John Petrucci

Throughout this official video lesson, we can see John Petrucci playing his Ibanez JPM100.

This guitar had a very unique electrical layout, that petrucci used to capture his sound on Images and Words:

Pickups

The standard pickups for the JPM100 are the DiMarzio Air Norton and the DiMarzio Steve's Special. Some catalogs list the pickups as being the DiMarzio Norton Lite and/or the DiMarzio SFP (Steve's Favorite Pickup) but these are believed to be the same pickups. The first JPM, used to record the "Images And Words" album, used the DiMarzio Humbucker From Hell in the neck and the DiMarzio The Tone Zone in the bridge.

Wiring

The wiring on this specific guitar model is unique, due to a proprietary Ibanez 3-way 4PDT toggle switch, which allows the pickups to be wired in a way that in the middle position only the inner coils of both pickups are active, producing a very bright and chimey tone. That played through a clean amplifier such as the Roland JC 120 and doubled by an acoustic guitar, that was key to achieve the clean sounds that John Petrucci used on the Dream Theater records on which he used his Ibanez signature instrument.

To this day, John still has his Ernie Ball/Music Man signature instruments wired this way, the only difference is that this is optional and engaged through a push-push tone potentiometer, and Ernie Ball uses a DiMarzio EP1111 switch.

Source: https://ibanez.fandom.com/wiki/JPM100

"John wants the neck as flat as possible. What I do is I use the little StewMac String Action Gauge. I set the action on the guitars, I start at 40-thousands of an inch off the twelfth fret. So from the top of the twelfth fret to the bottom of the low string is 40 thousands and then adjust to the radius from there. It's very specific, we kind of equate it to a Formula One race car driver, and the guitar and the amp, rig and everything is the car and I'm the mechanic. If I don't set the car up right, he's not going to feel quite right. I'm doing truss rod adjustments sometimes right up until I hand him the guitar. We used to do it sometimes while he was playing but we try to get away from that now. So it's all kind of nit-picky stuff, but the end result is that he's able to out here and play two hours the way he does," says John Petrucci's guitar tech.

"With the amp in the effects loop is actually the Axe-FX II, which we just started using. We were using the Ultras before. The guys from Fractal took all my programs from the Ultra, and [John] only uses one preset, it's all of the effects just kind of like you would have in any other system - delays, choruses, whatever - and we just turn them on and off. They're set, they don't change. So he programmed everything into the Axe-FX II, came out, we put it in the rig and sat there and kind of had to go through stuff and tweak things a little bit. So with the Axe-FX II, the outputs, left and right, come into the effects return. The top amp would be the left side and the bottom amp is the left side, so we get a true stereo thing happening. His effects chain is just very, very simple. Everything is in parallel with the main line of it, so there's nothing too crazy going on," says John Petrucci's guitar tech.

John Petrucci recorded Train of Thought only with Road King , Octavarium (Road King & Mark IV) and Suspended Animation (Road King & IIC+) This image shows the equipment that John used for the 2004 Train of Thought tour. The rig includes three Mesa Boogie Road King heads.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNhkNepkilc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ovdzUj8h6o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ENgZJAWCuc

"I've got two Mesa 4x12 cabinets that sit off stage that are with a mic up for the PA. They're just isolated from everything else, which is good because they're extremely loud," says John Petrucci's guitar tech.

"Everything's a cable. We run a stereo cable or a tip-ring sleeve cable for the electrics, and then back at the rig it splits out between electric and the piezo acoustic signal. We use Mogami cables with Neutrik ends all custom made for him by Mike Snyder who builds all the rigs," says John Petrucci's guitar tech.

A Keeley-modified Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer Effects Peal appears at 7:12 in this rundown video of John Petrucci's rig.

As shown on his official website, John Petrucci uses Ultimate Ears UE-5 - In Ear Monitors.

In this video, John Petrucci explains how for the 2014 Along for the Ride tour, he scaled his MESA® touring rig down to a Triaxis™ Preamp, a 2:90™ Power Amp and two Rectifier 1x12 cabs and two 1x12 Mini Rectifier™ cabs. At 1:03 he says, "I'm only using these 1x12 Recto cabs, which sound absolutely enormous, in a stupid way."

"Through the interface we then hit the input of the Mark V on top and that's the main tone. We use channel one and channel three primarily. This amp just does so many things and it's just great sounding. I can't come up with more good things to say about it. It's just an awesome amp. This particular one is the one we recorded the album with and it ended up in the rig," says John Petrucci's guitar tech.

"The last different guitar is the Baritone, and this is actually the BFR model before we came out with the JP10s and JP11s. It's got the maple top on it and tobacco finish. It’s a longer scale, I believe its 27-inch, and this is tuned down to A. And again it's a custom gauged set, it's like .12 to .64, I think - 24 frets. John uses this on 'These Walls' which is tuned down to A. That's the only song he uses it on," says John Petrucci's guitar tech.

In this video, John Petrucci's guitar tech, Maddi Schieferstein, gives a rundown of the guitar rig that was used during Dream Theater's 2014 "Along for the Ride" tour. The Mesa Boogie Triaxis can be seen at 0:23.

This is my newest pedal, I got it pretty recently. It has six different modes for all these different overdrives, which you can mix together at the same time. The overdrives probably change the most in my rig.

Sometimes there’ll be a Keeley Red Dirt here or a modded Tubescreamer or a Boogie model. With all the features of my Boogie, I don’t really need an overdrive pedal. The Majesties also have a 20dB boost on the volume control! So we really don’t need these, but in the spirit of fun, we thought we’d include a little something extra.

John said in an interview: "We used to have flea markets - it was a Les Paul copy, a Suzuki guitar. [Chuckles] But it was the most decked-out thing I've ever seen. It had a bind going down the neck, gold hardware, it was black, unbelievable... I think I traded it for an Aria Pro II." This guitar can also be seen in early Majesty photos. Interview source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FazMQa6JLI

In this tutorial, John's rig is shown to consist of a Fractal Axe-FX III.

"We're using Axcess Electronics so here is the old, trusty FX I. This gives John complete control over his rig. I've got six preset buttons: one and two are clean; three and four are rhythm; five and six are lead tones. Then you have all the instant access switches for all the different effects: the chorus, all three delays, the harmonizer are in the Axe effects. Then the flanger, phaser, tube screamer and compressor are in the satellite pedalboard. And then he can just kick stuff on and off at random. It is beautifully labeled. I got to say that Thomas Nordegg, Steve Vai's tech, made those for me. The random switch is right now not doing anything. That's for a future endeavor that goes along with the JP chorus button. I just had the labels made for future use, but right now those two don't really do anything. All the other ones go to a lead preset, it gives them a delay and a solo function on the amp," says John Petrucci's guitar tech.

This is a picture of the rack John used for the 2002 World Tourbulence tour. Among the various units there are two TC Electronic 2290 delay units (third and forth from bottom to top). Confirmation of this being John's rack can be found in this diagram from Guitar Geek and at :15s in this video.

John Petrucci uses the Boss SD-1W Super OverDrive Waza Craft pedal, as listed on his official effects page.

At 0:37 you can see the Mark IV in his rack, he also used it in the Systematic Chaos album

"We just settled back on the Carl Martin Compressor Limiter. We were kind of doing a big compressor shootout in rehersals and I just called every company out when we were rehearsing and said, 'Send over every compressor pedal you have and let me try them out.' John's had one of these for a long time and we used it in the studio a little bit, and he just really likes it. He likes the way it compresses, he likes the attack on it. It's not hugely overbearing and it just sounds nice to him," says John Petrucci's guitar tech.

"This is a new thing. Well the guitar is not new, but using it live is new. They're doing a little acoustic set depending again on the set list. We use this in the studio, it's a Taylor 30th anniversary. It's a 712ce model. We just plug it straight into a DI and that's it. We use Ernie Ball Light Gauge strings on this one," says John Petrucci's guitar tech.

In this video, John Petrucci's guitar tech, Maddi Schieferstein, gives a rundown of the guitar rig that was used during Dream Theater's 2014 "Along for the Ride" tour. The Mesa Grid Slammer can be seen at 3:15.

John Petrucci uses the Analog Man King of Tone Overdrive as an essential part of his setup, particularly for enhancing lead tones in front of his Boogie amplifier. According to Analogman, the pedal complements the Boogie's gain character without altering the core tone.

In this video, John Petrucci's guitar tech, Maddi Schieferstein, gives a rundown of the guitar rig that was used during Dream Theater's 2014 "Along for the Ride" tour. The Boss DC-2 can be seen at 3:15.

John Petrucci is playing Randall heads and cabinets in this video

In this video, Petrucci uses the Mesa/Boogie Mark IIC+ Head. "When it comes to the Mark IIC+, John is truly one of the worldwide experts on the Mark IIC+, next to Founder Randall Smith, Tone Boy Doug West and Mesa Chief Technician Mike Bendinelli. In this video, John explains how the Mark Five’s C+ Mode was designed around the best and most prized of the Mark IIC+ amp configurations available (since there are many different configurations of Mark IIC+ out there) while playing a few riff examples from the song “Enigma Machine” off the latest 2014 album titled after the bands name."

In this video recorded during the early years of "Dream Theater", back when the band was known by the name "Majesty" John Petrucci can be seen playing this guitar.

The headstock and the the HH pickup configuration are clear giveaway that the guitar is a B.C. Rich Assassin. Judging by the year in which the video was shot it's most probably a Platinum Pro Series Assassin.

"We use a pair of Shure Ribbon 313s, one on each cabinet. It kind of adds a little bit of low end that gets blended in with the 57s. It's kind of up to the sound guy's discretion what they use and what it sounds like," says John Petrucci's guitar tech.

"So when we went to in-ear monitors they got rid of the monitor wedges and John didn't have anything to put his feet up on anymore. So I had these boxes made for him made of diamond-plated stainless steel. Two years ago we were in South America and he was out front and he put his foot on a front monitor from the PA and he goes, 'I can feel my guitar! How can we get that on my footrest?' So I ended up taking a bunch of ButtKicker drivers that like drummers would use on the bottom of their drum throne and I put one in each box. You just feed a little bit of the mic's signal into that channel and you can feel the guitar shake. So that was a great idea. Then earlier this year we were in the studio and he said, 'I want to be able to feel like back by my cabinets on stage.' So I got Boogie to make me some 2-12 cabinets and I put a pair of ButtKickers in each one of those. So anywhere he goes in his little area his guitar is shaking. And just to clarify to the public, none of these cabinets are plugged in on top. The heads are empty. The 2x12s have the kickers and the rest is kind of just for show," says John Petrucci's guitar tech.

"The other cool thing you'll notice is that we have this gigantic rack of Crown power amps, and these power the thumpers," says John Petrucci's guitar tech.