Paul Brandon Gilbert is an American virtuoso instrumental rock guitarist. He is best known for being in the bands Racer X and Mr. Big, but has released several solo albums, and featured in numerous collaborations and guest appearances on other musicians' albums.

Gilbert has been voted fourth-best on GuitarOne magazine's "Top 10 Greatest Guitar Shredders of All Time". He has also ranked in Guitar World's "50 Fastest Guitarists of All Time" list.

When interviewed about his musical and stylistic influences, Paul Gilbert mentions many different artists, including: Randy Rhoads; Kim Mitchell; Eddie Van Halen; Yngwie Malmsteen; Tony Iommi; Alex Lifeson; Jimmy Page; Robin Trower; Ritchie Blackmore; Pat Travers; Gary Moore; Michael Schenker; Judas Priest; Akira Takasaki; Steve Clark; Jimi Hendrix; Kiss; and The Ramones. On many occasions, Gilbert has stated that his uncle Jimi Kidd was vital in heavily fueling Gilbert's childhood interest in playing guitar. Gilbert is also a great fan of The Beach Boys and The Beatles. He stated on the Space Ship Live DVD that George Harrison is one of his favorite guitar players. Guitar World magazine declared him one of 50 of the world's fastest guitarists of all time, along with Buckethead, Eddie Van Halen, and Yngwie Malmsteen.

Paul Gilbert composes music in a wide variety of styles, including pop; rock; metal; blues; and funk. However, Gilbert is perhaps best known for his hand speed and stylistic versatility. He is noted in particular for his efficient, staccato-like picking technique: playing extremely complicated passages of music at blindingly fast speeds without relying on legato to do so (unlike many other guitarists).

Paul Gilbert wrote his own section of the British guitar magazine, Total Guitar, where he normally demonstrated guitar techniques in the magazine and accompanying CD. Even before that, he contributed instructional articles to Guitar Player Magazine in a late 1980s/early 1990s series entitled "Terrifying Guitar 101". His period of working with Total Guitar spanned thirty-one issues until the November 2006 issue. Paul also teaches at the Guitar Institute of Technology (GIT) regularly, and is also an "honorary dean" of the GIT division in Japan. Paul visits Japan, enjoying the lifestyle like his Shrapnel labelmate Marty Friedman, who still lives in Japan and speaks Japanese fluently. Gilbert is known for his instructional videos, which are often comical in nature. One of his instructional videos includes him pulling a rabbit out of his guitar, putting his guitar in a straightjacket and having presents thrown at him by members of the film crew. Paul also was, for a short time, the guitar teacher of Buckethead, Joey Tafolla, Russ Parrish (A.K.A. Satchel from Steel Panther), Michelle Meldrum (The late wife of Europe guitarist John Norum) and Nicole Couch of Phantom Blue. Gilbert now writes a column for Premier Guitar entitled "Shred Your Enthusiasm".

Paul Gilbert primarily uses his Ibanez PGM signature series guitars, identified by the unique painted on "F-holes". Although earlier PGM models featured the Ibanez Lo-Pro/Edge double locking tremolo system, many of his guitars (such as his main PGM300) were modified to accommodate a fixed bridge after he stopped using whammy bars in the early 90s, hence the Ibanez PGM301 guitar. Along with his signature guitars, Gilbert often uses his sticker-covered "Dino" Ibanez RG750, in addition to a wide variety of Ibanez solidbody and semi-hollow electric guitars. Recently, Gilbert has been using Ibanez "Fireman" (a reversed-body Ibanez Iceman with single-coil pickups and an extra cutaway) guitars, which he designed himself. A red version The Ibanez Fireman is to be mass-produced for consumers at a more affordable price than the Ibanez PGMFRM1 (current Paul Gilbert signature Fireman) in Fall 2011.

Regarding amplifiers, Gilbert used A/DA preamps (A/DA MP-1) and rack effects units early in his career prior to switching to Laney amplifiers. He praised the Laney amps as having "the best natural distorted sound of any tube amp ever heard" Since the G3 2007 tour however, Gilbert stated that playing with Joe Satriani and John Petrucci inspired him to take a closer look at his own guitar sound. As a result of his search he found the Marshall Vintage Modern series. He currently uses the Marshall Vintage Modern 2266c combo amps. Paul now uses the Marshall JMD:1 (specifically JMD501) amplifier along with his Vintage Modern amplifier. Paul uses Jim Dunlop Tortex picks, of which he prefers the orange (.60mm) picks. As far as cables Paul uses Bullet Cable 30' Coiled Cables, Bullet Cable SLUG DIY solderless patch cables for his pedalboard and effects.

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Gilbert