-G-B-D) and open D (D-A-D-F#-A-D).

Get the tone

Amp settings: Gain 8, Bass 6, Middle 7, Treble, 7, Reverb 3

For this recording, Paul used the bridge pickup of his Ibanez signature guitar plugged into a Marshall amplifier. Paul’s amp and pedals were set to provide a modern-sounding overdriven tone.

Any electric guitar will work well for this month’s performance. Just dial up a modern-sounding overdriven tone with plenty of sustain. And, of course, effects like reverb and echo (if used judiciously) can really help in creating a more expressive sound.

Example 1. Bluesy E7 phrasing (standard and slide)

To get the E7 Mixolydian ‘sound’, Paul thinks of it more as E minor pentatonic with a raised 3rd. He adds expression to the melody with long and short notes plus string bends, finger vibrato, finger slides and raking of the pick to add attack. 

The slide is a great tool to create a more vocal-like quality. Paul uses it to swoop in and out of notes and in this first example it’s easy to compare the sound of playing with standard fretting and then playing with the slide.

Example 2. Phrasing In A minor 

For this example, A natural minor (A-B-C-D-E-F-G) is the scale of choice. Again, the use of short and long notes is a key ingredient. Paul likes to use the first and second fingers of the fretting hand together, as “one big finger” for sliding in and out of the notes.

Example 3. Phrasing In C minor 

The next example exploits the C natural minor scale (C-D-Eb-F-G-Ab-Bb) to create a rock-style melody. The finger vibrato here is wide and dramatic. Paul explains that the contrast between the long and short notes is one of the secrets to being expressive.

Example 4. Phrasing in D major

The next example uses the D major scale (D-E-F#-G-A-B-C#) to create a super-catchy phrase. A swung feel is employed here and Paul taps his foot on beats 2 and 4 to accentuate the accents. 

The melody is played on one string and this demands the use of dramatic leaps and ear-grabbing finger slides. Paul checks the phrasing by singing the melody in retrospect and makes a few adjustments that you may wish to include.

Example 5. Phasing In A major 

For this example, Paul uses string bending to create a strong vocal quality. When leaping up in pitch string muting can be an issue. Paul shares a muted rake technique where the strings are muted with the picking hand. The guitar pick is then raked into the target note. This provides attack and also cleans up the delivery.

Example 6. Phasing In E major (with slide)

Here, Paul uses some classic slide guitar vocabulary. The biggest challenge is to stop all the notes from ringing into each other. For this you may need to practise your picking-hand muting. Paul also suggests you try this phrase without the slide. 

Example 7. Energised phrasing in E major (with slide)

This final example is a turbo-charged version of Ex 6. As this is played faster, the rhythmic phrasing changes to the three-note slide pattern starting on the downbeat each time. Paul explains that if the notes ring into each other it can create a more blues-orientated delivery.

Having recently hooked up with Positive Grid for a limited edition signature run of its Spark Mini digital practice amp, Paul Gilbert has admitted that he had never heard of even heard of the super-compact guitar amp until he kept on hearing great tones from his students and wanted to know what it was.

Gilbert, the genial shred pioneer and electric guitar hero behind Racer X and Mr Big, has always been one of the most high-profile six-string teachers on the planet, often talking about how he, as the educator, learns just as much as his students, and he is not just talking about phrasing and technique – he’s talking gear.

Sitting down with Positive Grid's YouTube channel for an interview in which he talks tone, gear, and what the guitar can learn from the human voice, he confessed that the Spark was a new one for him. Furthermore, all that digital stuff? With smartphone apps to call up presets, and 21st-century features such as Smart Jam and Auto Chord, he was worried he didn’t have the “brain power” to get the hang of it.

“I was noticing that some of the students had really amazing guitar tone,” says Gilbert. “And I said, ‘What’s the gear? What are you using?’ And they said, ‘It’s a Spark.’ I said, ‘What’s a Spark!?’ [Laughs] And I looked it up, and I thought, ‘Well, I’m curious.’ But the thing is, I’ve got a tour coming up, I’m going to be on the road for a while, and I need a practice amp and I thought, ‘I want to check that out.’ 

“I was a little worried at first because I’ve got limited brain power. I didn’t grow up with apps. I grew up with knobs and physical things. I tried the app, and I figured it out immediately, so if I can do it, anyone can do it – and the tones were cool.”

Gilbert has just completed an epic reunion tour packing out enormodomes with Mr Big. If you’ve been following him on Instagram you would have got a sneak peak of his hotel room practice rig, and catch a sighting of his white Pearl finish Spark Mini ahead of its release.

The dragon design grille cloth? That’s a tie-in with Gilbert's The Dio Album, his instrumental tribute to the late, great Black Sabbath and Rainbow vocalist Ronnie James Dio.

For that sort of thing, naturally Gilbert needed some go-to rock tones, maybe a few effects to sex things up and cleans for contrast. He ended up making up 13 presets – which Spark users can download to their amps – but somehow managed to avoid option paralysis.

“There was a lot of flexibility but not so much that I got confused,” he says. “I can get what I wanted right away. I could make some really cool presets that I loved, within 30 seconds I’m jamming and I forget about all this stuff and get to the music.”

He might be a neophyte to digital amp modelling tech but Gilbert is nothing if not a fast learner, and he left Positive Grid with a tone tip that’s essential for anyone who – like him – is recording ideas from his Spark Mini to an iPhone voice recorder on the fly. It might not be the most technically elegant but it works.

“Here’s the greatest discovery in the world for getting easy, quick tone,” explains Gilbert. “There might be some way you know with Bluetooth but I’m not that sophisticated. You got your computer or your phone. And you just put it close, in proximity, and no matter how horrible acoustically your room is, that becomes a non-issue because it’s just close enough to the mic where it’s like having your [Shure] 57 on the speaker. Put it nearby. There is no perfect science. You don’t have to have it exact.”

There you go. The close-mic principal works for all amps great and small. The Paul Gilbert Spark Mini is now sold out. But it’ll work just fine for the regular Spark Mini, which you can pick up for $229 – see Positive Grid for more.

Earlier this year, Positive Grid set a signature guitar amp precedent by teaming up with Zakk Wylde for the “O’ Doom” version of the brand’s wildly popular (and ultra-portable) Spark Mini.

Now, the practice amp specialist has tapped Mr. Big virtuoso Paul Gilbert for its second signature desktop amp, the aptly named Spark Mini Paul Gilbert Limited Edition.

As was the case with Wylde’s own version, Gilbert’s signature Mini will be limited to only 100 units worldwide, with each amp arriving hand-signed by the fusion maestro himself.

Gilbert – who earlier this year embarked on an ambitious Ronnie James Dio instrumental tribute project – has retained the album’s dragon artwork for the Mini’s grille, which in turn is paired with a slick white housing.

What’s more, the amp has been released accompanied by five original custom presets crafted by Gilbert, which are said to harness his “most iconic tones.” It’s not clear which tones exactly those are – or if one will be modeled on some of the tones found on The Dio Album – but either way, we imagine they’ll be pretty darn good.

“Spark Mini gives me firebreathing rock tone as a starting point,” Gilbert said of his new amp. “From there, I can use the collection of amp and pedal models to customize my own tones. From sparkling chorused clean, to distortion with perfect delay and reverb, to punchy blues with a touch of grit, Spark Mini delivers the goods.”

Gilbert’s signature Mini has the benefit of operating in the same way as the standard Spark Mini – which we awarded a near-perfect review – though flashing perhaps the platform’s best aesthetics.

That means, while it flashes a gold dragon and Gilbert’s signature, it still has all the compact versatility of the original Spark, from its onboard controls to its Positive Grid ToneCloud tone-sharing community access.

Oh, and those who purchase this particular Spark Mini will also get access to a free guitar lesson from Paul Gilbert courtesy of Truefire.

Those interested in Gilbert’s Mini can sign up for a sale notification on Positive Grid’s website. As per the brand’s site, the amp will be available for $299.

It’s not the only piece of signature gear that Gilbert has received this year. In May, he teamed up with Ibanez to revive his classic PGM signature guitar for 2023.

All this new gear will no doubt come in handy to Gilbert, who is in the midst of Mr. Big’s farewell tour – a tour that has hosted some of his most adventurous live playing in years.

Earlier this year, electric guitar hero Paul Gilbert revealed to Guitar World that he was planning to bring freeform guitar solos back into his onstage repertoire for the first time in years. 

The occasion was Mr. Big's farewell tour, which kicked off last month in Japan.  

Thanks to the wonderful powers of the internet, footage of Gilbert's solo spots from the tour's first few shows have already begun surfacing. One prime example – from Mr. Big's July 22 gig at the Maruzen Intec Arena in Osaka – can be seen below.

In a recent interview with Guitar Techniques, Gilbert said, in regards to preparing for the Mr. Big solo spots, he was focused on “how to be alone on stage and not sound like Nigel Tufnel.“

Though he added in the same interview that he was “a bit rusty with the artform“ of freeform soloing, the below example sounds neither rusty nor like Nigel Tufnel.

Granted, it's not a display in minimalism, either – if you came to see lightning-speed licks played with awe-inspiring right-hand precision, you won't leave disappointed. After he gives the appreciative crowd some of what they paid for, though, the virtuoso takes things in a more melodic direction, nodding to the classic Mr. Big power ballad Nothing But Love along the way.

Speaking to Guitar World earlier this year about the return of his onstage solos, Gilbert said, “I haven't been in the world of freeform guitar solos in a long time, especially as a teacher. With teaching, I've got to show people structure, locking into a groove, and paying attention to the song.

“Honestly,“ Gilbert went on, “all of that has made me realize that the freeform stuff can be pretty dangerous, but at the same time, I think it could be time to bring it back.“

From the looks of it, we'd say Gilbert made the right call...

For a full list of Mr. Big's tour dates – during each of which the group will perform their 1991 album, Lean into It, in its entirety – visit the band's website.

Speaking of Lean into It, you can read our recent story on the good luck and creative chaos that marked the hit album's creation.

In recent years, Paul Gilbert's Ibanez PGM signature guitar has indeed been in production, but only in the form of "Mikro" models, which feature 22.2" scale lengths.

Now, though, the electric guitar virtuoso has revived the full-scale version of his take on the '80s style SuperStrat, with the unveiling of new Ibanez PGM50 and PGM1000T models.

Did the inspiration for these (shred-ready, from the sounds of the demo below) models spring from Gilbert's use of hot-rodded, Strat-style Roadstars – in place of his beloved Fireman signature models – on his recent, blast-from-the-past Dio tribute album? We're not entirely sure, but either way, both guitars are quite nicely appointed.

The PGM50 is the cheaper of the two, and is fitted with an American Basswood body and a five-piece maple/walnut neck adorned with a 22-fret rosewood fretboard with white dot inlays.

Sonically, the guitar is armed with an HSH pickup configuration, with Gilbert's preferred DiMarzio Air Classic humbuckers sandwiching a DiMarzio PGM single-coil electric guitar pickup. These can be adjusted by a five-way switch and a single Sure-Grip volume knob.

The PGM50 – which boasts a black finish with gold hardware – also features Gotoh MG-T locking tuners, an F106 bridge, and funky f-hole outlines. 

The Japanese-built PGM1000T, meanwhile, features neck-through construction (the neck itself is three-piece maple, with a 22-fret ebony fretboard highlighted by abalone dot inlays) and an ash wing body.

The Aged Cream Burst-finished six-string sports an HH pickup configuration, comprising a pair of DiMarzio Air Classic humbuckers, controlled by a three-way pickup switch and a single volume knob.

The guitar's hardware – finished in black – is a little more upscale, with Gotoh MG-T locking tuners, a DURACON nut, and a Gotoh GTC101 bridge equipped with six individual string saddles highlighting the set. 

The PGM1000T also features the same f-hole outlines – a rude tease for those who might've thought they'd found the semi-hollow of their dreams...

The Ibanez PGM50 comes with a gigbag, and is set to retail for $1,399. The PGM1000T, meanwhile, comes with a hardshell case. We don't have an exact price point for the latter yet, though European retailers are listing the guitar for well over $6,000, so it's safe to say that it won't come cheap.

For more info on the models, visit Ibanez.

Billy Sheehan, quite possibly the most technically gifted rock bass player on the planet, has played with dozens of amazing musicians and travelled the world for decades, which means that he has tonnes of useful advice to pass on.

In a recent backstage interview with Scott's Bass Lessons founder Scott Devine, before getting into the details of his insanely evolved tapping and three-finger technique, Sheehan was asked if he’d ever been tempted by the most reviled totem of 1980s musicianship ever, slap bass. 

“With slap I could never figure out where those notes were coming from,” said Sheehan. “So I sat down and just came up with a slap riff. When I got done it kind of sounded like slap, but then I’d go see Victor Wooten and just give up!”

So what exactly does he practice? “Sometimes the mechanics,” said Billy. “I need my hands to function as machines, and I need to not be hindered by the physical aspect of bass playing, so that I can focus on the music. Like the three-fingered technique. I still work on it everyday.”

Asked about his tapping technique, Sheehan told BP: “You can string your bass guitar light, put the action low and get it to play as easy as a ukulele, but if you push it too hard with your technique you overwhelm the strings and just crash against the frets. You’ve got to find the right balance.”

“It’s natural for some bassists to play a lot of notes,” he adds. “There are some guys who can play 50 times faster than I can, but they can’t play a groove. If it’s natural for you to play fast and if it sounds OK, cool. If you’re doing it just for the sake of playing fast, you’re chasing the wrong thing. At least 90% of my bass playing is locking up with a drummer, but sometimes you get tagged with a certain thing and it’s hard to shake."

Talking of his ferocious technique, Sheehan once came to wield a cordless power drill on his bass with Mr Big. It all started when guitarist Paul Gilbert taped a plectrum to an electric hand drill, which he then applied to his guitar strings. “In the end we got an endorsement from the Makita power drill company," says Sheehan, who did likewise with his bass. “Our manager called them up, they asked how much we wanted as a fee, and when he replied ‘One million dollars’ they actually agreed. True story.”

Ticket and VIP package info for Sheehan's world tour with The Winery Dogs can be found on the band's official website. The trio's aptly named third album III is out now.

Few players scour the innards of their musical soul in quite the same way Paul Gilbert does.

Be it his shredding heroics with early band Racer X, or his uber-melodic musings with the world-dominating supergroup Mr. Big, one thing is sure – Gilbert's heart, mind, and genius are poured over every inch of his Ibanez's fretboard.

Gilbert's ever-wandering solo career, though, has manifested perhaps his most idiosyncratic licks. Since striking out on his own in 1998, Gilbert has touched on blues, fusion, metal, holiday music, and, most recently, Dio. Indeed, Gilbert is the type of player who, when you hear him, you know it. All it takes is one slick note emanating from his empowered fingers, and to be sure, you won't mistake him for another guitarist.

These days, Gilbert is as busy as ever. Of late, he's been promoting The Dio Album, which finds the mad scientist covering some of the late metal legend's biggest tunes. Beyond that, fans have surely seen their newsfeeds buzzing with news of Mr. Big's imminent reunion in the form of a massive farewell tour to celebrate fallen drummer Pat Torpey.

Yet within the heart of the man is a dynamic player who loves to create. Gilbert's means of creation is the humble electric guitar, and on it, he's created a whole hell of a lot.

Unsurprisingly, magicians such as Gilbert have many six-string influences, from all over the musical spectrum. Gilbert dialed in with Guitar World to recount 12 of those guitarists, each of whom helped shape his unmistakable sound.

1. Jimmy Page

"When I was a teenager, Jimmy Page was not only my hero in terms of guitar sound but in terms of what a guitar player should look like. I used to wear my Les Paul super-low, almost hanging down to my knees, and I think that really influenced my wrist position and grip. All of that came from me trying to copy Jimmy. Probably the best day of my whole guitar-associated life was when I figured out that little bending lick in Heartbreaker.

"To be able to get that bend in that pull-off and then hop to the next string in just the right way… that was the first time where I thought to myself, 'Oh, man – that sounds just like the record.' To me, the bending and the vibrato were like the fingerprint or like the business card of being a cool guitar player. If you had that vibrato together, you had it all, which was something that Jimmy planted in my ears."

2. Frank Marino

"The first time I saw Frank Marino was on the simulcast of California Jam II. When he came out, he was just on fire, playing a million miles an hour while doing a cover of Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze. It was like a supercharged version, and it was just incredible. Plus, Frank has this warbly guitar sound – it sounded like he had five pedals on at the same time, all making the super-psychedelic guitar tones.

"After that, I got the Mahogany Rush live album [Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush – Live], in which, again, he did a cover of Chuck Berry's Johnny B. Goode, and his rendition was just on fire with ripping fast guitar. But it was really controlled and not messy, and it featured that warbly tone that I loved. 

"I don't know which pedal he used, but it got me interested in pedals just the same. Because I knew there was something going on that was beyond a guitar plugged straight into the amp. But it's funny because I've never been a person that did drugs, but Frank gave me what I imagined would be the feeling you'd get from that where the whole world seems to be swimming."

3. Eddie Van Halen

"Anybody who plays guitar and is around my age has got to have Eddie's name on their list, right? I mean, when Eddie came out, it was otherworldly. But beyond that, it was just the sound of Van Halen as a whole band that was very different from what was going on at the time. 

"Other arena rock acts like Kiss, Cheap Trick, Ted Nugent, and Aerosmith would be produced and cleaned up, and while that was nice, the cleaning up of their sound sucked the energy out of the music. But Van Halen sounded like their live show – it wasn't too careful-sounding. They had this energy when they came on the radio, and their music stood out so much from everything else. And then, of course, you get down to what Eddie was playing on guitar, which was totally different. 

"I liken hearing his version of You Really Got Me to him taking a charming picture of a dinosaur and then turning it into a da Vinci painting. I heard him play – it's like, 'Okay, the adult has entered the room.' Eddie was just in total command of his instrument. There were no rough edges, and everything was played with intention. His level of virtuosity was like what you'd hear from a great violinist or a classical piano player. He had that level of control with his guitar playing."

4. Jimi Kidd

"So, Jimi was my uncle, and unfortunately, he didn't do a lot of recording. But I grew up listening to him because he's a member of the family, and naturally, he influenced me. He used to send me cassette tapes recorded off the soundboard from the road. 

"When he'd do a gig, he'd have the sound engineer record with a cassette and send it to me, and I listened to those as much as I did Van Halen or Frank Marino. So, that was really a big part of what trained my ear because Jimi had great vibrato, phrasing, cool, fast licks, and a great tone.

"Later on, I brought him out to my studio, and we did a blues record together called Raw Blues Power. I'm glad people got to hear Jimi play there, because aside from those cassettes that he sent me there wasn't a lot out there. 

"I also have to say that Jimi was a great recommender of music. He'd always tell me the albums I needed to buy, be it Hendrix, MC5, Iggy and the Stooges – he got me into a lot of music. So, Jimi was a great music educator, not only through his playing but through his recommendations."

5/6. Pat Travers/Pat Thrall

"I'm actually going to squeeze two in here because both Pat Travers and Pat Thrall were huge influences on me. The [Pat Travers Band's] Crash and Burn record was influential on me in terms of starting to figure out what the blues were. 

"Now, Travers' albums aren't really blues albums – they're more high-energy rock with some funk and fusion elements – but somehow, the way they played, there were always little elements of blues, too. 

"Songs like Boom Boom (Out Go the Lights) and Snortin' Whiskey are based on blues progressions, and as a teenager, I could dig them because they were high-energy and there were some cool, rippin' fast parts. But it was just enough blues to start to train my ears that it was something different than what I was hearing while listening to an Iron Maiden record, for example. 

"I didn't have the sophistication to figure out what it was, but it kicked off my curiosity and opened doors to different elements of expression. To me, that was the best I'd heard anybody ever do a boogie-woogie power chord riff – there was something about it that made me want to soak that in. To this day, whatever I'm playing that style, I'm always channeling Travers and Thrall."

7. Alex Lifeson

"Another warbly guitar player, where you know he's using some type of pedal that makes the whole world swim. And you know, with the early Rush stuff, there's depth and a kind of Zeppelin influence that I liked a lot. 

"To me, when somebody is influenced by somebody that I like, I don't care – I will never criticize anybody. You won't find me saying, 'Oh, you sound too much like this great person.' I'm more like, 'Bring it on. I love it.' I can take in as many Jimi Hendrix clones as you can throw at me. I can have a million versions of that, and I'm totally happy because that's the right person to clone [Laughs].

"So, with the early Rush stuff, when people say, 'Oh, it's too much like Zeppelin,' I'm like, 'Um, no problem.' Because I'll take as many Led Zeppelins as the world can handle – I feel like the more, the better. But, of course, as Rush progressed and Neil Peart joined, they began to find their own thing. 

"So, Rush was really my introduction to prog-rock: odd time signatures, long songs, and having to really memorize a lot of stuff to be able to play along with it. But it was a fun challenge to try and play these complicated songs that required more than a couple of lessons to understand.

"I used to play a lot of that stuff in the bands I was in, which meant it was a total pedalboard-building process. It was like, 'Okay, I want to play Red Barchetta, I need to have my delay set at a certain setting,' or whatever. 

"I got very into all the pedal stuff to try to copy what Alex was doing. He was a very interesting guitar player who did a lot of stuff that I would never have thought of beyond the scope of the Jimmy Page stuff I was into. So, he exposed me to elements I didn't know about in very creative ways."

8. Yngwie Malmsteen

"The first time I heard Yngwie, it was over the phone. Mike Varney, who was the producer and owner of Shrapnel Records, had been sent some tapes and then got connected with him. Mike used to do this thing where he'd call you up and go, 'Yeah, I got into tape – it sounds pretty good,' and he'd go from there. 

"He was sent all this stuff that would knock your socks off, so when he showed me Yngwie, and I heard him over the phone, he was doing this fast-picking thing, and I thought he was shockingly good. At that point, I was maybe 16 or 17 years old and had given up on fast picking. I had tried it, but I didn't like the way it sounded when I did it. I just couldn't get the tone, and it tangled up whatever else I was doing.

"So, I thought, 'Well, I'll let other people do that. That's not my style,' which I think was a good decision. I'll tell that to my students, meaning, if it's not working, put it on a shelf. It's not good to beat yourself up about some technique that's not working at the moment – you'll get to it later. But when I heard Yngwie, it was like, 'Okay, well, if he can do that, maybe it's worth another try, just to know that it's possible.' 

"That was the first time I ever sat down with a metronome and thought, 'Okay, here we go – let me put some time into this.' And after a week or two, I could do it. And I thought, 'Well, maybe there's hope after all.' So, Yngwie got me to give that another shot, and then I started to have some success."

9. Robin Trower

"Here we have another warbly guitar player with that Uni-Vibe pedal or whatever he's got. Robin Trower is a player that, whenever I listen to him, I almost think that I should stop playing guitar because he is doing everything that I want to do and has done it really well. I just think, 'Well, he's done it already. Why do you need me?' But maybe the good news is that because it's me, I will never quite be able to do it that way.

"Regardless of if I like it or not, I'm always gonna sound like me... but I sure do wish I could sound like Robin Trower because I just love the way he plays. I love how he creates a structure that allows him to play the way he plays. I think he's at his best when the band is quiet and sort of down dynamically.

"Those moments seem to give Robin all this space, and he just fills it up. He's able to take that space and does such emotional things with it as a total master of vibrato, phrasing, connection, and feedback. 

"He's sort of like Hendrix but a little bit more refined. Again, he's a guy who has been accused of sounding too much like Jimi Hendrix, and maybe Robin Trower is sort of my second-generation Hendrix because it's a similar thing. But he does have his own thing – I can tell if it's Robin or if it's Hendrix. 

"Robin is straight to the point where I think Jimi did a lot of successful searching, which is great, but I think Robin is kind of a little more focused. I think that happens with each generation – you discard the fluff and narrow things down a bit more."

10. B.B. King

"B.B. King is somebody that I listened to when I was a kid because my dad had the records, which planted the seed. But it was much later, really, only like 10 years ago, that I realized that the thing that B.B. does where he's got his hand shaking like crazy, and he's got the one finger on the sixth string, he's got an absolute mastery of controlling it. 

"I was never able to do that – I had to use like three fingers, put them together, and have like a giant finger to have the power to be able to do that. But one finger? I couldn't do that, I wasn't strong enough. I don't know how B.B. was able to do that, but I wanted to try, and one day, I just thought, 'Okay, enough of this, I'm gonna try. I'm gonna really put some effort in and try to get that B.B. thing down.'

"I've always loved it but could never do it, so I needed to try. Well, it took me about six weeks to get anywhere close, and the reason it took that long was that it required that I have a callus on my finger in a different place from where it normally was. 

"So, my skin had to get used to it, but every day it got a little easier and a little better. And when I finally got that callus and started to get what I'll call a 'B.B. band,' it revolutionized my vibrato. Suddenly, I could do all these things that I could never do before.

"From a technical standpoint, that was huge, so I started playing along with him a lot because he's got some great videos on YouTube where he's playing slow blues and leaving a lot of space. B.B. used to play a riff and leave some space, and that's where I'd come in and jam with B.B., and from doing that, I immediately realized, 'Oh, I'm playing too much,' or, 'I'm too busy – that's not the right style.' 

"It allowed me to focus and inform my blues, playing in my ear for what I should aim for. I started listening to his records a lot more not that long ago, so B.B. was a much later influence in terms of his effect on me, but it was a big effect. That totally revolutionized my playing."

11. Tony Iommi

"I have to include Tony here as I've just done this Dio record. Doing this record made me realize that the guitar players Dio played with – like Tony Iommi, Vivian Campbell, and Ritchie Blackmore – I love all of them. But Tony was the one that I could figure out when I was 12. 

"His parts were simple enough, as a 12-year-old guitar player, [that] I could learn some things by ear. I realized that [with] songs like Sweet Leaf, with the lick toward the end – I played it over and over for like a year. 

"It got to the point where I played it so much, and it got easy for me, so I started to do variations on my own. From there, my doing that led me to evolve and start doing more complicated stuff that I can do now. It was some early versions of crazy lead tricks, but at the core of it, it was Tony playing Sweet Leaf. 

"So, I really think that Tony's living in my hands, where he's in the engine room, so to speak. He's what's creating the power that everything else is being driven by."

12. Jimi Hendrix

"I had a lot of Hendrix records when I was a kid because my uncle insisted that I listen to them. And I liked them but didn't get it 100 percent until I saw the Jimi Hendrix movie. My mom took me to the midnight movies when I was around eight, and I saw Jimi play at the Monterey Pop Festival then and there. 

"Of course, I had already heard that because I heard the record of recordings from Monterey Pop, but when I saw Jimi actually doing it, the hair on my arms stood straight up. I was like, 'Man, I get it. I emotionally understand this now.' Seeing him play just moved me, which I think is hard to understand in the modern era.

"If you've heard Van Halen, and if you've heard Yngwie, you've listened to modern players who are polished. But with Jimi, there's a lot of rough edges, so going in, it's like, 'Ah, that's too sloppy,' or it's, 'Oh, no, this sounds like a mistake.' But the tradeoff is that you get this energy, and there are emotions that are soaring through the air. 

"Of course, within the historical context, how Jimi sounded at that time – compared to the other players – was just devastating. A lot of it has to do with having the guitar become a voice because he was making a single note be sustained through distortion, feedback and volume. But again, nobody was doing that at the time.

"So, he's the first guy holding a note, as a singer would. Before that, players playing like a singer would be like the Ventures, or surf rock guys, which was cool and charming, but Jimi had this whole other level of vibrato. He had this wild abandon, and I love how he played without being careful. 

"To me, that's one of the biggest scourges of modern players – they're always thinking, 'Okay, I gotta be very careful. I have to be very precise and do everything perfectly.' That's nice, but it can suck the life out of the music. So, Jimi was not careful and not perfect, but it was in service of maximum life, maximum emotion and maximum connection."

• The Dio Album is out now via Music Theories Recordings/Mascot Label Group.

Earlier this year, Paul Gilbert announced The Dio Album – an ambitious instrumental tribute to the late Ronnie James Dio, which served to revive and reimagine tracks from across the heavy metal legend’s storied career.

For Gilbert, it proved to be an exercise in harnessing and learning new techniques – and unlearning others, in some cases – with the Mr. Big maestro having to pull out all the stops to recreate the feel and tone of several metal guitar heroes.

However, to truly capture the feel of Dio’s discography, Gilbert also had to make some choice guitar selections – and came to the conclusion that 21-fret guitars could actually help him harness higher notes than 24-fret alternatives.

It’s an argument that seemingly goes against logical thinking – more frets mean higher frettable notes, and thus even higher tones that can be hit through bends – but one that Gilbert has explained through the use of pinch harmonics.

Speaking in the new issue of Guitar World, Gilbert traced the development of The Dio Album, and revealed how he came to favor a 21-fret six-string – a 1983 Ibanez Roadstar II, to be precise – as it was “perfect for the vocal stuff”.

“I was actually worried I wouldn’t be able to play the guitar,” Gilbert said of the Roadstar, which had a higher-than-normal action. “But because of the sustain and tone it was perfect for all the vocal stuff, especially as it has only 21 frets, which gave me more access to pick harmonics.”

As for how a smaller fret count can affect a guitar’s response, Gilbert went on, “It’s funny, because I have a good portion of metal fans, a lot of them would write comments like, ‘Dude, why aren’t you using 24 frets?’

“Of course, more frets means you have access to higher notes, but in a way, you can actually get higher notes with a 21-fret guitar,” he went on, “because there are more pick harmonics you can squeeze out with your thumb and the side of your pick.”

There you have it – less truly is more. However, not only was his 21-fret Roadstar helpful in reaching higher notes, it was also crucial in allowing Gilbert to deliver particularly vocal-sounding vowel tones.

“That’s how I ended up shaping notes to sound like vowels,” he added. “When you’re copying a singer, you’re trying to make your guitar sound like lyrics: There are ‘eehs’ and ‘aahs’ and ‘oohs’. For some reason, fewer frets means you can find these harmonics much easier.”

As well as discussing his less-is-more approach to frets, Gilbert also revealed what part of The Dio Album was the most challenging: Tony Iommi’s first guitar solo from Neon Knights.

“That’s a weird chord progression,” Gilbert mused. “It’s a heavy metal song that suddenly goes all major. Funnily enough it was never one of my favorite solos.

“When I played it, I thought I’d just improvise and come up with my own thing that kept with the spirit of Tony’s lead. And I listened back thinking, ‘No, I don’t like what I’ve done.’ I had to follow Tony more closely because what he did was better.”

Visit Magazines Direct to pick up the latest copy of Guitar World, which features the full interview with Paul Gilbert.

Since his earliest days as a teenage sensation, then onward and upward with Racer X and Mr. Big, Paul Gilbert has captivated audiences with a striking combination of searing theatrics and hyper-fluid virtuosity.

As one of the preeminent players of the '80s, Gilbert found himself on top of the world with Mr. Big, as albums such as Mr. Big (1989), Lean into It (1991), and Bump Ahead (1993) found smash success. Still ever-curious, Gilbert played rover, leaving Mr. Big in 1998 and embarking on a successful, hyper-varied solo career.

In the years since, Gilbert has weaved in and out of the band, taking the stage with his former cohorts for successful reunion tours and even a few more records. Not a lot has changed for Gilbert to that end. The veteran guitarist is still brandishing an array of Ibanez six-strings and undertaking musical endeavors across a broad spectrum.

And while news of yet another, and purportedly final, Mr. Big reunion has dominated headlines of late, Gilbert's latest solo record, The Dio Album – which covers a suite of Ronnie James Dio classics - is quite the treat, too.

"The first time that I heard Man on the Silver Mountain on the radio, while I thought it was cool, I just sort of passed it by," Gilbert recalls. "At the time, I didn't know who the band or the singer was; it was just a cool song, and I moved on. And then, a couple of years later, I heard Neon Knights on the radio – that made me stop and go, 'I gotta find out who that is.'"

"Of course, I was a Sabbath fan, but the Sabbath that I knew was with Ozzy," Gilbert continues. "I didn't know Dio was in Sabbath then, so I thought what I heard must have been a new band. Once I heard Neon Knights, though, I got very deep into the Heaven and Hell record and loved all of it. So, I loved that music back then, which is a big reason I decided to take this on now."

With The Dio Album in the can, and with the beginning of Mr. Big's final jaunt looming, Paul Gilbert dialed in with Guitar World to talk about the importance of Ronnie James Dio's music, his love for cheap – but vintage – Ibanez guitars, deploying a plethora of pedals and amps in search of fleeting tones, and his musings on all things Mr. Big in the modern era.

What sort of approach did you deploy when recording The Dio Album?

"Well, all the solos for those songs have these classic, melodic and thematic moments. So, the worst thing I could have done would be to take songs that might have notes hung in space and decide to make it my own, plow through them, and shred like crazy. To me, that would have been the wrong choice.

"Instead, I let my instincts tell me what needed to be done. If the guitar player was doing something that had an important theme, where they're going for it, and stirring up some energy by playing high-energy, fast licks, those are the moments where I felt like I couldn't copy them.

"Even if I wanted to, I couldn't copy them because I think every fast guitar player has their own touch and patterning. If I tried to copy that, it would be disappointing, so I used that as an opportunity to throw my own patterns in and put my own stamp on things. But I found that it could be a little tricky because, within one solo, there's a lot of toggling back and forth. I had to find that balance, which wasn't easy to master."

Which track proved the most challenging?

"The solo that took me the most takes to get right was the opening track, Neon Knights. I probably did 100 takes of that solo, because there were little parts that were thematic, and I couldn't mess with them. So, that one took me a long time to navigate; plus, the chord changes are crazy.

"You'd think that as a metal band, Sabbath wouldn't be too crazy, right? Well, there are all these crazy major and minor seventh chords, which is like opening the jazz door – not easy to master. So, that was challenging to get, and while I was so happy when it was done, man, it was a real journey."

On the other end of the spectrum, did any come together immediately?

"One of the easier ones for me was Kill the King, which came together on the first take. But I had been practicing that one for a bit, so I knew what I wanted to do with it. I had to work on it to decide where I wanted to go with it, because the live and studio versions of different.

"With the live version, Ritchie [Blackmore] just threw caution to the wind, and he wasn't trying to be accurate. On that recording, he was painting with a big brush, probably throwing the guitar over his shoulder and all this crazy stuff.

"So, with that version, it's not so precise, and I bet he played the solo differently from night to night. Having said all that, the solo for Kill the King is very loose, and I probably took the most liberty on that one. I just thought that since it's such a high-energy song, I wanted to let it rip. And I'd been working on my ripping licks the week before, so the first take was the best one I did. I still laid down a couple more takes, but they weren't nearly as good. So, I kept the first take, which you hear on the album."

Of the many guitarists Dio played alongside, which would you say influenced you most?

"When we talk about guys like Ritchie Blackmore, Tony Iommi, and Vivian Campbell, they all influenced me. But Tony Iommi probably had the most significant influence on me, because when I was a kid, his music seemed like something I might be able to play. His solos were great, and I knew what a power chord was, and I felt like I could do it. But when I heard Blackmore, I didn't even know where to begin. There was no way I could copy that stuff as a 12-year-old, so I said, 'Let's save that for later and try this other stuff.'

"And when we talk about a player like Vivian Campbell, I wouldn't even try to figure him out because the soul of what he was doing was imprinted so deeply in that music. His stuff did have its own fingerprint on it, and it would be way too much work, and I didn't think the result would be good, so I didn't concentrate on that. Vivian Campbell did some licks kind of like Gary Moore; I can't do things that way. I could sit there with a metronome for two decades but still wouldn't get it. It just doesn't fit my physiology."

That begs the question: how did you approach the Vivian Campbell solos which appear on The Dio Album?

"The same way I'd approach the Gary Moore stuff in the past. I worked out a different way to get the same notes and same patterns. The way I did it was that I was stretching out three notes on a string, which is this giant stretch. And then I reached down and got the last note on another string. And so, I'm getting the same notes, but I can play with ease, smoothness, and comfort. It maybe gives it a little bit of a different character, but I think that's a better choice than me doing a bad version."

What guitars did you use as you were recording?

"Because I was in my home studio and had my guitar collection, I used way more gear than needed just because it was fun [Laughs]. I'd be messing around during each song, and it was like I was playing with toys. But one of the main discoveries came when I tried to imitate Dio's vocals while using vowels. I'd have to find ways to get guitar sounds to match the way he pronounced certain words those two words, and I found that a lot of that could be imitated by using pick harmonics. And by not using pick harmonics, depending on the song and the vocal.

"Now, I say that because I had more room for pick harmonics with my guitars that have a smaller number of frets. And so, I've been collecting some early '80s Ibanez stuff recently because it's cheap, and I discovered Reverb during the pandemic [Laughs]. I had to give myself something to look forward to, so I started snapping up $400 Ibanez Roadstar guitars and things like that. Of course, I'd fix them up and had some of them re-fretted, but I ended up using them on this Dio album.

"There's one in particular called the RS315, and it's got an excellent tremolo bridge with a lot of resonance. It's kind of like a Strat; it has 21 frets and a really round neck radius, which at first, was horrifying because I couldn't get the action low. Because if you lower the action every time you bend, the thing frets out, but as it turned out, the higher action worked great, and there was a lot of resonance. And with the 21 frets, I had pick harmonics for days. So, the RS315 was the main guitar for that reason."

How about pedals?

"Like I said before, I had my whole collection in front of me, so I had a lot of fun there, too. I have a bunch of JHS stuff, and I really like their overdrive pedals. I've got my signature JHS overdrive – the PG14, and I used that, of course. But I also used what's called the JHS Overdrive Preamp, which proved very handy for the Vivian Campbell stuff. I found that if I ran the Overdrive Preamp into a Xotic AC Booster, I could find that classic, early-'80s, heavy metal distortion sound that I love.

"And then, for the Blackmore stuff, I had to take a different approach. To me, Blackmore's stuff was never super-fuzzy; he had a relatively clean but somewhat compressed sound. I think a lot of that compression came from just having a Strat running through a 200W Marshall with power tubes, but I had to find a way to match it.

"So, what I did – and I'd never tried this before, but it worked so well – was I took a Boss CS-3 Compression Sustainer and ran it into a JHS Kilt V2 Overdrive. I did that for Kill the King, Starstruck, and tracks like that. I got that slight distortion, but still clean, with a lot of sustain."

What combination of amps did you work with?

"I had my Princeton Reverb and kept it right next to me while recording. I like to have my amp in the room with me so that I can feel the speakers a little bit. I don't like to hear it through the studio monitors. So, I had a Princeton Reverb running clean, just for variety, and sometimes, Marshall JTM45, and I'd run that into a Randall Isolation Cabinet. I opened it a bit so I could feel it in the room, and we put a mic inside and outside to get a little rumble.

"Most of the amps I ran clean, but the one amp I would use for distortion was a Fender Vibrolux Reverb, a combo. The funny thing was that years ago, I blew up the speakers on it, so I sawed the chassis in half, got rid of the speakers, and then glued the bottom back on to make it a head. Then I ran that into a THD Hot Plate, which I don't think they even make anymore. It's just a speaker attenuator, which I ran into an ISO cabinet at a reasonable volume, giving that nice, honky midrange that I wanted when I cranked it up."

Are there any young guitarists who have caught your ear recently?

"I really like Eric Johnson and Ty Tabor [Laughs]. To me, those are the new guys. At least, it feels that way, doesn't it? I usually like young guys that sound like old guys. One that comes to mind is Kingfish. I think his real name is Christone Ingram, but he goes by Kingfish. I like him, and he's so good, but again, what attracted me to him is he sounds like Freddie King.

"When he bends a note, it's just frightening. He's got that special type of physical control that not many guys have, so I like what he does. Whenever I hear him bend a note, I think, 'Man, I gotta work on my vibrato.' He's such an authority on that, and it's nice to hear. Aside from that, I like Jared James Nichols, who, again, is a bluesy type of guy. I have a hard time leaving that space; it's my anchor. If I get too far away from that, I start to feel a drift."

Why is now the right time to fire Mr. Big's engine again?

"I think every year that goes by, we consider it. And now that Covid is hopefully over and the world is somewhat normal, it seems like a good time to pull together, pour all our energy into it, and do it the right way one last time. And I'm excited to do the Lean into It record in its entirety, which is one of our big goals on this tour.

"We've never done that before, and I think that will be a cool challenge for us and a good treat for the audience, too. I also love the drummer that we've got in Nick DiVirgilio. He reminds me a lot of Pat Torpey in terms of his groove, but also as a lead time. That was a big part of what Pat Torpey brought to Mr. Big, so we needed that from a drummer."

How do you prepare for a tour of this magnitude?

"So, the thing that I've been thinking about the whole time is that whenever we've done anything with Mr. Big, Billy always does this amazing freeform bass solo. Now, I haven't been in the world of freeform guitar solos in a long time, especially as a teacher. With teaching, I've got to show people structure, locking into a groove, and paying attention to the song.

"So, honestly, all of that has made me realize that the freeform stuff can be pretty dangerous, but at the same time, I think it could be time to bring it back. So, I'm gonna give myself that assignment, and I'm going to try and think in terms of inspired, freeform guitar solos. I'll have to figure out what I can bring to the table there – that's the assignment. I haven't started yet; it's just an idea. But I'm curious about what I'll be able to conjure up there."

Which of Mr. Big's songs is the most challenging for you?

"Well, one of the biggest challenges is the solo for Daddy, Brother, Lover, Little Boy (That Electric Drill Song) because you can't mess with it. It's really fast, but it's also really structured. So, there's just no way I'm gonna improvise that. It's gotta be that solo, and it requires that I do fast, clean, alternate picking with a lot of clarity that locks into the groove. And, again, that's not something that I work on very much anymore. But that's my job up there, and I have to make it happen.

"I always dread metronome work, but I may actually have to pull out the metronome and just get to work on that one. Although it's funny because a lot of times, as soon as I think I've got the right hand down and figured out, now it's the left that I've to work on. It's very counterintuitive that way, so you always have to pay attention to both."

What guitars will you bring on the road with Mr. Big?

"I wish I could take all of them, but that gets expensive [Laughs]. Plus, I'd have to wait longer in line at the airport for everything. I guess I'll probably take some PGM3-WH models out, because that's probably the guitar associated with the old days, and it works. Those guitars feel right for Mr. Big, so I have to go with those. Whenever I play some of the more challenging stuff, it feels a bit easier and better on a PGM for whatever reason."

A lot of bands embark on "farewell tours", only to come back years later. Is this truly it for Mr. Big?

"Well, we're going to take the time to ensure we get to everyone we can. We're planning on doing two legs. We're doing a summer tour in Japan and Asia, and then we'll start up again in 2024. At that point, we'll try and hit everywhere else.

"But to me, that's our intention – for this to be the final Mr. Big tour. We're going to be pouring all our collective energy into this thing and go out and do it the right way, one last time. All of us have so much other stuff going on that, to me, making this the last time feels right and makes sense."

• The Dio Album is out on April 7 via Music Theories Recordings/Mascot Label Group.

Way back in 2018, Eric Martin – lead singer of Mr. Big – announced that the band would likely record one more album and subsequently call it quits.

The band's drummer and co-founder, Pat Torpey, had passed away from Parkinson's disease earlier that year, and Martin felt “uncomfortable” continuing the band for an extended period following Torpey's passing.

A few years have come and gone since, and we've yet to see that new album, but today, Mr. Big – Martin on vocals, virtuosos Paul Gilbert on electric guitar and Billy Sheehan on bass guitar, and new addition Nick D’Virgilio on drums, in place of Torpey – announced “The Big Finish,” a trek that will serve as the band's final worldwide tour.

At each show, the band will perform their 1991 album, Lean into It – including the album's sing-along, chart-topping smash hit single, To Be With You – in its entirety, along with a host of other favorites from their discography.

“We’re in the process of making sure we come up with a suitably big entertainment extravaganza to go along with our music," Gilbert said in a press release, "and since our music has resonated so wonderfully in places all over the world, we’re going to play in as many of those places as we can.”

“I hope the people who come see our shows get to feel what it’s like when musicians get together and really play and sing the songs they wrote,” added Sheehan. “We want the audience to be one with us, and feel our evening together was a magical and beautiful event.” 

Thus far, the band have only announced a run of summer shows in Asia, but more dates on other continents are promised for 2024. You can see a list of those Asian dates below.

"I’d seen the success of the Eat ’Em And Smile band [with singer David Lee Roth] and I wanted to see that level of success with a band I’d put together,” Sheehan told Guitar World last year when reflecting on Lean Into It and its impact on the band. “It changed so many things in my life and for the first time, this was my success – I put the band together. It’s me, Pat, Eric and Paul’s success – we made it happen. It was not only a life-changer, but a life-completer." 

For tickets and updates as more tour dates get announced, visit Mr. Big's website.

Mr. Big 2023 tour dates:

July 20: Nagoya, Japan – Nagoya Shimin Kaikan
July 22: Osaka, Japan – Osaka Maruzen Intec Arena
July 25: Tokyo, Japan – Budokan
July 29: Seoul, Korea – Yes24 Live Hall
July 31: Hong Kong – Southorn Stadium
Aug. 2 : New Taipei City, Taiwan – Zepp New Taipei
Aug. 4: Singapore – Marina Bay Sands Theater
Aug. 5: Singapore – Marina Bay Sands Theater
Aug. 7: Bangkok, Thailand – Show DC Hall
Aug. 9: Manila, Philippines – Skydome
Aug. 12: Kemayoran, Jakarta, Indonesia – The 90's Festival

At the start of this month, Paul Gilbert surprised just about every guitar fan with the announcement of his latest project, The Dio Album – a fully fledged tribute album to the late heavy metal legend, Ronnie James Dio.

The concept of the album itself seemed fairly left-field even for Gilbert, whose own melting pot of virtuosic styles seemed to contrast with the heavy metal that defined Dio’s own musical career. However, any concerns individuals had about the project quickly vanished upon hearing The Dio Album’s first single, a cover of Holy Diver.

Now, Gilbert has followed up the strong start with a cover of Black Sabbath’s Heaven and Hell – the title track from the band’s 1980 record, which also happened to be their first with Dio since the departure of Ozzy Osbourne the year before.

As was the case with the Holy Diver cover, Gilbert’s take on Heaven and Hell shows just how seriously he’s taking this project. Paying tribute to Dio’s unique musicality via the fretboard of an electric guitar is a mammoth undertaking, but one that Gilbert is tackling admirably.

The instrumental aspect of the track is pretty dead-on, right down to the sizzling tones of the opening riff and pulsating bass, but Heaven and Hell is all about Gilbert’s six-string treatment of Dio’s vocals, which are translated into surgically precise bends and carefully controlled scale melodies.

When Gilbert first announced the project, he revealed the lengths he went to to ensure he stayed faithful to Dio’s original takes, and judging by Heaven and Hell, his hard work paid off.

According to the Mr. Big virtuoso, in order to tap into the nuances of Dio’s vocals, he had to unlearn some of the razor-sharp soloing precision that his playing is famed for and instead had to explore new ways of playing lead on the guitar.

The album itself was inspired by a minor yet impactful experience, which occurred after Gilbert saw a baseball cap with the word “Dio” emblazoned on the front. Having experienced a moment of “unadulterated joy”, Gilbert then decided to make a record that would capture that same “raw energy and excitement”.

It would be a labor-intensive project, though, with Gilbert picking apart some of Dio’s most famous tracks line for line, word for word, in an effort to deliver a worthy instrumental tribute to the vocalist.

Dio’s solo and Black Sabbath material will form part of a broader picture in The Dio Album, which will explore various points of the heavy metal icon’s career, including a handful of songs from Dio’s band Rainbow.

Of the album, Gilbert commented, “Playing all these metal riffs like Stand Up and Shout, Neon Knights and Kill the King gave me serious chills. The guitar parts of Ritchie [Blackmore], Tony [Iommi] and Vivian [Campbell] brought no small number of goosebumps. 

“These amazing riffs are the steel girders of the songs, upon which everything else rests,” he continued. “It had been a while since I’d been this deep into metal rhythm guitar playing, and it felt like I was digging up gold nuggets of fire with a magic platinum shovel.”

• The Dio Album is available to preorder now ahead of its release on April 7.

Welcome to Guitar World’s weekly roundup of the musical highlights from the, erm, world of guitar. Every seven days (or thereabouts), we endeavor to bring you a selection of songs from across the guitar universe, all with one thing in common: our favorite instrument plays a starring role.

Crown Lands – Starlifter: Fearless Pt. II

What is it? If you’re still mourning the end of Rush, their fellow countrymen Crown Lands are the next best thing – and that’s no mean feat. They have the chops, the pipes and, perhaps most importantly, the ambition, heralding the arrival of their second album with an 18-minute single they hail as “the best song we have written so far” and “a testament to the power of prog." They ain’t wrong. Starlifter: Fearless Pt. II is a jaw-dropping voyage through off-kilter riffs, blockbuster guitar tones and dynamic contrasts that not only parallel the Rush playbook but even go beyond it.

Standout guitar moment: Don’t make us choose. Those first melodic leads are an obvious winner, but we’re especially fond of the thundering stop-start fills that follow, the sweet arpeggiated chords that pepper the track throughout, and, well, front to back, the whole thing’s a highlight, really.

For fans of: Rush, Genesis, Pink Floyd

– Michael Astley-Brown

Paul Gilbert – Holy Diver

What is it? On our list of “Things we expect Paul Gilbert to do next," the answer “release a fully fledged Ronnie James Dio album” definitely wasn’t included. Despite our foolish oversight, that’s exactly what the Mr. Big virtuoso is doing, and dropped the surprise news yesterday along with the effort’s lead single – a cover of Holy Diver. 

Apparently, emulating Dio’s vocal nuances and idiosyncrasies was such a challenge, Gilbert had to unlearn the razor-sharp precision that has defined his playing so far. That said, Holy Diver is an excellent first offering from The Dio Album, paying homage to the late vocalist’s musicality and showcasing Gilbert’s virtuosity.

Standout guitar moment: Sure, the solo is classic Gilbert, but the achievement of this track is his instrumental guitar recreation of Dio’s vocal lines, which are purposefully emulated through ultra-precise vibratos, selective bends and a host of other carefully constructed lead lines.

For fans of: Dio, Rainbow, Black Sabbath

– Matt Owen

Falling In Reverse – Watch the World Burn

What is it? The latest sonic morsel from modern metal’s most enigmatic four-piece, Falling in Reverse. Clocking in at just under 3 and a half minutes, Watch the World Burn is the ultimate musical curveball, reeling you in with a selection of hip-hop beats and some Ronnie Radke raps that would give Eminem a run for his money, before going full throttle metalcore in its second act, with a breakdown that’s so heavy we’d be surprised if another comes along this year that can match its brutality.

Standout guitar moment: While some melodic sweeps in the build up to the breakdown might mark the most impressive guitar work in the song, those huge bends when the section actually hits are certified stank face territory.

For fans of: Escape the Fate, Asking Alexandria, While She Sleeps

– Sam Roche

The Tallest Man On Earth – Every Little Heart

What is it? The beguiling lead single from Henry St., the first new full-length of original material from Swedish singer/songwriter Kristian Matsson’s Tallest Man on Earth project in four years. Urgent and unsettled, and underpinned by a skittering rhythm, Every Little Heart takes Matsson into somewhat uncharted waters, to thrilling effect.

Standout guitar moment: Every Little Heart’s central riff is its engine, droning along apace, with a tense but hook-y melody revealing itself within here and there. That Matsson does it all by himself, all at once, is what’s so quietly impressive.

For fans of: Mumford & Sons, Bob Dylan, Radiohead 

– Jackson Maxwell

Thrice – Cold Cash and Colder Hearts

What is it? Post-hardcore turned alt-rock mainstays Thrice know how to celebrate a milestone. 20 years after the release of landmark full-length The Artist in the Ambulance, the California collective have rerecorded the album in its entirety, bringing guests from Holy Fawn, Architects and Manchester Orchestra along for the ride. The resultant release updates the album’s anthemic take on melodic hardcore with cleaner, more defined guitar tones and Dustin Kensrue’s rich, ageing-like-a-fine-wine vocals, best highlighted on the album’s punishing opener, Cold Cash and Colder Hearts.

Standout guitar moment: AITA fans will notice some sweeping changes here, chiefly the dreamy stop section, which brings the 20-year-old track bang up-to-date with Thrice’s current post-rock-informed sonic approach, and traces a throughline from their hardcore roots to their contemporary alt-rock opuses.

For fans of: Glassjaw, Thursday, Alexisonfire

– Michael Astley-Brown

The Answer – Livin’ on the Line 

What is it? Your weekly fix of classic rock goodness, filled to the brim with chime-y riffs revolving around the key of A and a healthy helping of G-to-D major chord see-sawing, as well as a particularly catchy pentatonic-based guitar solo that makes its way round the boxes. Not only that, Livin’ on the Line is the second single from The Answer’s upcoming album, Sundowners, which will be their first in seven years when it arrives in March. 

Standout guitar moment: It’s easy for the pentatonic scale to sound stale, but Livin’ on the Line does a good job of keeping things fresh while guiding the track into its final stages through firing runs and box-based bends.

For fans of: AC/DC, Cheap Trick

– Matt Owen

Swollen Teeth – SWOLLENTEETH

What is it? The first single from Swollen Teeth, a raucous new quartet championed by none other than Slipknot turntablist Sid Wilson, who has also produced their upcoming self-titled debut EP. Needless to say, Wilson’s influence runs deep in the first cut from this mysterious masked group; disembodied and slightly disconcerting audio samples decorate a mix that’s otherwise no-holds-barred, drop-tuned guitar-powered heavy metal.

Standout guitar moment: It’s easy to focus on the credentials of the group’s producer, but the Slipknot-inspired guitar work of HOG, whose real name eludes us at the time of writing, is visceral enough to stand up alongside that of most other players in the nu metal genre.

For fans of: Slipknot, Tallah

– Sam Roche

Tropical Fuck Storm – 1983 (A Merman I Should Turn To Be)

What is it? An incredibly fun, 18-minute free-for-all cover of Jimi Hendrix’s psychedelic odyssey. The Aussie quartet’s interpretation of the cosmic Electric Ladyland classic is faithful to the original’s spirit, but branches out from its source material in fascinating ways at a number of points. 

Standout guitar moment: Where to begin? Over the course of 1983’s extensive run-time, singer/guitarist Gareth Liddiard gives us plenty to chew on, guitar-wise. Top prize for us though, goes to the volcanic eruption that begins at 4:35. Liddiard brilliantly channels both Hendrix and his own less conventional sensibilities with a series of rapid-fire, roller-coaster phrases that beautifully burn out in a haze of curdling feedback. 

For fans of: Jimi Hendrix, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Kikagaku Moyo

– Jackson Maxwell

Safiyah Hernandez – You’re So Cool 

What is it? A new track lifted from the debut album of Safiyah Hernandez – a 15-year-old musical prodigy, who has assembled a fierce 13-track LP to open her studio record account. Quite simply, this is a track we’d expect from an artist many years her senior, and if this is just the start for the youngster, who knows just how far her music will go. For now, it’s firmly rooted in gained-up guitars, which are out in full force here for some punchy progressions and swaying strums.

Standout guitar moment: Hernandez cites Nirvana and A Tribe Called Quest as key influences, and that can be heard in the track’s gritty guitar progression, repeated throughout with varying dynamics and a whole lotta’ feel.

For fans of: girl in red, NewDad, Bathe Alone

– Matt Owen

Demonstealer – Monolith of Hate

What is it? Indian metal musician Demonstealer, real name Sahil Makhija, has tapped members of fellow metallers Ne Obliviscaris, Kataklysm, and Veile to round out the lineup on his latest single, Monolith of Hate. Sprawling in its ambition with the grandiose arrangements to deliver, the track is a compositional masterclass, with Demonstealer’s unrelenting volley of electric guitar riffs bolstered by ultra-tight drums and elevating orchestral elements.

Standout guitar moment: In a 5:38 track in which the focal point throughout is the guitar, it’s, quite frankly, tough to pick out one moment which stands above the rest.

For fans of: Ne Obliviscaris, Kataklysm

– Sam Roche

The Black Tones – Blue Matrimony

What is it? Arranged by Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready, acoustic murder ballad Blue Matrimony is a powerful showcase of the distinctly Seattle sound of Eva Walker, whose sparse Strat lines, delivered over a humming bedrock of acoustic guitars, are as evocative as her emotionally wrought vocal. The track fuses the darker unplugged side of the grunge movement and the confessional songwriting of the likes of Nick Cave into a deeply moving portrait of a marriage gone very, very wrong.

Standout guitar moment: We dig the whammy bar dives on those Spaghetti Western-esque electric guitar lines, which further embellish the track’s innate sense of desolation.

For fans of: Mark Lanegan, Alice in Chains, Nick Cave

– Michael Astley-Brown

Girl Ray – Everybody's Saying That

What is it? The neon-lit, dancefloor-ready new single from up-and-coming London trio Girl Ray. Everybody's Saying That is an homage to the “straight-to-the-heart simplicity of the disco greats,” and fulfills its mission to the letter by channeling only the genre’s best – and most catchy – qualities.  

Standout guitar moment: Wielding a Player Plus HSS Strat, singer/guitarist Poppy Hankin gets the perfect funk rhythm tone. From the first chord she plays, Hankin is simply dead-on, powering this irresistible tune with laser-like precision and enviable style. 

For fans of: Daft Punk, Chic, Phoenix

– Jackson Maxwell

Paul Gilbert has announced The Dio Album – a fully fledged Ronnie James Dio tribute album, which will be released to honor the legacy of the late heavy metal great.

Covering multiple eras of Dio’s legendary career – from his Rainbow and Black Sabbath days all the way to his solo work – over the course of 12 tracks, The Dio Album is set to arrive April 7 via Mascot Label Group.

A Dio tribute album from Gilbert comes as pretty big surprise, given that Gilbert’s own melting pot of fusion styles, both with his groups Mr. Big and Racer X and his own solo material, is a drastic contrast to the music that Dio championed and is remembered for.

Having said that, Gilbert’s versatility and ability to adapt to any musical setting is in a league of its own, so there’s no doubt his tribute to Dio will be non-stop full-throttle metal and heavy-hitting solos in memory of the late vocalist.

To prove this point, Gilbert has also shared the record’s lead single, a mesmerizing cover of Holy Diver, which is lifted from Dio’s debut studio album of the same name from 1983.

The concept of a Dio tribute album, according to Gilbert, was born after an incredibly minor yet memorable experience: while driving, he saw a baseball cap with the word “Dio” printed on the front. Apparently, witnessing said cap “made his heart start beating faster in a moment of unexpected, unadulterated joy”.

In the aftermath of the drive, Gilbert decided to put together an entire album of Dio tracks that could capture that same “raw energy and excitement” – though he knew the task would be an especially tricky one, given the difficulties he’d face attempting to translate Dio’s commanding vocals into instrumental guitar.

Such translations took place by dissecting Dio’s melodies phrase by phrase, and line by line, in a bid to faithfully tap into the original tracks’ energy and emotion.

In fact, the challenge to harness Dio’s idiosyncrasies and nuances proved to be so demanding that it forced Gilbert to unlearn some of the razor-sharp technical precision that is most commonly associated with his playing.

“Playing all these metal riffs like Stand Up and Shout, Neon Knights and Kill the King gave me serious chills,” reflected Gilbert. “The guitar parts of Ritchie [Blackmore], Tony [Iommi] and Vivian [Campbell] brought no small number of goosebumps.

“These amazing riffs are the steel girders of the songs, upon which everything else rests,” he continued. “It had been a while since I’d been this deep into metal rhythm guitar playing, and it felt like I was digging up gold nuggets of fire with a magic platinum shovel.

“The guitar solos in these songs came screaming from distant mountaintops. Ritchie, Tony, and Vivian set the standard breathtakingly high.”

Engineered by Zach Bloomstein, The Dio Album sees Gilbert perform all instruments on the album, save the drums, which were supplied by Bill Ray.

As for what tracks will feature on The Dio Album, notable inclusions include the title track from Dio’s 1984 solo effort The Last in Line, Black Sabbath’s Lady Evil and Country Girl, and Rainbow’s Kill the King.

A full tracklist for The Dio Album can be found below.

1. Neon Knights
2. Kill The King
3. Stand Up And Shout
4. Country Girl
5. Man On The Silver Mountain
6. Holy Diver
7. Heaven And Hell
8. Long Live Rock ‘N’ Roll
9. Lady Evil
10. Don’t Talk To Strangers
11. Starstruck
12. The Last In Line

• The Dio Album is available to preorder now ahead of its release on April 7.

Paul Gilbert’s cat, Juliette, who was a firm favorite in many guitarists’ Instagram feeds, has passed away.

The Mr. Big virtuoso broke the news on Instagram, writing, “She was a wonderful, very funny, and very furry cat. She was certainly a source of joy in my family. Thank you for the many ‘likes’ that you gave to Juliette. She had unexpected health issues and passed away peacefully yesterday.

“I’m in a bit of shock, but certainly keeping so many good memories. Deep breath. Onward!”

In the comments section, guitarists including Wolfgang Van Halen, Mary Spender and Gretchen Menn paid their respects to the feline that had brought light and laughter to many players.

Gilbert’s friend and peer Eric Johnson wrote, “Your family and her were fortunate to have found each other. May God bless you all.”

Juliette was a regular fixture on Gilbert’s Instagram page since its inception in 2016, and featured in countless photos of his guitar rigs.

She was often captured grabbing vintage Ibanez guitars, gazing curiously at pedal settings, or scaling acoustic panels to the ceiling of her owner’s studio.

In 2020, she even made a cameo video appearance in Gilbert’s rundown of his five favorite signature guitars for Reverb.

Juliette was a highlight of our own Instagram feeds here at Guitar World, and we’ve shared a few of our favorite moments below. Our thoughts and sympathies go out to the Gilbert family.

Our inspiration for this lesson is Paul Gilbert’s amazing picking chops. Don’t be put off by this, as we’re looking at the approach rather than closely trying to emulate the great PG. Anyway it’s important to start by playing these examples slowly and perfectly. If you aim to play them too fast, too soon you’ll be programming your fingers to play in a messy and uncoordinated way.

The first step is to get the picking hand used to groups of six (or three) before getting into more complicated patterns for the fretting hand. Therefore the first example features repeated groups of three notes with the beat subdivided into six notes per beat. Cementing the rhythmic feel of the six-note rhythmic groups with the picking hand will mean that the more involved fretting-hand patterns will feel more natural.

The examples start on one string then move on to include crossing to other strings, while maintaining strict alternate picking. It’s important to be able to integrate the sextuplet rhythm into a pattern of other rhythms, such as 16th-note rhythms.

Rhythmic variety humanises a line, and relentless use of the same rhythm can become stale pretty quickly. Remember that a singer has to take as breath once in a while, and keeping this inspiration in mind helps with pacing a solo.

So you’ll see that, by the fourth example, after all the straight 16th notes we’ve integrated the sextuplet 16ths idea into a line with a more legato approach – it’s the same kind of line but breaking out of the alternate picking approach for a more fluid type of phrasing.

That one has a distinct neo-classical sound to it. It’s important to be able to play freely with alternate picking and legato techniques, adding economy picking and sweeping if they fit your vibe. 

Our final lick is a position shifting constant movement workout. It will work  over Am7 as a Dorian line or over Em7 as an E Aeolian line, and sounds cool both ways.

Remember this is just an introduction to this style. The real benefit will come when you start to experiment with crafting your own lines. One powerful way to use licks is to alter them to fit other chord types. For instance, by altering a few notes, these lines could be made to conform to the blues scale for a different vibe – think Joe Bonamassa!

Consider making up new lines using the same pattern in terms of how many notes you pick on any particular string before moving to the next – then you already have the picking pattern down. Good luck! 

Get the tone

You’ll need a heavy rock tone, with either a high-gain guitar amp or distortion pedal – or more than one overdrive pedal – to achieve the right tone. Reverb works, and delay can sound great but be careful to keep the delays fairly low – if the repeated notes are too loud you’ll lose clarity. Many multi-FX units and modellers have a noise gate which can reduce unwanted interference. 

Example 1. Warm-up

Our first example is a warm-up exercise. Start slowly as these are the building blocks of this lesson. Practise to a metronome before working with the track.

Example 2. Mixing up the rhythms

This example starts with a bar of constant sextuplets then breaks up the rhythm with 16th-note triplets using the open second string as a pedal.

Example 3. Constant stream of notes with repetition

This example uses a longer period of constant movement but includes some repeated notes to keep the fretting hand’s movement simple.

Example 4. String-skipped arpeggios plus sextuplets

This idea starts with string-skipping arpeggios then jumps into a sextuplet legato line for variety of phrasing.

Example 5. Sextuplets with position shifts

Check out this stream of sextuplets with position shifting – start slow with this one. This is ripe for development!

Not only is Paul Gilbert considered one of the finest electric guitar players of our time, he’s also a highly reputable source for crazy accessories and ingenious modifications. 

Case in point is his almost religious use of a power drill – evident in his Guitar Techniques track, That’s Too Much Like Work – to which he attaches a guitar pick for some rapid-fire picking sounds.

Now, taking to Instagram, Gilbert has given his followers an insight into his latest accessory innovation, which he says could be the key to better grip and quicker picking: drilling holes in guitar picks.

“I drilled four holes in my pick, and it’s easier to grip it,” he wrote. “11/64” seems like the drill bit that works the best. Makita drill, of course.”

Not only did Gilbert detail his latest find, he also showcased his drilled pick in action, using it for yet another blistering fretboard run that emanated from his retro Ibanez ST-300. 

Now, Gilbert is revered for his picking speed, but his latest example is quite frankly off the charts, containing not only lightning-quick right hand action but mesmerizing left-hand speed that sees him almost teleport across the 'board.

As for what pick Gilbert specifically modified, it’s likely the Mr. Big guitarist took the drill bit to a 0.5mm-gauge piece – a pick size that has been Gilbert’s go-to gauge for quite some time now.

Back in 2021, Gilbert surprised guitarists by revealing his rapid picking, elite enunciation and sharp attack aren't harnessed using solid, robust picks, but are actually the result of using wafer-thin 0.5mm alternatives.

When he made the revelation, the guitarist showed off some custom white “Pie Baby” picks, saying the lighter-than-usual weight gave him his “favorite tone and thwap”. And, though it’s hard to tell, it looks as though Gilbert is using a white pick in his latest video, meaning it’s entirely possible he’s still sticking with the ultra-thin examples.

Having said that, with four holes drilled into them, we can’t imagine these modded Pie Baby picks have a very long shelf life, so we wouldn’t blame Gilbert if he switched to something heavier. The results speak for themselves, after all. 

As well as demonstrating the perks of using a drilled guitar pick – excuse us while we dig out an 11/64" drill bit – Gilbert also gave us another glimpse of one of his other brilliant innovations: his magnetic body-equipped slide holder.

Blink and you’ll miss it the first time, but if you watch it again you’ll realize the slide didn’t just magically appear out of thin air – instead, the Racer X virtuoso whisks it away from a magnetic strip attached to the lower bout of his ST-300 in one swift motion. We imagine that’s a lot harder to pull off than it looks, though.

To see some more close-up shots of Gilbert’s brilliance in action, head over to his Instagram page.

A hot-pink 1987 Ibanez "Ice-Stroyer" electric guitar once owned by Paul Gilbert is up for sale on Reverb.com.

As some readers might recall, this very same guitar was sold by Gilbert himself – for $16,000 – on Reverb in December 2020 to benefit his former Racer X band mate, Juan Alderete, who was recovering from a serious brain injury.

The guitar was commissioned by Gilbert in 1987. As the story goes, Ibanez – assuming Gilbert, who asked for a pink Destroyer, would want access to the highest parts of the neck – built the shredder only the top half of a Destroyer, with a bottom half like one of the company's Iceman guitars. 

"I wanted Def Leppard hair so bad that I got some, I grew some. But that's the first step. After you have Def Leppard hair, you need a Def Leppard guitar," Gilbert explained in 2020.

“This Ibanez Ice-Stroyer was built by the Ibanez Custom Shop in Bensalem, PA in 1987,” the guitarist added at the time. “Only two were made. This pink one, for me. And an orange one for Bruce Bouillet. I used this guitar for live Racer X shows, for Mr. Big recordings, and on Mr. Big tours.

“Over the years, I changed the bridge to a fixed bridge, moved the location of the toggle switch, and had a DiMarzio Tone Zone and a DiMarzio single coil pickup installed," he continued. 

"The back of the guitar has sushi stickers that I got on my first tour of Japan with Mr. Big back in 1989. And my signature on the headstock is back when I was still signing in script. The tall frets are in excellent condition, and the guitar plays and sounds great!”

Said to be in "excellent" condition – unchanged from when it was first sold in 2020 – the guitar has been listed by Nashville's Rumble Seat Music for $18,500.

To view the full listing, visit Reverb.com.

Paul Gilbert exploded onto the 1980s rock scene with his exilliarating solos and powerhouse riffing, like a blend of Eddie Van Halen and Yngwie Malmsteen with extra bite. 

Since the days of his bands Racer X and Mr Big, he has maintained a fabulous solo career; his recent Christmas album, ‘Twas being a case in point. Furthermore, he is a busy educator both online and at his USA guitar camps.

This issue’s exclusive track, That’s Too Much Like Work! was created after he decided that a piece by Jason Sidwell had a few too many chords to navigate (too much like work!). So, due to a limited time window, he opted to record a new piece and played all the instruments, leaving Jason just the task of mixing. 

That’s Too Much Like Work! is constructed in two tempos. The first is a stomping shuffle and to keep things easy to read we have notated this with a 4/4 time signature and swung quavers. The solo section then goes to a slower tempo with a 12/8 time signature. 

After his jaw dropping performance (a Makita power drill was used too!), Paul starts his lesson with a handy tip for creating a memorable and melodic motif; vocalise a melody and then add lyrics. The lyrics help to establish an organic sounding rhythm and a sense of meaning. 

So, Paul’s main melody is driven by the words ‘That’s Too Much Like Work, Work Work Work Work!’. Elaborating further, it’s interesting to hear how a virtuosic musician can take inspiration from a simple melody; the nursery rhyme, Frère Jacques. The moral of this is; keeping things very simple (at least in the beginning) can often result in outstanding results.

The scale of choice for the melody section is E Major (E-F#-G#-A-B-C#-D#). This scale sounds great as most the chords used are diatonic to this key. For the solo section we shift to the relative Minor (C# Minor so the same fingerings will work).

Paul adds expression using different note lengths and articulations such as string bends, finger vibrato, finger slides and pick rakes (fake sweeps) to add attack, while double-stops help to thicken up the sound. The backing features bass and drums with occasional rhythm guitar so we are working largely in a power trio format. 

Paul also uses his guitar’s whammy bar, an excursion from his usual hardtail setup. The bar is used to add extra expression to open strings and harmonics. 

The use of a power drill to pick the strings was famously featured on Mr Big’s Daddy, Brother, Lover, Little Boy (The Electric Drill Song). Paul explains his Makita drill allows him to have the motor run down after the trigger is released. It has four picks attached and these need to be a light gauge to help preserve the strings. As he explains, clarity with the drill benefits from the use of fretting-hand muting to keep single-string melodies clear.

For his parting advice, it’s important to allow time to have fun on the guitar. While it’s important to drive forward to improve technique and learn new ideas, we should also keep it fun.

Our notation contains all of the fingerings, articulations and phrasing from the video performance. It’d be well worth taking a close look at the way Paul  fingers the phrases. Hopefully there will be a new technique, lick or phrase in here for you to perfect. If you find one you like then memorise it and use it in future where appropriate. 

Once you have mastered some of the licks in Paul’s solo, why not create your own over Mr Gilbert’s track? Good luck! 

Get the tone

Amp settings: Gain 8, Bass 7, Middle 7, Treble 6, Reverb 3

Paul used his 1983 Ibanez RS315 (with DiMarzio pickups and locking tuners) into Marshall Origin and Fender Princeton Reverb amps. A bridge humbucker really suits this style of fiery playing so if you have one it’s the way to go. 

But almost any guitar will work well for this month’s performance, just dial up a modern sounding overdriven tone with plenty of sustain. Paul’s pedals (Supro Drive and either a JHS Haunting Mids or the JHS PG-14) provided his overdriven tone. 

Full piece: That’s Too Much Like Work!

Intro [Bars 1-2] The intro contains a vocal count-in and then a three-bar drum fill. The track is a super-fast pace. The opening ‘Crazy Lick’ is demonstrated and notated in more detail in Examples 1 and 2. However, Paul doesn’t play it quite the same for the performance so we have notated how it was delivered here.

Section A [Bars 13-68] This section features the tune’s motif which is repeated and developed and we have called this the chorus. There is a second section that we have labelled as the verse. 

The two sections are repeated and variations in the delivery are introduced. Paul adds expression with long and short notes and a variety of articulations including string bends, finger vibrato, finger slides, double-stops, whammy bar, semi harmonics and raking of the pick (fake sweeps) to add attack to the notes. 

It’s well worth learning this section verbatim, but that’s a big task so feel free to develop this into your own version. 

Section B Guitar solo [Bars 69-98] The B section contains a full-on wig-out in the new key of C# Minor. The tempo also shifts to a much slower one and we have notated this section with a new time signature of 12/8. The solo has a cavalier, go-for-it attitude with the emphasis on feel over precision. 

The use of a drill is more than a little unorthodox and we suggest readers ‘don’t try this at home’. To this end, we suggest you tremolo pick the melodies in this section. To make it easy to read we have notated the places you put your fingers as opposed to all the notes that are played by the drill.

[Bars 83-96] Much of Paul’s shredding here is either two note per string based or three note per string (3nps). Interestingly, much of it is pentatonic orientated with the 3nps playing (eg bars 85-86, bar 91) being reminiscent of what he famously played at the start of Mr Big’s Colorado Bulldog. If you’ve not looked into 3 nps pentatonics before, it’s worth the time and stretching so just take a few of Paul’s notes and practice repeating them.

Section D [Bars 134-end] In the outro, Paul lets rip with some classic rock style ending phrases. The drums are played live by himself so the timing has a human element and fairly fluid so we have notated this as free time. It may take a bit practice to get the ending hits in time. 

Backing track

Video examples

Example 1 Blistering Blues Rock Intro Have you ever wondered how to make the E Blues scale (E-G-A-Bb-B-D) sound really impressive? 

Example 2 Crazy Lick Here, Paul demonstrates the Crazy Lick from the intro. This is a six-note pattern that can be moved around the fretboard. Sometimes out-of-key notes will be in the pattern, but the lick is played so fast that this just adds extra colour. Aim to keep to the ‘outside picking’ directions.

Example 3 Phrasing With The Crazy Lick In this example Paul puts the Crazy Lick into context by playing some other licks either side. 

It was a busy 2021 for electric guitar mastermind Paul Gilbert, who released both Werewolves of Portland and a collection of shred-ified Christmas classics, ‘TWAS.

Now, the Mr. Big virtuoso has continued his fine belter-making form with an all-new standalone single, That’s Too Much Like Work!

The track itself has been debuted in partnership with Guitar Techniques, which has teamed up with Gilbert to produce both a 17-minute performance/tutorial video and an exclusive transcription that can be found in the magazine’s latest issue.

In classical Gilbert fashion, That’s Too Much Like Work! takes a relatively tame idea – in this case, the Frère Jacques-inspired melody – and squeezes out every ounce of color and nuance, decorating it with an assortment of bends and vibratos.

The solo, meanwhile, is a different beast altogether, requiring both a guitar pick and a drill to navigate through Gilbert’s maze of twisting pull off-heavy licks and mosaic scale runs.

In the video below, Gilbert breaks down three separate lead lines – including the "crazy lick” from the That’s Too Much Like Work! intro – and discusses the track’s development from a basic vocalized chord progression into the million-miles-per-hour fretboard workout it became.

Oh, and he also talks about the importance of selecting the right drill. Newer ones, according to Gilbert, are no good: the immediacy of the halting spin does nothing for your tremolo tone when the trigger is released. His, a modified Makita, instead slows the spin down, resulting in the track’s siren-esque sounds.

The bulk of the song, however, can be found in Guitar Techniques, which tabs out everything from the main verse/chorus melody to the dizzying 30-bar solo that Gilbert executes using his trusty Makita drill.

In terms of tone, Gilbert told Guitar Techniques he ran through both an early Origin series Marshall – paired with the 12" speaker of a Bluesbreaker combo – and a '70s Fender Princeton Reverb, both of which were wired through a Lehle P-Split to correct the phase.

In the effects department, the track utilizes a Supro Drive overdrive pedal – used in tandem with either the JHS Haunting Mids or PG-14, Gilbert can’t remember which – as well as TC Electronic’s Alter Ego and Arena delay and reverb pedals.

Head over to Magazines Direct to pick up the latest copy of Guitar Techniques, which features a Q&A with Joe Satriani and Frank Gambale, the That's Too Much Like Work! tab, and a lesson on how to nail the guitar sounds of the 1980s.

The Ibanez shred king has recorded a Christmas album! And not just any Christmas album – ‘Twas is full of great chops and festive fun, with plenty of fresh ideas of how we can reinterpret material that engrained in our culture through the medium of pyrotechnic electric guitar and huge slide guitar melodies.

Here, we caught up with Paul Gilbert to talk chords, playing slide, what exactly makes a great Christmas song… and emu picking. Now come all ye faithful, grab yourself some eggnog and read on as he takes us track-by-track through ‘Twas.

• This interview is taken from the new issue of Guitar Techniques, which also features lessons on how to play like the Chicago blues greats, as well as an in-depth Oz Noy video masterclass. It's available now from Magazines Direct.

’Twas was inspired by classic Christmas albums by the likes of Nat King Cole, Johnny Mathis and Ella Fitzgerald. What are your top Christmas albums?

“Stevie Wonder's Someday At Christmas and The Beach Boys’ Christmas Album are both records that I like a lot. When I was hunting for chords and arrangements, the Nat King Cole versions were my favourite overall. The arrangements are beautiful and sophisticated, and Nat's singing, tone, phrasing, and timing are fantastic. 

“I also discovered The Ventures' Christmas Album. Their surf guitar version of Sleigh Ride is so good. There's no way I could top that, so I took that song off my list. I also checked out Elvis Presley, Neil Diamond, Amy Grant, The Supremes, and Bing Crosby. It was a real style adventure!”

This album might present the most sophisticated harmonic contexts you’ve played in. What can a rock guitarist gain from being able to play these types of chords and solo over them?

“It's as much ear training as it is learning the notes on the fingerboard. The first step is just to find something that you like. Then you spend time listening, and some time seeing how things work in the musical context. My ear was opened up to jazz harmony by listening to music that was very structured.

“The Melody Still Lingers On, by Chaka Khan, was something that I immediately liked. But as a rock player, just about every chord was a mystery to me. I looked up a jazz guitar teacher, and we went through it together. That was about 10 years ago, and I'm still slowly climbing the foothills of the jazz mountain. But you've got to start somewhere, and I really recommend doing it with a song that you like.”

What was your setup for recording the album?

“I wanted to be loud enough to feel my guitar percussively and to get feedback-driven sustain. So I cut some holes in a Pignose amp, in order to mount it on a guitar stand. I had the speaker facing toward the floor, and I could keep it really close to my guitar, so I could get the feel of being loud, without actually being very loud. 

“The band and I tracked live in the same room, and I knew that my guitar would be leaking into the drum mics a bit, so that was a way to keep my overall volume down. At the same time, I plugged into a Marshall SV-20C. The Marshall has a 12" speaker and a much more full-range sound than the 5" speaker on the Pignose, so it was important to have the Marshall hooked up at all times. I set both amps clean, then used pedals for distortion. 

“I changed things up every song, but it was some combination of the JHS PG-14, the JHS Haunting Mids, the Supro Drive, the TC Electronic MojoMojo, and an Electro-Harmonix Hot Tubes Nano. I used quite a bit of the Fulltone Deja-Vibe, the Neo Instruments Mini Vent II Leslie simulator, the Catalinbread Callisto chorus, the Ibanez Flanger Mini, and my vintage A/DA Flanger.”

“And for delay and reverb, I used TC Electronic Alter Ego and Arena pedals. My wah-wah was a Dunlop Cry Baby Junior. I used an assortment of Ibanez guitars, and put slide magnets on all of them. I use a Jim Dunlop 318 Chromed Steel slide, as those work great sticking to a neodymium bar magnet.

“Some of my guitars have been professionally routed for the magnet, and it’s glued in, under the pickguard. But there is a simple way that works for any guitar. 

“First wrap the magnet in some gaffer tape, to give it some cushion from the metal slide hitting it.

“Then put a strip of foamy double-sided tape on the bottom of the magnet. Stick the magnet on your guitar's lower horn, and you're good to go. It can be removed with a plastic knife, and a guitar pick, without damaging the finish of your guitar, in case you want to change the location, or take it off.

“I should also mention that I used Ernie Ball RPS .008s. Having light strings allows me to get my action up high, so my slide playing gets a clear tone, and my strings are easy to grab for bending. I also use a very light pick. It's a Tortex ‘The Wedge’ .50mm. I love the tones in that pick.”

How long did you spend sourcing songs for the album?

“I started thinking about it in late spring and early summer – I really enjoyed listening to lots of different versions to find my favourite songs and arrangements. I also wrote a couple of new songs in the process.”

You wear the slide on your second finger which is less common than the third and fourth fingers...

“My second finger is the biggest. It has a longer reach than the others, so I think it's easier to keep the slide flat on the strings. I use really light gauge strings, so I have to make sure I'm not getting fret buzz by pushing down too much on the high strings. It seems easier to control the angle and the pressure with my second finger.”

 1. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

This is a rollercoaster, stylistically, dynamically and tempo-wise, including some crazy tapping...

“I reharmonised the chords first, and the rest grew out of that. I was curious to see if the band would say, 'You are crazy!' But they seemed to like it. Most of the chords and progressions that I know came from The Beatles, Todd Rundgren, Elton John, Queen, and all the '70s pop hits that I grew up with. 

“I've also learned a lot of these songs on piano, and translated back and forth to guitar. My piano technique is primitive, so I can't play any licks. But if I know a song on guitar, I can usually play the chords on piano right away.

“An example would be Elton John's Tower Of Babel. The third chord is a Bb7/C. That's no big secret to a jazz player, but for me, growing up playing powerchords, it's fun to get some fluency with ‘grown up’ chords like that.”

“We recorded everything live in the same room. But I wasn't well-prepared for the solo. So after getting a good overall take of the song, I asked the band to just play the section with the guitar solo a few times. That way I could have more chances, without having to repeat the whole tune.

“Then, once I got a good solo, I could edit it into the song. We did very little rehearsal for anything, so there was a fair amount of panic going on in my head during a lot of the recording.”

2. Frosty the Snowman

There is a sense that you’re embracing varying dynamics, tempos and rhythmic feels more these days. Frosty has a dark Phrygian Dominant shred intro, a sad melodic statement, a swing 7/4 re-statement and a glam-rock re-statement. How did they all come about?

“What does one do with Frosty The Snowman? How do you make it your own? I was trying a bunch of different approaches, and then I thought it would be cool to combine them, and have the song be a journey through the various styles.

“Even though the styles are quite different, our ‘keeper’ performance was done in one take. And of course, it's always fun to play some Phrygian Dominant licks and fight those invisible pirates!”

3. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

This features you playing the melody with a slide and a wah pedal. What different emotional elements do you attribute to such big timbral changes?

“My goal is to have the melody in my head, and then be able to improvise choices about sound as I go. The slide magnet really helps with this, as I can get the slide on and off easily and quickly. And of course, pedals just take a stomp to turn on and off. 

“I also wired my wah-wah in a loop switcher pedal, so I can easily turn it on and off. I've always struggled with the stock bypass switch, where you have to press down hard on the front of the wah-wah pedal. That's especially difficult when sitting down. Using the loop switcher takes the fear and guesswork out of it. My solo was way too long so I edited it down a bit.”

4. The Christmas Song

Give this track is a well-known Nat King Cole/Mel Tormé classic, what inspired your approach?

“My rock instincts usually have me on ‘10’, and hitting the strings hard. Dan [Balmer, second guitarist] suggested we keep the dynamics quieter, so we'd have some room to build.

“Playing quietly can be scary for me, but the more I did it, the more I liked it. I need some combination of being loud, or being close to my amp's speaker. My Pignose contraption solved that. When I can get sustain from subtle feedback, I don't need to use as much distortion. 

“I had some kind of warbly pedal on for this for extra flavour. It was probably the Mini Vent II on the slow speed. Minor blues guitar licks are a sonic ‘leather jacket and blue jeans’, so the end is sort of me ripping off my tie and suit jacket, and saying, 'Look, I'm still a rocker!' And that works anywhere.”

5. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

There's a nice Immigrant Song rhythmic nod in the intro.

“Or Hold Her Tight by The Osmonds! Either way, it was really challenging to arrange Rudolph in a way where I could look forward to every section. It turned out to have a lot of parts, but I looked forward to them all. I spent a lot of time figuring out the rhythm guitar part behind the verse. 

“It's sort of reggae-funk-rock-soul. It creates a nice groove, but also leaves spaces for the melody. It's pretty embarrassing to get a note wrong in Rudolph, so I practised my landings a lot. For the quick patterns, I give credit to growing up without an iPhone, so every time I was bored, I would play guitar. 

“And having great heroes like Eddie Van Halen and my uncle Jimi. It's surprising how smoothly the tempo and rhythm changes happened. I thought we'd have to record Rudolph in sections and then edit it together. But after a little rehearsal, we started getting full takes that flowed really well. Since everyone in the band is a good reader, I made charts. I also made a demo video of me playing the arrangement, and sent it to everyone the night before.”

6. I Saw Three Ships

There’s a considerable degree of staccato slide playing here. How have you developed your slide playing as regards intonation, interval changes and note durations?

“The slide guitar challenge was to play low. I'm on the fourth and fifth strings, using 8-38 gauge strings. I have to play with a really accurate touch, in order to get low notes without fret buzz. I've also been holding the pick with two fingers and the thumb recently.

“I call it the ‘emu,’ as it looks a bit like a bird's beak. That technique helps to control the picking tone, the note length, and to mute string noise. And since I played the song so staccato, I wanted something loose to let it breathe at the end. And I love blues shuffles!”

7. Every Christmas Has Love / 8. Three Strings for Christmas

In the middle of the album are these two originals by you. How did they come about?

“Every Christmas Has Love began with the working title, Let's Appropriate Love. I guess that someone somewhere has built the idea that we should only play music that can be traced to our genetic ancestors. Since my great-grandparents were mostly Polish and German this would have me playing waltzes on the accordion. 

“I'm sure there are some great waltzes on the accordion. But I'm sorry. The instrument and style that I love best was born with Jimi Hendrix, and players like him. I've heard that Jimi was pretty tall, so maybe I can squeeze into a genetic category that way.

“Or perhaps because we're both human. That could work! Anyway, my cynical self was thinking about what the best thing to ‘appropriate’ from Christmas would be.

“I thought ‘love’ would be a good thing to take away. So I starting singing "Let's appropriate lo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ove!" Then I thought that cynicism is probably leading the song in the wrong direction. So I changed it to Every Christmas Has Love, which works with the same melody. 

“Then I wrote more lyrics, and that gave me more of the melody to work with. I brought in my favourite ‘yacht rock’ chords, and I had a song. Of course, yacht rock chords aren't necessarily Hendrixy, but my songwriting heroes come from all over the place. Unashamed appropriation it is! Or is it just love? The latter, I think.”

Three Strings… features your ‘three E string’ double-neck guitar and some outrageous arpeggio shredding in the intro.

“Three Strings For Christmas was built around that crazy lick. I've got three strings tuned to a low, mid, and high E. And I used an Ibanez miKro double-neck, which has really short scale necks. This allows me to do ridiculously wide stretches. I found that by coincidence, if I only put my fingers on the frets with the fret markers, it would spell out an A9 arpeggio. 

“I'm playing so quickly, and with really small frets, so it's challenging for my fingers to get into the right places. But having a lick that's only ‘on the dots’ helped a lot. I wrote lyrics for this one as well, and played the melody on guitar. I describe it as a sort of a country-style Viva Las Vegas, which is not my usual style at all. But sometimes a song writes itself.”

9. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

This is perhaps the most nostalgic Christmas song of them all, and you perform it with a laid-back feel that evokes a singer like Frank Sinatra. Are singers the ideal source of inspiration for performing melodies?

“I listened to the Barbra Streisand version of this song a lot. My crazy tapping intro is actually me trying to replicate her orchestral intro, Van Halen style. Her vocal phrasing is fantastic. She makes use of space just as much as notes, which is something that really challenges my ‘play loud and fast all the time’ instincts. 

“I wanted the very last note to have a lot of sustain, so I quickly slipped my slide on, just for that note, and grabbed all the other strings with my picking hand to keep them from making noise.

“I was so connected to the music when I was performing it that my eyes were tearing up. I don't think that ever happened to me before during a recording session, so that's really a personal breakthrough. And thanks to the 1966 Barbra Streisand for giving me something to aim for!”

10. We Wish You a Merry Christmas

This has a lot of dynamic and rhythmic changes, almost like a mini Broadway musical.

“I took a couple of my favourite blues-rock riffs that I had written as lessons for my students at ArtistWorks online school, and interspersed them with the We Wish You melody. This was one of the easier songs for me to perform, as the feel is essentially blues-rock, so I was back on familiar ground. 

“I finished the arrangement about five minutes before we recorded it, but I had been thinking about it for a while. I tried to find a way to get the melody across, while inserting enough new stuff to give the listener some surprises.”

11. Silver Bells

This might be the most bluesy performance on the album as regards your timing, licks and phrasing. What is it about the blues that appeals to you? 

“Since I've taught it so much, I know a lot about the individual elements that help to make it feel right. For example, it's important to bend or slide into the 3rd. Why is this important? Maths doesn't seem to give me an answer. So I look to my eyebrows and my mouth instead.

“If I play an unbent major 3rd interval, I can keep a pretty straight face. But if I bend the minor 3rd into the major 3rd, my eyebrows furrow, and my mouth squinches downward. If I slide from the major 2nd into the major 3rd, my eyebrows go up, and my mouth goes into a slight smile. I love a good Bach invention, but I don't get these particular emotions from a harpsichord.

“What do the blues emotions say? One of my favourites is, 'As torn up as I am, I just gotta shake my head and laugh. I'll be all right, 'cause I still got my gui-tar!'”

12. Winter Wonderland

You have a lovely chirp/pinch harmonic edge to many of the notes you play here...

“My ‘emu’ pick-holding method and using a thin pick certainly helped pull different tones out of the string. Mostly I'm just searching the string for tones using my ear and instincts. But if there is a particular harmonic that I'm looking for, I can just move my pick horizontally until I find it. Then I'll make a mental note of where that spot is. 

“The locations of the harmonics move, in relation to what note is being fretted. So there isn't one magic spot. You have to follow where the fretting hand is going, and use your ears.”

• ‘Twas is out now via The Players Club.

Paul Gilbert has just released his Christmas album ’TWAS and, in the spirit of the season, has treated fans to a new video performance of We Wish You a Merry Christmas. 

Gilbert’s version of the song is like no other we’ve heard – mostly because it doesn’t feature much of the original, preferring instead to use it as more of a jumping off point for a funky blues-tinged jam. 

“The song starts with my most manic guitar trill,” says Gilbert. “The band follows me as I bounce back and forth between freshly baked blues-rock riffs, and the classic We Wish You melody, all played through a swirling flanger. 

“As we reach the 4 minute mark, my brain runs out of ideas, which is when the guitar solo really goes into full gear. Good tidings we have brought. Figgy pudding! Or at least rock and roll. Don't go, until you get some! Merry Christmas!”

We Wish You A Merry Christmas follows a string of teaser singles from the record, including Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, I Saw Three Ships and Gilbert original Every Christmas Has Love. 

The album was released on Friday and also includes Gilbert’s takes on Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Silver Bells and Winter Wonderland, among others. 

’TWAS is available for stream or purchase now.

Christmas, believe it or not, is rapidly approaching once again. Who better to get you in the spirit (if you celebrate) then, then electric guitar master Paul Gilbert?

We reckon that if Gilbert's brand-new, bluesy cover of I Saw Three Ships doesn't get you in a Christmas-y mood, nothing will.

You can check out the cover – the third single from Gilbert's upcoming Christmas album, 'TWAS, following Hark! The Herald Angels Sing and the Gilbert original Every Christmas Has Love – below.

With the help of a quartet of session aces based in Gilbert's HQ of Portland, Oregon – Dan Balmer (guitar), Clay Giberson (keyboards), Timmer Blakely (bass) and Jimi Bott (drums) – Gilbert turns this classic carol into a baptism of blues-rock lead guitar fire, complete with stinging slide stabs, a healthy helping of massive bends, and, of course, some oh-so-Gilbert-like moments of fretboard-melting speed.

“It was 104 degrees in Portland, Oregon, on August 12, when the band and I recorded I Saw Three Ships," Gilbert said in a press release. 

"I was trying to get extra sounds from my A/DA Flanger by attaching a foot-operated, mechanical knob-turning device. But the device kept coming loose, and I kept getting angrier and angrier at it. I finally decided to give up on the knob-turning, and convert my frustration into pure guitar playing energy. 

"The result was a slightly worried band, subtle flanging, and a good take! Thanks to Nat King Cole and George Thorogood for the arrangement inspiration. And thanks to England for the song.”

Set for a November 26 release via The Players Club/Mascot Label Group, 'TWAS features 10 Gilbert-ified Christmas classics and two Christmas-themed Gilbert originals.

You can check out the record's cover art and track list below, and pre-order the album via Gilbert's website.

Paul Gilbert – 'TWAS:

1. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
2. Frosty the Snowman
3. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing 
4. The Christmas Song
5. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
6. I Saw Three Ships 
7. Every Christmas Has Love 
8. Three Strings for Christmas 
9. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
10. We Wish You a Merry Christmas
11. Silver Bells
12. Winter Wonderland

Guitar maestro Paul Gilbert has shared Every Christmas Has Love, the first original track from his upcoming Christmas album, 'TWAS.

Following Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, Gilbert's shreddy cover of the timeless Felix Mendelssohn Christmas carol, Every Christmas Has Love sees the guitarist deliver infectious pop-style melodic lines with an Ibanez double-neck electric guitar, incorporating effortless slide passages.

But despite a lack of recorded vocals, the track's accompanying music video features lyrics penned by Gilbert, so you can sing along, or do your best slide guitar impression – whichever you fancy.

“A melody popped into my head on a hot August night,” Gilbert says. “The next morning, I gathered my best Yacht Rock chords, and penned a paragraph of lyrics. I soon changed my original, somewhat cynical title, Let's Appropriate Love, to the much warmer, Every Christmas Has Love. And I stretched the word "love" over 10 long notes. 

“Although I performed the song instrumentally, I included the lyrics in this video. I hope that you find yourself, singing the word ‘love’ over ten long notes too. It can make the day go better.”

He continues: “Every Christmas Has Love was written quickly, inspired by my panic-driven mental state of album making. When I know that the recording sessions are coming, my brain shifts into survival mode, and melodies start popping out. Then I take all the chords I learned by listening to '70s AM radio, and build a song.”

Arriving November 26 via The Players Club/Mascot Label Group, 'TWAS follows Gilbert's latest album, Werewolves of Portland, which was released earlier this year. 

Comprising 10 takes on Christmas classics – including Let It Snow!, Frosty The Snowman and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas – and two original numbers, the festive LP marks Gilbert's impressive 17th studio outing.

“Many will agree that in recent times, challenging events have been pouring down upon our heads like an exploding waterfall of molasses," Gilbert said of the album in a statement. “At least it sometimes feels like that to me. 

“But while I was jamming Christmas songs with my friends, playing an assortment of red, green and white Ibanez electric guitars, I felt like life was the best. I hope that this music can put a smile on your face as well. Merry Christmas to all. And to all, a good night.”

In a July 2021 interview with Guitar World, Paul Gilbert detailed how he approaches his guitar playing with the sound of vocals in mind.

“The singer has the advantage of having words, so they can shape it, but [as a guitarist] you can shape it with your pick. You can get different pick sounds. You can slide into it. Add a little vibrato. And also, short and long [notes], that's a big deal.”

“I’ve learned a lot about these different elements of expression,” he continued. “One from listening to singers, and two from watching [laughs] – with apologies to my students – my students get it wrong! I wouldn’t say getting it wrong, but watching other people, and myself.”

'TWAS is available now for preorder. Check out its tracklist below.

1. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
2. Frosty the Snowman
3. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing 
4. The Christmas Song
5. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
6. I Saw Three Ships 
7. Every Christmas Has Love 
8. Three Strings for Christmas 
9. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
10. We Wish You a Merry Christmas
11. Silver Bells
12. Winter Wonderland

Fresh off his latest studio offering, Werewolves of Portland, Paul Gilbert has announced another, decidedly more festive, studio album.

Set for a November 26 release via The Players Club/Mascot Label Group, 'TWAS is a collection of 10 Gilbert-ified Christmas classics, with two Christmas-themed Gilbert originals thrown in for good measure.

You can check out the music video for the album's first single, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, below.

Leading a band comprised of Portland, Oregon session aces Dan Balmer (guitar), Clay Giberson (keyboards), Timmer Blakely (bass) and Jimi Bott (drums), Gilbert takes listeners on a slide-heavy journey for the song's main melody before spicing things up with a very Gilbert-like, genre-blending, fleet-fingered jam section, after which he ditches the slide for a final go at the melody, full of blues-rock fire. This ain't your grandparents' Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, that's for sure.

“Many will agree that in recent times, challenging events have been pouring down upon our heads like an exploding waterfall of molasses," Gilbert said in a statement.

"At least it sometimes feels like that to me. But while I was jamming Christmas songs with my friends, playing an assortment of red, green and white Ibanez electric guitars, I felt like life was the best. I hope that this music can put a smile on your face as well. Merry Christmas to all. And to all, a good night.”

Of the songs he selected for the album, Gilbert said, "10 of the songs are classics. I was inspired by the Christmas recordings of Nat King Cole, Loretta Lynn, Stevie Wonder, Barbra Streisand, Johnny Mathis, Ella Fitzgerald and The Ventures. And of course, inspiration came from my guitar heroes, Eddie Van Halen, Alex Lifeson, Johnny Winter, Robin Trower, Frank Marino, Pat Travers, Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page, to name a few. 

"I also wrote some of my own new Christmas songs. As I have been doing recently, I begin with lyrics and a melody. Then I let my guitar take over, as it sings better than I do.”

You can check out 'TWAS's cover art and track list below, and pre-order the album via Gilbert's website.

Paul Gilbert – 'TWAS:

1. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
2. Frosty the Snowman
3. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing 
4. The Christmas Song
5. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
6. I Saw Three Ships 
7. Every Christmas Has Love 
8. Three Strings for Christmas 
9. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
10. We Wish You a Merry Christmas
11. Silver Bells
12. Winter Wonderland