In The Style Of John Petrucci

Inside the world of electric guitar virtuosity there are just a few names capable of having the whole guitar community agree about the value of one particular guitarist...but an ‘animal’ like John Petrucci allays all the common arguments and discussions over who is good, bad, or mediocre in the forums and magazines specialised and focussed on 6-string technique become a mantra with just one message: Petrucci is one of the best. 



In this section we are going to try and give you some important tips on how to get the incredible ‘tone’ that John gets in his concerts with his legendary band Dream Theatre. 

When we see his guitars, we find ourselves with a guy who loves to play 7-strings, in fact, as many of you  will know, he has his own signature line with the brand Music Man in both 6 and 7 strings; they’re all made with one thing in common as Petrucci himself has made a point to mention several times: “They must be the simplest guitars to play in the world”.  To achieve this, the artist  has specifically designed fine details that make them unique such as the pronounced contour of the body to the height of the forearm or the fact that all the guitar’s controls are adapted to the moves of the right hand. 



The highest range of these Majesty guitars (in honour of the first name Dream Theatre had) depends on the authentic marvels such as the piezo transducer (for acoustics) or the possibility to switch the signal from Mono to  Stereo. This  allows him to flow that stereo signal to 2 Mesa Boogie signature JP- 2C amps which are equalised in a distinct way and creates that ‘giant’ expansive sound in live shows.    



For those who are already familiar with the Mesa Boogie family, we’d like  to further point out  that the Petrucci’s JP-2C is practically the same amp as the Mark 2c-plus (a model he has used up to 3 at the same time live) but with the improvement of having the equaliser independent for each channel as a fine point. 



Now we’d like to help everyone fit their wallets so we put together different options to ‘sound’ like John Petrucci...too bad we couldn’t add a budget for ‘playing’ like him but that’s up to each guitarist and the hours put into it. For sure he put more into it.