I was excited to receive some brand new custom-printed picks from my favorite pick company, Tortex. 

I made the design myself, and they did a beautiful job printing my favorite model, the .73mm TIII.

I was playing some ferocious guitar solos with them, when it occured to me... "Did I spell 'stegosaurus' the right way?"

The answer is, "No, I did not."

Fortunately, the picks still function perfectly.

And now I will never forget that "stegosaurus" has an "o" in the middle of it.

Stegosaurus. Stegosaurus. Stegosaurus.

Rock and Roll,

Paul

Here is my latest pedalboard. I used these pedals a lot while recording the new Mr. Big album, and I plan on taking them to the G4 Experience as well. 

To make the pedalboard "indestructible," I attached the pedals to the board with Velcro, used black gaffer tape to keep the knobs at my favorite settings, cut small strips of Velcro to hold the cables down, and did some important labeling.

My (well-meaning) guitar techs have blown up several of my power supplies over the years (by plugging into the wrong voltage), so I've learned to label my power supply with big numbers. I haven't blown one up since. 120 volts for G4!

I recently started using a Jimi Hendrix Cry Baby wah wah. I've wasted a few soundchecks in the past by thinking that my amps sounded a little strange, then readjusting all the EQ settings, then realizing that I had accidentally left the wah wah on. I labeled my wah wah to remind myself to check. Is it OFF?

Finally, on the left (in dark brown) is a TC Electronic MojoMojo. It has a small switch in between the knobs. I like the switch in the "up" position, but I often forget to check it. The upward pointing arrow will remind me.

Now, I'm ready to jam!

Thank you,

Paul

I'll be traveling to Japan this week to promote my new album, "Stone Pushing Uphill Man." To prepare for the trip, I mixed backing tracks from seven songs from the album, and I'm quickly trying to learn how to play them. (In the studio, I often recorded the songs in short sections. So I never actually played them the whole way through... until now.) Overall, I'm having a great time going back and figuring out some of the things that I played. And I'm already getting more ideas about how to play them. Music never stops evolving...

I've also been recording my guitar tracks for a new Mr. Big album that will released later this year. The songs are in my head all the time, and it's nice to work with the vocals again. I spent nearly a whole day last week just figuring out the vocal harmonies for a song. (They were tricky, but worth it!)

Of course, the G4 Experience camp is coming up soon as well. I'm excited to jam with Joe, Andy, Mike, and as many guitarists who are willing to plug in and trade some phrases with me. 

Life is good! Rock and Roll! Thank you,

Paul

This week, I have the honor and pleasure of being photographed and video recorded by Larry DiMarzio. Larry is also known for making guitar pickups that sound excellent.

For photo sessions, is doesn't matter how I sound, but rather how I look, and like anything, practice can always help. I have never counted how many rock guitar poses (and faces) I have in my vocabulary. And the challenge is always to find some new ones. The photo above was taken my another great photographer, James Chiang. James always encourages me to put the guitar in the air and make interesting geometric shapes with my arms and legs. I'm not sure what I'll conjure for Larry's session this week, but I'm looking forward to it.

Thank you,

Paul

I recently did a video interview for MXR pedals...

They asked me to send them some photos from when I was a teenager. This one has always been one of my favorites. I'm 14 years old here, with my band, MISSING LYNX (Mike Scimmy on bass, and Dwayne Davis on drums and lead vocals.) I'm playing an SG copy that someone had found in their closet. My dad and I fixed it up with new pickups and parts and renamed it "MR. GUITAR." The quadbox hanging in the air adds an element of style and danger. And my perm is hoping for a Def Leppard audition. But the thing that I'm most proud of is... the strap length. 

While I was searching through my old photos, I also found this one.

I may look calm here (I was trying to be cool while my parents took a picture of me, which is of course, impossible, when you're 12 years old), but I I was actually very excited because I had just learned to bend a string and do a pull-off like the Jimmy Page "Heartbreaker" solo. I couldn't believe that a Jimmy Page lick was actually coming out of my guitar.

I'm still thrilled every time I play one of those.

Long Live MXR, long straps, and Jimmy Page.

Thank you,

Paul

STONE PUSHING UPHILL MAN

I wrote a description of the album for my Japanese record company, and they put it up on their site: http://www.whd.co.jp/specials/detail/41

I've been listening to the new songs everyday as the mixing engineer finishes them, and I am convinced that this album contains the most guitar-face moments of any album that I have done. Many of the tunes are covers where I'm playing the vocal lines on guitar. You may have heard a taste of this from the Video Messages that I make here at the school, but this is the deepest that I've even gone into this melodic and expressive style. And of course I couldn't resist playing lots of standing-on-top-of-a-volcano-with-notes-exploding-in-the-air soloing as well.

There are also three new original songs, including the title track, "Stone Pushing Uphill Man." This is the only song where I am singing with my voice (instead of the guitar), and I put a long face-melting guitar solo in there too.

The album will be released in Japan this summer, and I'll keep you posted as I get release information in other countries.

Get ready for "Stone Pushing Uphill Man"!

Thank you,

Paul

I stopped by a music store and found myself slightly larger than life, and made of cardboard.

They brought two Marshall amps for me, oranges backstage (for my juice), some great local guitarists to jam with, and a great audience to play for. Obrigado, Fortaleza!

The beach is beautiful in Chile. Tomorrow is my first clinic. I plan to stomp my foot, bend my strings, play loud, play quiet, play chords, play solos, leave spaces, play what is in my head, unleash some fury from my fingers, and play D and G chords that are very in-tune. And E and A chords too, if things go really well. Rock and Roll!

Paul