Shred legend Paul Gilbert creates TonePrints for TC Electronic
(Dave Molter | Posted 2011-08-24)
In early 2011 TC Electronic launched five new guitar pedals with an amazing trick up their sleeves: on-board USB ports which allow guitarists to upload TonePrints to their pedals. These unique TonePrints are created by some of the best guitarists around – e.g. John Petrucci, Steve Morse, Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal, Joe Perry and now Paul Gilbert! When creating their TonePrints, these artists were given access to even more parameters than what the knobs provide which allows them to create extremely personal sounds.
Paul Gilbert created two personal TonePrints – one for the Corona Chorus and another for the Hall of Fame Reverb. He wanted to create a sweet, shimmering chorus sound that would be equally suited for clean and dirty sounds, and the ‘tri-chorus’ mode of the Corona Chorus pedal was perfect for that purpose. Paul Gilbert also got to pick a name for the TonePrint and he came up with ‘Triple Caramel Apple’ as the warbly and gooey feel of the sweet chorus reminded him of one of his favorite desserts: caramel. The ‘triple’ refers to the ‘tri-chorus’, of course, and the he felt that the clean sound would represent the ‘apple’. The result? Delicious!
When creating his TonePrint for the Hall of Fame Reverb pedal, Paul Gilbert wanted to get a nice tail of space. A reverb tail of comfort that adds that certain something to any guitar tone – even when sustaining the notes. As for the naming of this particular TonePrint, Paul refers to the alias that he was actually planning to use for his next tour. In order to prevent fans from calling up his hotel room in the middle of the night, he always uses an aternative name when checking in to hotels – and for the upcoming tour, he had planned to use this name: Otis Fieldsgood. Now, he decided to use it for naming this TonePrint instead!
About Paul Gilbert
Paul Gilbert is one of the true shred guitar heroes of this world. He has been recording, performing and touring since the mid 1980’s. At first with his band, Racer X, and in 1988 he and rock bass legend, Billy Sheehan, formed Mr. Big that had a global breakthrough in 1991 with their second album, Lean Into It. The major hit, To Be With You, reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Further, Gilbert has released numerous solo albums to critical acclaim - e.g. Get Out of My Yard and Fuzz Universe - and in 2007 he united with Joe Satriani and John Petrucci for the 12th G3 concept world tour. Today, Gilbert is recognized as one of the most gifted guitarists around, and he has his own column, Shred Alert, in Guitar World Magazine.
Paul Gilbert TonePrints made for shredding are now available for free download.
