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I started watching his channel a lot recently, that dude lives in the same tonal world I do and is a good part of the reason I went with the EMG’s in my Edwards. All Mesa, Marshall and Peavey aweomeness!!
The best Marshall tone ever
- Thread starter DrewJD82
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I started watching his channel a lot recently, that dude lives in the same tonal world I do and is a good part of the reason I went with the EMG’s in my Edwards. All Mesa, Marshall and Peavey aweomeness!!
And Ibanez PetrucciCome back, no beard Petrucci…
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Come back, no beard Petrucci…
Desertdweller
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Badonkey Kong
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Man. I suppose he is technically more proficient now, but his playing and the band's music was so much better back then IMO. Much more variety in his tones and parts... Except for Falling In Poo Infinity. Which had some cool moments, like hell's Kitchen and Trial of Tears, but was so watered down by the record label...
Petrucci knows Marshall toneDamn! Why does every thread on this forum inevitably end in Petrucci, Apple, Badlander, or taking another piss on NDSP.
He’s got a Boosted plexi behind all those Mark shells
Mongillo19
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At the very least we are nothing but predictableDamn! Why does every thread on this forum inevitably end in Petrucci, Apple, Badlander, or taking another piss on NDSP.
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Agree with all that except for FII, I love that album! While obviously nothing close to the ones that came before it, I kind of look at it as their Load album; it's definitely not an amazing Dream Theater album, but there's some cool songs on there regardless. And it has all of Derek's awesome synth sounds. And some killer f*ckin' Boogie tones.
I can never find it, but there was a pic of Petrucci back then in the studio with EVERY single amp Mesa ever made. He gathered them all for that album and went through every single one finding as many awesome Mesa tones as he could.
TSJMajesty
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"Varying degrees of awesomeness" or something like that!
TSJMajesty
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I can't imagine many players who wouldn't jump at the chance of joining with a company to design a signature guitar from the ground up. I'm glad he did it. His line is completely identifiable with him, and no one else. And he & EBMM are obviously doing something right, in that it's the highest-selling signature guitar, 2nd only to the Les Paul, which will probably always be #1. That's a major accomplishment!
And while I don't care for the direction DT as a band has gone lately, when it comes to JP as a player and writer, there's not an era of his music that I don't enjoy. I love what he's done for the simple fact that he's been such a huge influence on me personally as a guitarist. I have enjoyed learning and pushing my own limits by studying his music more than any other guitarist, ever.
Sure, the early material has a certain appeal, almost like the experimentation of a new band trying to find their sound, but there are SO many kick-ass songs that have continued to come from, or in part from, the creative mind of this man. Yeah, I'm a huge fan-boy! I'm blown away by, and thankful for, the amount of musical enjoyment I've gotten from him.
The more I study, and try to absorb & emulate what I can, his licks, riffs and melodies, his technique and style, his articulation and accuracy, the more I am in awe of how great a musician, artist, and guitarist he is. He's easily my biggest inspiration.
pipelineaudio
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9001, I think
Piing
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Badonkey Kong
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I can't imagine many players who wouldn't jump at the chance of joining with a company to design a signature guitar from the ground up. I'm glad he did it. His line is completely identifiable with him, and no one else. And he & EBMM are obviously doing something right, in that it's the highest-selling signature guitar, 2nd only to the Les Paul, which will probably always be #1. That's a major accomplishment!
And while I don't care for the direction DT as a band has gone lately, when it comes to JP as a player and writer, there's not an era of his music that I don't enjoy. I love what he's done for the simple fact that he's been such a huge influence on me personally as a guitarist. I have enjoyed learning and pushing my own limits by studying his music more than any other guitarist, ever.
Sure, the early material has a certain appeal, almost like the experimentation of a new band trying to find their sound, but there are SO many kick-ass songs that have continued to come from, or in part from, the creative mind of this man. Yeah, I'm a huge fan-boy! I'm blown away by, and thankful for, the amount of musical enjoyment I've gotten from him.
The more I study, and try to absorb & emulate what I can, his licks, riffs and melodies, his technique and style, his articulation and accuracy, the more I am in awe of how great a musician, artist, and guitarist he is. He's easily my biggest inspiration.
You know what, my post came off as overly negative on him. I still buy - actually purchase the CD - every DT album and eagerly wait for every new release. I agree 100% with your post, he's also easily my top influence.
Badonkey Kong
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Back on track. I still have my 9001 preamp. Haven't played with it since about 2005 or so. I should pull it out of the storage rack it's in and see what it sounds like again.
Back in the early-ish 90's I had a 10 space rack with it as my main sound, needed a Scholz midi octopus to switch channels on the thing. I was dumb though, didn't understand how important a tube power amp was to the equation, used a big ass crown solid stater. Still sounded pretty good though as the preamp had a good amount of gain and tonal sculpting available. And an Alesis Quadraverb. LOL. Every preset I made sounded the same after a while
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pipelineaudio
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Profile it!!!
Badonkey Kong
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Not at all set up to do this, and not sure the tones it has are worth it, lol....
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I can't imagine many players who wouldn't jump at the chance of joining with a company to design a signature guitar from the ground up. I'm glad he did it. His line is completely identifiable with him, and no one else. And he & EBMM are obviously doing something right, in that it's the highest-selling signature guitar, 2nd only to the Les Paul, which will probably always be #1. That's a major accomplishment!
And while I don't care for the direction DT as a band has gone lately, when it comes to JP as a player and writer, there's not an era of his music that I don't enjoy. I love what he's done for the simple fact that he's been such a huge influence on me personally as a guitarist. I have enjoyed learning and pushing my own limits by studying his music more than any other guitarist, ever.
Sure, the early material has a certain appeal, almost like the experimentation of a new band trying to find their sound, but there are SO many kick-ass songs that have continued to come from, or in part from, the creative mind of this man. Yeah, I'm a huge fan-boy! I'm blown away by, and thankful for, the amount of musical enjoyment I've gotten from him.
The more I study, and try to absorb & emulate what I can, his licks, riffs and melodies, his technique and style, his articulation and accuracy, the more I am in awe of how great a musician, artist, and guitarist he is. He's easily my biggest inspiration.
I don’t think it has much to do with the guitars themselves, it’s more so the direction Petrucci went with his tones. He said a few years back he’s looking for “rich chocolate cake” and that makes sense, but I miss the Awake-era tones where it was “pissed off Mesa stealing the cake from the kid’s hand and pissing on it“. Regardless of how many strings or what tuning he’s in, nothing has sounded as heavy or has had the balls of “The Mirror” or ”Lie”. ”The Dark Eternal Night” tone is standing at the door asking if it needs to take it’s shoes off before entering.
I think a lot of it has to do with his right hand, too. Everything is just so even and, you’re really going to twitch when I say this, but clinical. There’s like no deviation in his pick attack, everything is this same, consistent attack, regardless of the tempo or feel of the song and I think that’s the biggest change in his playing since the 90’s. Doesn’t matter how he builds a solo these days, nothing has had the same dynamic energy as something like the “Scarred” solo or “The Spirit Carries On” since SFAM. Even when he plays those solos now, they’re just so perfect and consistent that they don’t really do it for me like the studio recordings or live shows from that era. I woke up to his solo on “Once In A Livetime” recently and man, I miss that sh*t! The “Fatal Tragedy” solo is another good example, that solo sounds like it’s taking off a runway on the album, like he can barely contain himself, now it sounds like he’s playing in a relaxed manner because he’s just gotten so damn consistent.
It’s funny how the stuff you listened to as a teen is so embedded in our heads, all the little improvised spots on Once In A Livetime I have memorized like I listen to it weekly and I haven’t heard that album in at least….18 years, if not more. I lost my virginity to that album.
TSJMajesty
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Yeeaaahhh, I certainly hear what you're saying, and I can't disagree with most of it. But, as far as how his playing comes across, I believe it has more to do with the production side of things than his technique. Everything is so polished, and compressed. That "airy-ness" of a solo like Lines In The Sand is mostly, but not all, not there.I don’t think it has much to do with the guitars themselves, it’s more so the direction Petrucci went with his tones. He said a few years back he’s looking for “rich chocolate cake” and that makes sense, but I miss the Awake-era tones where it was “pissed off Mesa stealing the cake from the kid’s hand and pissing on it“. Regardless of how many strings or what tuning he’s in, nothing has sounded as heavy or has had the balls of “The Mirror” or ”Lie”. ”The Dark Eternal Night” tone is standing at the door asking if it needs to take it’s shoes off before entering.
I think a lot of it has to do with his right hand, too. Everything is just so even and, you’re really going to twitch when I say this, but clinical. There’s like no deviation in his pick attack, everything is this same, consistent attack, regardless of the tempo or feel of the song and I think that’s the biggest change in his playing since the 90’s. Doesn’t matter how he builds a solo these days, nothing has had the same dynamic energy as something like the “Scarred” solo or “The Spirit Carries On” since SFAM. Even when he plays those solos now, they’re just so perfect and consistent that they don’t really do it for me like the studio recordings or live shows from that era. I woke up to his solo on “Once In A Livetime” recently and man, I miss that sh*t! The “Fatal Tragedy” solo is another good example, that solo sounds like it’s taking off a runway on the album, like he can barely contain himself, now it sounds like he’s playing in a relaxed manner because he’s just gotten so damn consistent.
It’s funny how the stuff you listened to as a teen is so embedded in our heads, all the little improvised spots on Once In A Livetime I have memorized like I listen to it weekly and I haven’t heard that album in at least….18 years, if not more. I lost my virginity to that album.
That reckless abandon, along with a more "open" sound, production-wise, exists in solos like Constant Motion & Stream of Consciousness.
But he has definitely refined his technique to be even more accurate, and "perfect" over the years. But if that production could be opened up more, I really think it would come through much better. It certainly did at his recent live solo show I saw. That tone was so raw and raunchy, and had an edge like I'd never heard before.
I also hear him favoring the neck PU a lot more, and a lot more arpeggio-based riffs. But there's a few solos in LTE3 in which he's got that, "I'm just going for it" thing going on, that's pretty effin sick!
But that "polish" that I think is more about the production has certainly muted how the guitars are presented. I don't hear any solo with the open, raw edge like Hollow Years from Once In A Live Time, which may just be one of his all-time best live solos! I think Petrucci needs to let someone else completely take over the production.
