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]”
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
“Bruce goes, ‘Man, you’ve got a lot of twang.’ I said, ‘Too much?’ And he said, ‘Ah, you know…’” Joining Bruce Springsteen's post-E Street Band group, Shane Fontayne had the unenviable task of filling the shoes of Stevie Van Zandt and Nils Lofgren
“The guitar was in horrible shape. The paint job was all flaked off, it didn’t have the original tailpiece... at one point, the headstock snapped off”: He's a hitmaker who owned Eric Clapton's “The Fool” SG, produced Meat Loaf, and played with Ringo Starr
![Cobra Kai composers Zach Robinson [left] and Leo Birenberg in the studio. Pictured in front of a bank of keyboards, Robinson plays an Ibanez RG550, while Birenberg plays woodwind.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/YfxDAzMdyf8Mrf9cURm53e-840-80.jpg.webp)
