Guitar Player a écrit :
Paul Gilbert had so much good stuff to say in his September 2008 interview that we couldn't fit it all in the pages of GP. Here's some of the tantalizing stuff that was left over.
Is that EBow on “Suite Modale”? Talk a little about your playing on that tune.
I used a Fernandes Sustainer. It looks like a pickup, but it actually creates sustain and feedback within the guitar. I have a couple guitars that I used in the Mr. Big days with those Sustainers in them, and I ended up using a “Gilbert” Les Paul for that song. It’s a cheap copy guitar but I had to buy it because of the brand name! And I had some work done to it, so it plays pretty well. “Suite Modale” is a classical piece where the main melody is played on flute, and the Sustainer worked perfectly for it. I set the Marshall with just a small amount of distortion, and the Sustainer allowed me to “fade up” the notes as if I were blowing them on a flute. I used two handed tapping for some of the high notes, and either used legato technique or very light picking to make the attack as smooth as possible.
This record seems to have more single-coil tones on it than I remember you using in the past, like on “Bultaco Saturno.” Is that true? Since you’ve been such a humbucker guy, talk about how it affects your playing when you use single-coils.
Recently I saw Frank Marino play at a club in L.A. He’s been a guitar hero of mine since I was 11, so I was really excited to see him live for the first time. His playing was amazing, and I found myself staring at his gear trying to figure out how he got such great sounds. He played two SG’s that night, one with humbuckers and one with 3 single-coils. The single coil guitar sounded obviously better to me. The distorted notes had more clarity, and it cleaned up really nice when he turned the volume down. This inspired me to do some single coil research. The first thing I did was to design a crazy upside Ibanez Iceman with 3 single coils using Photoshop on my computer. Frank Marino had his bridge single coil angled “upside down” like Jimi Hendrix, so I put mine the same way. After looking at it, I thought that the other single coils would look better if they were parallel with the bridge. So I put all 3 at the same angle. Ibanez did a beautiful job building a prototype of this guitar and I have really fallen in love with the look, sound, and feel of it. At first, I called it the “Reverse Iceman”, but a fan wrote to me and suggested the “Ibanez Fireman”. I loved the name, so the Ibanez Fireman has been my vehicle for single coil pickup experiments. At first, I tried DiMarzio Blue Velvet pickups. These are real single coils, so I have to be careful about the hum, but the tone is fantastic. You can really hear them at the beginning of “Paul Vs. Godzilla.” Soon after I finished the record, I tried some new DiMarzio Area '68 pickups. These are hum-cancelling pickups which are a lot easier to deal with, and miraculously, the tone is still there. They seem a little warmer to me, but still have a nice glassiness on top. That’s what I’m using live now.
You’ve done tributes to the Beatles, the Who, Rush, and Led Zeppelin. Which was the most fun? Which was the most musically demanding?
It’s almost embarrassing how much I enjoy playing cover tunes. It’s so fun to try to “be in the shoes” of my favorite guitarists, especially when all the other musicians in the band are such high-level guys. Mike Portnoy from Dream Theater organized and played drums on all those tributes, and he was great to work with. The Rush tribute was probably the easiest for me, just because I had learned so many of those songs when I was a teenager. The Who tribute was definitely the most demanding. Pete Townshend guitar parts don’t seem tricky at first. But somehow it’s not right to play those songs with just your fingers. You have to use your whole body and squeeze it into those chords somehow. And that is one of the best things I have ever had to do on guitar. Those Who songs are the cure for every nerdy shred guitarist who wears their guitar up too high, including myself.
You’ve jammed with some great guitarists. Is there anyone you’ve stood next to who has really scared you?
On one of the Mr. Big tours, we had a support band called Hardline that featured Neal Schon on guitar. We didn’t actually jam together, but I thought he sounded better than me pretty much every night. And my uncle, Jimi Kidd, always sounds better than me. Anybody who bends the strings a lot and plays with a great rhythmic sense will always sound better than my fast licks. So lately I’ve been working on playing in-time more. Mostly it’s just really enjoyable to play with other great musicians. I’ve had a really good time playing with Andy Timmons lately. We’ve done a few jams at various Ibanez concerts and his tone and playing are beautiful and face-melting at the same time.
What does it take to catch your ear with guitar playing? Is it a chops thing? A bend thing? Tone? What have you heard lately that you found really inspiring?
I get excited every time I hear Billy Joe from Green Day. To me, he’s kind of a modern Pete Townshend. I love his tone and I can listen to his songs and really enjoy the music. For fast guitar players, somebody sent me a link to a Guthrie Govan video on YouTube, and he was incredible. So clean!!! And of course I’m always revisiting my teenage guitar heroes like Pat Travers and Robin Trower. But I’m a weird listener at this point. My favorite music for listening has very little guitar at all. I love Justin Currie’s new record “What is Love For,” I’ve been enjoying some old Georgie Fame records. I love his song, “Yeh Yeh.” And I still enjoy short Bach piano inventions and preludes. I love Beethoven’s 3rd piano concerto. I like classical music because technique is just not an issue. In the culture of guitar, there is this ongoing “feel vs. technique” battle, but in classical music, the musicians are virtuosos as a given. This takes the pressure off to show your virtuosity all the time. If it’s a simple song, you play simply. If it has some 16th notes, you play those. And the compositions have a depth that I doubt I’ll ever reach. To me, it’s a world of giants, and that is inspiring.
What are your feelings on the state of technique today?
I’ve had the chance to do some private teaching at Musicians Institute in the last couple of years and really listen to some of the students. And I must say, I’m impressed. I truly feel that the quality of young guitarists has improved, and I’m proud of them! I just hope they can find a place to be heard. That is a challenge with all the horrid made-for-TV music that exists these days. Rock and roll guitar was born in small clubs and dance halls not in a TV studio, and playing in those kinds of venues can be a hard existence. But, man you get to play rock and roll guitar!
What advice would you give to a beginner who wants to strum an acoustic and sing?
Well, I’m happy for them because they have chosen the best way to start! One not-so-obvious thing that has helped me enormously with singing and playing guitar is yoga. Any good yoga class will get you in the habit of breathing “in-time” with your body’s movements. This quickly becomes a habit and spills over into the rest of your life, not just yoga moves. Before I tried yoga, I would often find myself holding my breath during a tricky solo, only to find that I had no air in my lungs when then next verse came up. Now my lungs are always full of air, and that makes all the difference.
What advice would you give to a beginner who wants to shred?
To me, the positive part of “shred” is to pursue stunning technical mastery on the guitar. This is a big mountain to climb. And it’s not a good place to begin. Don’t start with Racer X or Dream Theater. You won’t master that in a day as a beginner. And I think it’s important to choose songs that you CAN master in a day. These daily successes are really important. Try “Rocky Raccoon” by the Beatles, or “The Ballad of John and Yoko”. Next go for some AC/DC or some old KISS songs. Slowly climb the mountain, and get strong musical footholds along the way. The shred will come, but in time.
