Paul Gilbert's Fuzz Universe

As a fan of Paul Gilbert, I've bought his newest album. Got it from HMV at $29.95. Guess guitar instrumental albums are hard to find in Singapore. Didn't know anything about him one year ago before i actually went into electric guitar. Spent one year listening to many famous and legendary electric guitarists and Paul Gilbert is one of the few that leaves a strong impression.

As a rock cum metal guitarist he is really interesting. He doesn't have any arrogance air. Likes to joke around too. Talented musician. And this is what was written in the album. Incredible heartfelt words that I love.

This is my third guitar instrumental album. It nearly drove me crazy on many occasions. Do you hear all those notes? First I had to find them. And then I had to put them all together in the right order. It literally took me months. What a job. But I love notes. So I'm happy to show up for work. Now, let's talk about the universe.

I always loved Carl Sagan's analogies involving the universe. Buckets, stars, and sand. Carl was an astronomer, so he liked to ponder the universe. He would say things like, "If every star was the size of a grain of sand... It would fill up billions and billions of buckets. These buckets, if arranged in a line, would stretch far beyond our sun. I don't if he said that exactly, but that's the best I can remember.

If every note on this album were the size of a grain of sand, it would fill up 72 buckets. That's just a guess, of course. But it's certainly not the billions and billions of buckets that could potentially be filled. Is it important to fill up so many buckets? Well, once I get started with notes, it's hard to stop. So I just keep going. 72 buckets full today. Tomorrow, a billion.

And what about the fuzz? Well, every note is not the same. And if you are a guitar player, you know how satisfying it is to have a big, fuzzy sound to bring excitement and power to your notes. Every generation has their own words for it: distortion, overdrive, gain, crunch, drive, break up, saturation, grind, grumpiness, howling hound dog... I'm making them up now, but you get the idea.

Anyway, the first word for this sound that I heard when I was a kid was "fuzz". It has stuck in my head ever since, and like a beaver's instinct to build a dam, I am somehow driven to tinker with my electric guitar and the fuzzy sound it can make. Sometimes I even turn the fuzz off, just to hear the difference. But mostly I live in a fuzz universe.

Play this music through some big speakers.

Rock & Roll.

Thank you.

Paul