By Andrew Bansal
October 26th 2013, Sam Ash Music Store, West Hollywood CA: Fans of hard rock and heavy metal must be well aware of bands like Mr. Big and Racer X, and these are the bands in which guitarist extraordinaire Paul Gilbert began earning his reputation for his blend of speed and skill on the instrument. Aside from that, he’s had a prolific, successful solo career with the latest album ‘Vibrato’ having been released in 2012, and he’s made guest appearances on numerous projects. Yesterday, on a chilly Saturday afternoon in Los Angeles, he made a visit to the Sam Ash Music Store in West Hollywood to demonstrate the Majik Box Fuzz Universe Pedal and to do a Q&A/signing/meet-n-greet after. The turnout was decent for an event of this kind of a Saturday afternoon, and the fans gathered here were ready to get their faces melted off while learning something new about Paul’s fuzz pedal and his guitar playing in general.
He was punctual to the scheduled 2 PM start, and began by giving a brief introduction of the pedal and his interpretation of the word ‘fuzz’. He then proceeded on to demonstrate the use of the ‘Thrust 2’ switch on the pedal. Fans already sounded and looked excited to hear and see Paul Gilbert play in such an intimate setting, but this was only the beginning:
After the Thrust 2 demo, he went on to show the usage of the other switch, the ‘Thrust 1’. Along with that he also talked about the history of the pedal and how it was invented with the combined inputs by him and Majik Box.
That was a solid showcase for the pedal and its usage, and more interestingly for the people in attendance, it was clear to see the manner in which Paul Gilbert was incorporating the pedal in his signature guitar playing style. But this is where this event really turned fascinating, as Paul began talking about and showing the various nuances in his playing, not holding back, not making any attempt to keep his techniques a secret from his admirers. He went on to showcase something he called ‘Speaking The Slience’:
Things just kept getting better with every passage of this event, and next up, Paul dusted off some Elvis through the effective use of the combination of the fuzz pedal and his ‘imaginary guitar player’, i.e. the loop pedal:
Now, this is where Paul started taking questions from the crowd, and the first one was about whether he had any regrets from what he did in his career so far, and he handled the question in typical Paul Gilbert fashion, humorous yet assertive at the same time. From the answer to the question he went on a tangent to talk about some new discoveries in his guitar playing, during which he played some Ted Nugent and Beach Boys for us:
Next up, he was asked, ‘If Jimi Hendrix were alive today, what would you say to him?’ And he answered that one beautifully as well, with his own rendition of a Hendrix tune:
Somebody asked him for a recommendation on a pedal for ‘crunch’, and funnily and appropriately enough, he did that by recommneding the Majik Box pedal itself. To do that, he dusted off some Mr. Big riffs. Following that, he was asked for his favorite Yngwie solo, and he delivered by playing it:
Finally, he addressed the question of future plans by explaining how and why he wants to incorporate more ‘vocal licks’ in his guitar playing, by his renditions of some Van Halen and Pat Benatar stuff:
That brought an end to the demo/live performance part of the event, and fans here were more than delighted with what they were treated to. Aside from these, Paul was also asked about his next Musicians Institute appearance and his Ibanez signature custom model, to which he simply replied by saying there will be announcements made as and when there are more details available for those two things. Then he stepped off the stage and gladly met all the fans, signing autographs, posing for photos and handing out guitar picks. All in all, this was an excellent event for Paul Gilbert fans and guitar enthusiasts alike, and we’ll all look forward to what Paul does musically in the near future.
Visit Paul Gilbert and Majik Box on the web at:
PaulGilbert.com
facebook.com/PaulGilbertmusic
twitter.com/PaulGilbertrock
MajikBoxUSA.com
facebook.com/pages/Majik-Box/158604487520680
twitter.com/MajikBoxUSA