300 bucks?

Dang.

This is awesome and I know those of you ready to drop the cash for this lesson will have a very incredible experience. But personally Im going to put any 300 bucks I make toward 5 hours of 1 on 1 lessons with Mr. Bruce Bouillet. And if anyone can afford 60 vs. 300 and wants more info just give me a pm.

Dude I sent Bruce a message and he never replied... and we had already spoken before

You gotta call him. You should definitely check into it when you're up here!

Yeah dude. I sent him a message to arrange a date... I guess I'll just call him once I'm there.

don't get me wrong, i've been to a VIP session in Europe so I know how great it is, but i think the prices are starting to go a little bit crazy now? prices for european dates were way lower and included cd, dvd, and ticket for the show. just my opinion anyway

Argh! At $300 it's tempting to actually purchase plane tickets and fly down there without even going to NAMM.

Curse my remote Canadian location in the frozen tundra of the far north!

I think the price reflects the costs in renting the space at the venue, getting Paul and all that gear out there, and the fact that there are a ton of people (myself included) who would want to attend something like this. $300 means different things to different people but I think that it's a great value over an hour with the Paul Gilbert.

Parlance, you should go!

I kinda talked one of my Aussie buddies in to going. Now we're trying to see if we end up in the same session.

California is like the most expensive state in the continental USA, too. Everything is more expensive in CA, for no other reason then... it's CA. I bet the studio was ridiculous $$$ to rent for 2 half-days.

Wall Of Sound Studios apparently has "all that gear" in-house, so the price reflects some cachet attached to Paul's name - as you've pointed out - and the fact that this is *the* VIP experience which a lot of Americans begged for, when it was offered to Europeans in 2008.

In 2008, that was the very first time Paul offered these. You've all heard of introductory pricing I'm sure. Most of you probably forget what a scheduling nightmare some of the sessions were, too... TJ & Paul ironed out a lot of kinks on those Euro guinea pigs, and TJ took a ton of flack! Luckily he has a thick skin... Thankfully the students were forgiving, patient souls. :)

Music is a luxury. People starve to death in some countries, and bomb eachother to bits in others... In suburban America, some people's hardest decision is "should I get guitar lessons from Bruce Bouillet, or go one session from Paul Gilbert?" Those are good problems, why complain!

PG's mgmt had to decide on a price which would be fair and affordable to everyone who really wanted this experience in Europe. $250 USD for 60 minutes was that decision. Considering that most of the shows had sellout VIP's with at least 3 overbookings... it was a good deal. It should technically be $312.50 for 75 minutes (assuming there is no inflation, which there was)... but it's only $300. Still a deal!

It would cost me a bunch to see Paul live, because it's likely that *if Mr. Big tours*, the only shows in the USA will be in A-Market towns like NYC, Chicago, Los Angeles... so I'd have to travel regardless. I'm looking at about ~$1200 outlay to go out to LA / CA this January, for 4 days/4 nights. If I go to VIP, I don't have to put up with a hotter-then-Hades venue, long lines that waste my time, bad opening bands, possibly crappy stage lighting or sound, idiots in the crowd, etc... and if I go to VIP here vs. see him in Italy, I don't have to worry about passport fees, trans-Atlantic flights, or much jetlag.

It's actually kind of a golden opportunity.
... and it will be, for most (North) Americans. That includes Canadians! :)

Those of you who do not have to travel... you're very lucky.

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I'm with you. I'm north in Portland, Oregon and I've been on expedia twice looking at plane tickets haha. My playing isn't worthy of a PG lesson, but it would be an awesome experience.

parlance, rreeves: You guys can actually play guitar and are just being modest. :)

Check cheaptickets.com. There's one other place... MSN Travel? I think they were the ones that had the $380 roundtrip fare from Chicago to Rome this spring. Check there too. And bookmark the airlines' websites that you plan on flying. Sometimes they have last-minute specials.

Whatever you do... do not fly with a guitar on United Airlines! Fedex or UPS it in or rent/borrow someone's for the lesson... that studio said they have a lot of gear in stock so this is a real possibility for some of us.

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Because United breaks guitars?

OK, my parents took my Jackson INSIDE the plane with them about 5 years ago and it was just fine.

Carry-on size limits nowadays would seem to preclude that option unless your guitar is somehow foldable, which I think would somehow defeat the purpose.

flying-dino: I usually use Expedia.ca but I'll have to check those ones out too.

MSN Travel got re-named Bing Travel, but besides that it still appears to be functioning. It's definitely a site to put on the bookmark rounds... just in case a deal comes up.

edit: Lodging needed asap to make this happen...

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I choose to believe this is a double entendre

I kid, I kid.

LOL, dang.

I thought "nothing ventured, nothing gained" so I figured I'd put the option on the board, for those of us travelling. I figured "as soon as I say it, 3 guys are either going to hit on me or make jokes about this."
sigh.
If I'm paying ~$100 a night for a hotel, I'm not leaving the hotel room, as that's just ridiculously expensive.

Generally I stay with friends out-of-town which is why I don't usually have to even think about hotels.

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300 dollar is 200 Euro, ours was 160. Very fair price if you concider the cd and dvd was included. Once in a life time experience.

I tried to resist, I really did.

The hotel costs sharing $$$ offer's still open for those of you who understand that it's a platonic, cost-savings arrangement.

The jokes are funny (and sorta welcomed - yay, you guys are normal after all!) - Really, I laughed the first thing when I saw the thread this morning. :)

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It's worth $300 to me. It's getting off work and flying from NYC to LA plus hotel, rental car etc. Do this anywhere in the northeast and I'm there!!