Paul Gilbert is a phenomenal guitar player and q very hard man to replicated accurately. Over the years i have found my top best impersonators of the man. remy hansen,anton oparin, doug steele, yeon guitar, sam bell, lee wanner, adam wever, kael wu,
For a while a lot of people thought Buckethead was Paul Gilbert’s alter ego (he is not). I wouldn’t call him an impersonator, Bucket’s style is very unique and he has a lot of techniques in his bag that Gilbert doesn’t really explore (hybrid picking, slap/pop tech, 8-finger tapping, etc.). Obviously both have monster picking chops, with elite speed and accuracy.
Apparently Gilbert gave Bucket some lessons, so there’s a direct influence. They have a similar technical approach to alternate picked scale patterns and sequences, I’m sure Bucket spent a lot of time with Paul’s exercises in ‘Intense Rock’.
This video shows some really interesting similarities (see the scales around 7:47). The right hand grip and picking motion is virtually identical to PG, and the left hand fingerings are mostly 1-3-4 for 3NPS patterns (instead of the more common 1-2-4 or 1-2-3) - certainly something he learned he learned from PG who shares this fingering preference.
Joey Tafolla’s Shrapnel releases were very Gilbert inspired, and he studied under him so it makes sense.
Horrible quality video, but jump to 2:50 Joey Tafolla - Eternity's End & Guitar solo - Japan 15th May 1989 - YouTube
The only additional one I can think of is Satchel from Steel Panther who was Paul’s rooommate during his racer X days (you can see at least back in the early days his technique looks a lot like Paul’s)
Russ Parrish (Satchel from Steel Panther) Early Guitar Exercises and Licks - YouTube
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