Paul Gilbert 1992 clinic video - Scuttle Buttin'

When I was a student at GIT in Hollywood in 1992, I attended a Paul Gilbert clinic/performance at the Guitar Center on Sunset Blvd. It was basically Paul and his band Electric Fence (Russ Parrish - bass, Jeff Martin - drums) jamming on some tunes. Rob Halford joined them for a few songs, as did Derek Taylor (he got to jam with Paul after winning a guitar competition as I recall). Several videos from this clinic have been uploaded to YouTube over the past few days. The one I've posted here is Paul (sans band) playing the SRV classic Scuttle Buttin'. Enjoy!

Comments

[Josh]

Great video! It's interesting to see Paul playing a SRV tune. I still think Stevie Ray's version was better, though :)

[Laurie Monk]

Cool find, always like new videos like this one.

[Rob Carty]

A nice little gem.

Seeing how this is an SRV tune, and today's the "Lenny" Strat is being unveiled -- and seeing how Santa is bringing me a Strat for Christmas -- I got to wondering about your Strat, Rich. You say it's "heavily modded." What kinds of mods have you done?

[Rich]

Rob,
A few things. In 1992 I had the neck shaved down to a 12" radius, and had it refretted with jumbo 6150 frets. Also had a bone nut put in. I've changed the pickups out several times. Right now the neck pickup is a Seymour Duncan (I forget the model), the middle pickup came out of an Ibanez I used to have, and the bridge is a Dimarzio HS-3 (a stacked humbucker) that I put in only about a year ago. I also have everything wired to one tone knob, the bottom knob does nothing. Also, I don't use the tremolo bar, so I have the claw in the back screwed as deep as it will go with all 5 springs attached. That way, no matter how hard I bend, the bridge will not move. I have a piece of cloth stuffed in that area too to keep the springs from ringing. It's pretty beat up at this point. It really needs a new fret job, there are a couple of spots where it frets out when I bend. Plus a couple of the slots in the nut are too deep now, so I have to do that trick where you stick a tiny piece of paper in the groove so the open string won't buzz.

[Rob Carty]

Most excellent. Thanks.

Never heard the one about the paper in the nut. You might also try mixing a bit of super glue (or other glue) with bone dust (or other suitable material), and put a bit of the resulting slurry into the slots to build them back up. You can always take them down again if it's too much.