John Petrucci

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

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

"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.

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 talks at length about and demonstrates the features of his signature Dreamscape modulation pedal from TC Electronic in this video.

Premier Guitar, 2019

And obviously, I’ve had the relationship with TC Electronic for a long time and I used my signature Dreamscape pedal. Another cool thing we used a lot is TC’s 2290-DT plug-in with the desktop controller. The 2290 was always a staple in all of my rigs, all my big refrigerator racks. And the plug-ins really sound true and authentic. So we ended up getting Ben Grosse one, and he used it on the mix. Whenever you hear a chorus and a guitar, that’s what it is.

"I remember when the 535Q first came out, with the adjustable Q and frequency range, when we were writing the Scenes from Memory album. I dialed in the perfect sound with that pedal, one I’d never really heard before. We wrote this song “Home,” which has this big wah riff to it. The wah simply accentuates the riff, but it created a unique sound that’s crucial to the impact of the song. If you play that riff without the wah, it just doesn’t sound the same."

In this video, at 15:59, Petrucci discusses his Effects setup, amongst the pedals visible is an MXR Raijin Drive.

"The Ernie Ball volume pedal is actually a control pedal for the Axe-FX II for the volume. Instead of running audio out and back, you know it's 100 feet of cable that you don't have to run, it's just a control pedal," says John Petrucci's guitar tech.

"The acoustic [output] plugs into a Fishman Aura Sixteen pedal in the back and that goes to a DI and right out to the PA. It's Program 13 I think - I don’t know what it's called. We just kind of swipe through them as he's playing. So a 50/50 blend and the volume all the way up on the pedal.

As is reported on his official website, John Petrucci used this pedal back on the Black Clouds & Silver Linings Tour.

This is a video of John Petrucci talking about how he uses the Boss eBand JS-10. At 3:50, he says, "Its a practice workstation powerhouse. I love it."

At 22:30 Maddi explains they recently added the TC Electronic Mimiq to the rig to provide a wider, stereo image.

"The loop system is actually an old Axess GRX4. John has been using the Axess Electronic stuff for a long time. So when we built these we saw we had some extras laying around, because you can't get them anymore, and we put it to use," says John Petrucci's guitar tech.

"The signal path comes into the Framptone A/B box. I've got two outputs on there - one is electric, one is acoustic. The acoustic plugs into a Fishman Aura 16 pedal in the back and that goes to a DI and right out to the PA. In the electric side we come in and hit the Dunlop Wah system first and then out of there we actually come up to this little satellite pedalboard. When we first built this rig we did everything in the box in the Axe-FX, and he missed having pedals that he could kind of mess around with. So we went with this," says John Petrucci's guitar tech.

"We got a Boss TU-3 tuner," says John Petrucci's guitar tech.

"A Boss Phase Shifter" is used in John Petrucci's pedalboard, according to his guitar tech.

During Dream Theater's performance on March 15, 2016, at Alte Oper Frankfurt, John Petrucci used the Keeley Red Dirt Overdrive pedal, as shown in the YouTube video by session.

In a 2016 equipment check video from the Alte Oper Frankfurt, John Petrucci of Dream Theater uses the TC Electronic HyperGravity Compressor.

"Yeah, that thing is awesome. It’s great — like having a million BOSS pedals in one little unit. At one point I had this other [non-BOSS] USB guitar unit, but I wasn’t too crazy about it. But I love this BOSS thing. It’s incredible. I loaded all the software into my computer, and brought it into my hotel room every day on tour. I love the way you can tweak everything onscreen, and save everything. And it sounds really good. There’s one thing in there that I never even knew existed, it’s a little arpeggiator [Auto Riff] where you play one note and all of a sudden there’s a series of notes right after. It’s wild. You can change the speed, you can program in the notes, basically you can wail by playing just a few notes. Really, really, cool."

"BOSS always works its way in, some way or another. In the studio for this album, I took a more minimal approach, recording mostly dry, but there were a couple of songs where I recorded through a chorus pedal at the front. I also used a BOSS on “Stream of Consciousness” during the middle part — the section we call the “Crimson section,” as in King Crimson. I used a BOSS OC-2 Octave pedal for that one."

At 53 seconds into the video you will see the Tone Saver.

We at RJM Music shot it on Jan 20, 2018 in San Diego at Balboa Theater. Maddi is the guitar tech giving the rig tour. We also make the Mastermind GT and the Mini Effect Gizmo that is in the rig.

"We got the Wah controller for the Dunlop system," says John Petrucci's guitar tech.

"An MXR Van Halen Flanger, which is a cool pedal," is used in John Petrucci's pedalboard, says his 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 Analog Man Juicer can be seen at 3:15.

At 0:02 in this video, John Petrucci of The G3 Jam, Dream Theater, Liquid Tension Experiment, John Petrucci & Jordan Rudess, explorers club, and Nightmare Cinema, creates "J-loo-P" for the T.C. Electronic Ditto X2.

On this artist page for John Petrucci of The G3 Jam, Dream Theater, Liquid Tension Experiment, John Petrucci & Jordan Rudess, explorers club, and Nightmare Cinema, is his T.C. Electronic pedals on display, among them is his TC Electronic Vortex Flanger TonePrint Series.

John Petrucci, known for his work with Dream Theater, Liquid Tension Experiment, and other projects, is shown using the TC Electronic Corona Chorus pedal in a user-uploaded photo on Imgur. This image features his collection of TC Electronic pedals, highlighting his preference for their effects in his setup.