Paul Gilbert Gear Ibanez Reverse Iceman

Paul Gilbert shredding hero talks about his 3 favourite guitars.

Ibanez Reverse Iceman with 2 humbuckers
Paul Gilbert designed the reverse Ibanez in photoshop and added another lower cut away so he can get to the high frets. With a cherry top and a mahogony back and neck. Paul Gilbert prefers a thick chunky neck to get to grips with, the thicker neck also adds to a fatter tone. The headstock is also 3 aside. The humbuckers give that vintage Explorer tone.

Ibanez Reverse Iceman with 3 single coils
The second Ibanez Reverse Iceman that Ibanez made custom for Paul Gilbert is made out of korina wood. Korina wood saw dust is toxic, so the manufacturers had to be careful when making this one, after the finish is layed down it's not toxic anymore so don't worry about owning a guitar thats made of this wood. Gibson used to use the korina wood for the orginal flying V's and explorers. Paul Gilbert uses 3 dimarzio single coil pickups, which are backwards angled to mimic hendrix which had this type of setup with his pickups when he played an upside down strat. The tone is more sharp and more strat like. The guitar is fitted with a volume and tone knob and 5 way switch selector.

These Reverse Iceman guitars are hella cool.



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Paul Gilbert signature Ibanez stock mod
Paul Giberts main guitar a modified signature mod, the Ibanez PGM301. He modified the paint on f-holes to make it smaller. Tonezone humbucker pickup at the bridge, the pickup slot is also stuffed with foam to stop feedback. The other single coils are the ibanez stock. The neck joint is fatter than normal which Paul Gilbert claims to give a real thick tone, a compromise to ease of play. The frets are also slightly taller and skinnier than normal.

Rtichie Blackmore Guitar's Part 2

Ritchie Blackmore gear continued....

Ritchie Blackmore Taylor acoustics
Ritchie prefers Taylor acoustic guitars, he has various 6 string and 12 strings made by Taylor Acoustic guitars. Apparently they have a more brash and robust sound with more volume than normal acoustics. Taylor acoustic's have been oioular because of their distinctive tone and more crisp trebles.

Pickups on the Ritchie Blackmore Signature Fender Stratocaster: 1 Seymour Duncan® Quarter Pound Flat™ SSL-4 Single-Coil Strat® Pickup (Neck), 1 Non-Active “Dummy” Pickup (Middle), 1 Reverse Wound/Reverse Polarity Seymour Duncan® Quarter Pound Flat™ SSL-4 Single-Coil Strat® Pickup (Bridge)

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Ritchie Blackmore signature guitar 1
Ritchie goes through some more of his collection in this clip. Some interesting guitars include his signature model with the distinctive black pickup covers, 70's headstock and pickups to his specifications.

Guitar Made of Antique wood
He also has a custom made guitar given to him with antique wood, ageing about 250 years old. Antique wood doesn't just mean it's old, what it means is it's been through hell and back, through hot and cold weather, it's expanded and constricted through the years, and over time its found itself it's shape. What this means is that this guitar is solid as a rock, it won't be affected much from temperature and humidity changes.

Ritchie Blackmore signature Fender Stratocaster 2
Ritchie has designed a new stratocaster made entirely of one piece of wood, unlike most guitars where the neck and body are glued or bolted together, this guitar neck and body are one piece. Ritchie has also specified the use of new century pickups. The neck is also concave or scalloped, as Ritchie Blackmore prefers to get a good grip of the strings of vibrato.

More Ritchie Blackmore gear

Ritchie Blackmore gear guitars

Ritchie Blackmore guitar virtuoso from Deep Purple and Rainbow goes through his guitar collection in his home music room. Ritchie Blackmore has diversed from heavy metal rock guitar hero to folk acoustic genius. What ever style of Ritchie Blackmore you like, he's still a guitar legend. Here we go through some of Ritchie Blackmore's gear from his home collection.

The main guitar you;d expect from Ritchie Blackmore gear is a Fender Stratocaster and your not wrong. From his Deep Purple and Rainbow days, he's built up a collection of Fender Stratocasters, and as expected from his acoustic folk guitar playing he's got a huge collection of acoustic guitars as part of his gear collection aswell.

Ritchie Blackmore talks about his guitar gear, his original Fender Stratocaster he's been playing for over 30 years. The guitar has a large 70's style headstock, and the neck is scalloped, carved out by Ritchie Blackmore himself. This must be where Yngwie got the idea from. The guitar is white and cream, with its distinctive look of having black pickup covers. The neck was refretted and the tech flattened the scalloped neck, the neck which Ritchie had worked so hard to scallop himself to make it how he wanted, after he got it back he attempted to scallop it again. The neck now however is too thin for Ritchies liking and doesn't play it anymore, and now remains in Ritchie Blackmore's guitar gear collection as a museum piece. The guitar also has a metal straplock on the headstock which Ritchie put on to confuse and annoy people as a joke, it doesn't actually do anything, but in the old days everyone was trying to work out what special function it had(3:11 in video below).

The second guitar in this clip is another Fender Stratocaster with a Roland synthesizer pickup. The top 2 strings on this guitar are slacked and unusable so Ritchie can lift the action of the strings and play a Steel/bottle neck on it without getting any unwanted buzzing and noises.



More Ritchie Blackmore gear

John Mayer Gear - Fender Stratocaster Continuum guitar

In 2007 John Mayer and Fender held a contest for the good people of America to win a Fender Stratocaster Continuum guitar signed by John Mayer. The guitar has custom made Continuum artwork promoting John Mayers Continuum album made by John Cruz Fender Custom Shop Master Builder. John played this guitar in the summer tour of 2007 before giving it away to the winner on the Fender site, someone on youtube phelps7754 claims to have won it, I don't know if it's true or not, but I have seen something posted on the Fender site with someone called kephelps bragging about winning the guitar and showing off some pics, so it might be true.

John Mayer Continuum guitar specs:

- alder body

- maple neck with a slightly larger C-shape, topped by a buffed headstock with a vintage ’50s decal.

- The African rosewood fingerboard has a 9.5” radius and Dunlop® 6105 frets.

- Other features include three new “Big Dipper” single-coil pickups with a special “scooped” mid-range voicing wound to Mayer’s exacting specs

- American Vintage synchronized tremolo with five tremolo springs (no back plate)

- Fender/Gotoh® vintage-style tuning keys

- Custom CONTINUUM artwork

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Gary Moore gear Gibson Les Paul BFG Gary Moore Signature

Gary Moores BFG has been released for nearly a year now and I read great reviews on it. In case you didn't know the Gibson Les Paul BFG is a stripped down raw version of the Gibson Les Paul Standard, the first BFG was released in 2007, the Les Paul "stripped down to it's bare essentials", the Gibson BFG has moved the pickup toggle to near the volume and tone knobs, and the old position of the pickup toggle switch has been changed to a kill switch. The BFG stands for "BAD F***ING GUITAR", damn! Gibson know how name guitars and make it sound cool.





So what's special about the Gary Moore Gibson Les Paul BFG signature? Well as usual with some minor differences but unique to suiting Gary Moore, such as different pickup's, finishes etc


- Surface Texture and Satin Nitrocellulose Lemon Burst Finish
- Gibson's Burstbucker 3 and P-90

I've yet to find a clip of Gary Moore actually with the guitar and giving his own review, but at least we know he uses it, check the clip below:



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Morley George Lynch Tripler Pedal

Morley George Lynch Tripler Pedal

Price: $99.99

Shop for Guitars at GuitarCenter.com


A high-quality device that lets you use up to 3 amps at once.

The Morley George Lynch Tripler Pedal enables you to hook up 3 amplifierss and switch each independently or in any combination. A boost knob increases the signal strength of the entire Tripler output to compensate for lost volume when using all 3 channels simultaneously. LED indication for each channel. Operates on 9V battery or optional Morley adapter.

Seymour Duncan SH-12 George Lynch Screamin Demon Humbucker Pickup

Seymour Duncan SH-12 George Lynch Screamin Demon Humbucker Pickup

Price: $89.95 - $94.95

Shop for Guitars at GuitarCenter.com


An electric guitar pickup that delivers versatile tone.
The Seymour Duncan SH-12 George Lynch Screamin Demon Humbucker Pickup screams like a banshee or purrs like a kitten. Push it for a tone rich in harmonics and sustain; or back off for a fat, sassy, clean sound. 4 conductor

DigiTech Artist Series- Brian May Pedal

DigiTech Artist Series- Brian May Pedal

Seven models of Brian May's signature sounds that rocked the world.
DigiTech has built in 7 signature models with 14 distinctive, highly-sought-after tones. Models are named after famous Queen songs that featured Brian's guitar:
1. Keep Yourself Alive
2. Bohemian Rhapsody
3. Tie Your Mother Down
4. We Will Rock You/Champions
5. Crazy Little Thing Called Love
6. Brighton Rock Solo (Live)
7. Deacy Tone/A Winter's Tale

Price: $199.95
Shop for Guitars at GuitarCenter.com

John Petrucci Gear - Guitar Strings

John Petrucci from Dream Theatre has been associated with Musicman and Erie Ball for years now. John Petrucci uses exclusively Ernie Ball strings, and has a custom gauge setup for his alternative tuning and heavy metal style for certain songs. One of John Petrucci's custom string gauges is used on a guitar tuned down to C with strings from 12 to 56 which gives more resistance and a more chunky full sound.

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