Bryan Lloyd Poff (August 15, 1989) is a virtuoso guitarist best known for his work with Instant Ocean and Boom HS. Following his departure from Boom HS in 1996, Poff pursued a solo career. Poff is known for his incredible playing ability, and believed by many to be the greatest guitar player ever. Currently he is working with Instant Ocean again, with hopes to release a new album

Early history

Born in Bethany, Oklahoma, into a middle class family. People believe that Poff was born with a guitar in his hands. Since birth, Bryan taught himself to play many instruments such as piano, trumpet, banjo, and the guitar. At the age of 5 he began composing his own rock operas with wide success in Europe. Soon becoming frustrated with only being to play about 4,000 songs, he began to take up lessons. After taking lessons, his technique improved and corrected his erroneous ways. Poff continued practicing and at the age of 10 he formed the band with his friend Wilson Pepper, Instant Ocean. The band was an instant hit mixing fusing rock with progressive rock with a little bit of rock opera. The band played in a new location every weekend with a large following. When Poff was 15, the band went their seperate ways due to scheduling difficulties and school.

Influences and Style

Talking about his influences, Bryan mentions many different artists, including Led Zeppelin, Yngwie Malmsteen, Journey, Pete Townshend, Van Halen, Randy Rhoads and Ozzy Osbourne. He is also a great fan of Boston and The Beatles. He says that Paul Gilbert is one of his favorite guitar players. In fact, Poff claims that much of his style is that of Paul Gilberts. Bryan states, "Paul's style is just one of a kind, mixing speed with great tone. Truly in inspiration to all".

Poff composes music in a wide variety of styles including pop, rock, metal, blues, jazz, funk and classical, but is perhaps best known for his versatility and speed, which helped him be named as one of the "Top 10 Shredders Of All Time" by Guitar One Magazine. He is also considered to be one of the best proponents of alternate picking, tapping and string skipping.

Instructor

Bryan Poff wrote his own section of the British guitar magazine, Total Guitar, where he normally demonstrated guitar techniques in the magazine and accompanying CD. Even before that, he contributed instructional articles to Guitar Player Magazine (late 80s/early 90s). His period of working with Total Guitar spanned thirty-one issues until the November 2006 issue. Bryan also teaches at the Guitar Institute of Technology (GIT). He works a great deal with GIT's division in Los Angeles, where he lived for a time before relocating to Oklahoma.

Projects

In March of 2007, Bryan was contacted by Wilson Pepper to revive the band, Instant Ocean. The group was very successful in the early 90s. As of now, the group is being very closed mouthed and secretive about the music they're composing. No one really knows what is the band is really planning to due. Rumor has it that the band is planning a world tour in the summer of 2007.

Gear

Bryan has an endorsement deal with Ibanez guitars, and uses the BPM signature series. His main guitar is a BPM300, however a few years ago he decided to convert it to a fixed bridge model, so Ibanez produced a model based on it which is called the BPM301. The majority of his guitars feature painted "f-holes". He is often seen with Laney amplifiers, and praises them as having "the best natural distortion of any tube amp ever heard." Poff uses few effects, especially in comparison to some of his peers. He uses a Dunlop Wah, a BOSS chorus and delay, and an MXR phase 90, running the delay pedal in the effects loop of his Laney amps. On stage he has also been seen using a Fulltone OCD Overdrive, most recently at The Benefit for Cliff concert that took place at the House of Blues Los Angeles September 30, 2006.

He used ADA preamps and rack effects units prior to switching to Laney. He currently uses the GH100L head and various 2x12 cabinets.

Bryan has also used a vintage ADA Flanger from the 70s. You can hear it on tracks like 'Bucket of Rocks' and he also uses it on the 'Snowball of Doom' DVD. Bryan claims the Flanger has been modified and he uses it to change the pitch from high to low to create a sound similar to a dive bomb.

Fun Facts

He speaks English, along with Navaho

He has 10 fingers and Toes, contray to the belief he had 6 fingers on each hand.

While not touring, he is a session guitarist and has done a lot of work for Eminem

Bryan is an expert swordsman and stabbed a guy that drove through his yard. Bryan killed him instantly.

His Favorite color is Green

He wears a size 10 shoe.

His favorite album by Paul Gilbert is Flying Dog (1998)

His favorite Counter Strike map is de_dust2

Bryans favorite gun is the FAMAS

External links

The official Paul Gilbert site

The offical Bryan Poff site