Paul Gilbert @ Famous Guitar Sounds

Musician's Friend Stupid Deal of the Day!

"The Place to Get the Sound of Legendary Guitarists"

Home Recording
Gear Guitar
Gear

Paul Gilbert (Racer X, Mr. Big)
Click on the "Buy" button for more info & pics on an item.

Guitars

Paul's signature model Ibanez has been long out of production, originally introduced in 1990. This is the closest thing to it in the modern production line. Shred playability and Dimarzio pickups are key.

Ibanez S2170FB S Prestige Series Electric Guitar with Figured Bubinga Top Flat Natural

The sleek Ibanez S was a revolt against the traditional mahogany guitars of its time that were usually heavy, bulky and uncomfortable. Obviously it was a successful revolt, as the S Prestige is celebrating its 20th Anniversary with a wider selection of models than ever. Originally the S guitar was designed as an all-around guitar. Now, however, it finds its largest number of adherents among the practitioners of the more extreme forms of metal who appreciate it for its unique combination of fat mahogany tone and sustain with light weight and comfort.Heavy mahogany tone without the heavy mahogany weight. Thin around the edges for comfort. Fat around the pickups and bridge for tone. The S2170FB S Prestige model features U.S.A.-made pickups: The DiMarzio IBZ neck humbucker is powerful sounding with a quick respnse. The DiMarzio IBZ bridge humbucker provides enhanced harmonics and overtone. The DiMarzio IBZ single-coil with alnico magnets has a well-balanced sound with a clear tone. , 5pc neck with Prestige finishing for increased playing comfort, Gotoh precision tuning machines and deluxe Prestige case.

DiMarzio Tone Zone Guitar Pickup Black Regular

The vowel-like open wah-wah feel of the PAF Pro and FRED is combined with tremendous midrange and bass for a sound that really kicks hard. Because the lows, mids, apnd highs are all boosted, using a Tone Zone feels like cranking up an extra set of tone controls. It adds further dimension to the sound of your amp - that elusive edge that can make a good-sounding rig into a great-sounding one. Notes seem to get bigger after they're picked, and burn hard as they sustain. It's the right stuff to wake up your amp. Ballsy, aggressive tone has plenty of drive in all the right frequencies, abundant gain to push preamps and power amps, and sensitivity to pick attack that gets the most out of any style from metal to blues. Hot enough to qualify as a high-output pickup but with a wider dynamic range. Hard picking will produce a lot of power and softer picking will be much cleaner and quieter.

DiMarzio DP151 PAF Pro Pickup Black F-Space

The DiMarzio PAF Pro was created when chops-intensive playing was reaching high popularity, and high-gain amps and rack systems were the norm. A pickup was needed that combined a lot of presence and "cut" with an open-sounding PAF vibe. The transparency of its sound lets the PAF Pro slice through heavy processing, where darker-sounding pickups get lost in the mud of the effects chain. Low notes have both snap and chunk, and there is a spike in the midrange that gives the pickup a subtle "aw" vowel sound, like a wah-wah pedal stopped in the middle. Treble response is tweaked, so high notes stand out without getting brittle. The PAF Pro makes an outstanding neck pickup in almost any guitar, and it's an exceptional bridge pickup when high output isn't required.The PAF Pro is a dependable choice right across the board neck and bridge positions, solidbody, semi-hollow and hollowbody guitars are equally effective uses.This is a great building block pickup, because it's effective in many different situations. Try it in the neck position with a hotter bridge pickup - anything from a Norton to a Super Distortion will create a calibrated two-humbucker match. As a bridge pickup, it's really effective with single-coils, because it won't drown them out with too much power, and it's bright enough to blend in tone-wise.

Amplifiers

Laney VH100R 100W Tube Guitar Amp Head Black

The Laney VH100R tube guitar amp head features twin footswitchable channels each with its own footswitchable gain, independent 3 band EQ, independent reverb level and dedicated FX loop. You get an unprecedented level of flexibility. You can now go from a super clean shimmer, to a warm clean crunch, to a stack style distortion to a full on lead tone as simply as stepping on a switch - which is included with the amp (FS4).The by word for the VH100R is flexibility - flexibility of tone and flexibility of use. In this day and age the modern guitar player has an arsenal of products available to them - from single stomp box effects to mighty racks. To cater for this level of choice the VH100R is fitted with five effects loops, each giving the player slightly different options when connecting external gear.There are side chain effects loops for channels A & B as well as one global to the entire pre amp. There is an insert loop, which can be run in three modes - Bypass, Side chain or Insert with a dedicated return level, and finally there is a Pre amp out/Power amp in loop.

Effects
Paul changes his pedals frequently, but these are what he's been using most recently.

Eventide H7600 Ultra-Harmonizer Effects Processor

The Eventide H7600 Ultra-Harmonizer Effects Processor provides nearly 1100 programs, a 174-second sampler, and sorting capabilities for unprecedented stereo effects processing prowess. The H7600 has more power than its predecessor (the DSP7000 series), has a new operating system, and a new search function that provides instant access to a deep catalog of professional effects. Every preset on the H7600 Ultra-Harmonizer is its own unique algorithm made up of a combination of effects from 230 stereo effects modules. Eventide's exclusive Building Block Architecture lets you create your own unique preset-algorithms as well. The H7600 comes with PC and Mac preset development software. It comes with AES/EBU, S/PDIF, word clock digital I/O, and two analog I/O channels with XLR and hi-Z jacks.

Paul uses an Electro Harmonix Poly Flange that is no longer in production; this is the closest thing to it.

Electro-Harmonix Flanger Hoax

From shimmering static and active phasing to frequency-adjustable flanging, the Flanger Hoax gives you an exciting new palette of textures to create with. Familiar and advanced modulation controls and 3 outputs (direct, blended, effect) let you create endless variations that will do everything from subtly shade to wildly animate your music. The Flanger Hoax is made up of 2 separate phaser sections-the Fixed Phaser and Swept Phaser-and their associated delay lines. The Fixed Phaser is similar to a traditional phaser, modulated by a low-frequency sine wave called the Modulator. Each phaser circuit is followed by its own analog delay line, each of which can also be independently swept by the Modulator. Each phaser section can be bypassed to access the delay lines without any phase shift. Feedback control allows you to send the wet output of the pedal or the output of the Swept Phaser back into the phaser circuits. 18V power supply included.

Newer Model of the CS-2 that he used with Mr. Big.

Instruction