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mooseherman
Published on 03/24/10 at 18:20
This is an American made, signature series guitar. This is a signature guitar of John Petrucci, guitarist extraordinaire for prog-rock dynasty Dream Theater. It features a vintage tremolo bridge (I haven't seen it anywhere else before, and I'm not too familiar with all of the MusicMan guitars as of right now). It has a basswood body, a maple neck with a rosewood fretboard. It has 24 frets, and 3 pickups (two humbuckers and a piezo). It has a 5-way selector switch, a master volume and two tone knobs.
UTILIZATION
This guitar is pretty easy to play, and I mean that in the best way. I don't think any old amateur is going to play it that well, but any reasonably experienced player is going to have a good time playing it for the sheer sake of playability. The 24 frets, with the enormous cutaway, make top-note shredding a breeze. If there ever was a guitar that was great to set you free to play all along the fretboard, this was it. That being said, playing rhythm sounds that are anything but rock and metal is a chore, mainly because of the way the guitar is setup. Everything is stable with the model I tried, and it's not too heavy and it's pretty ergonomic.
SOUNDS
Here's where I fell off with this guitar. I think that the guitar suffers from new trends in guitar tones that emerged after the "hair-metal" period of the late 80s. It's got a great natural sustain, sure. The leads almost always sound creamy and are a cinch to play. However, the tone is simply not my cup of tea. When I want to simplify things a bit, and get back to basics by playing some R&B or a Blues tune, or even straightforward rock, I find myself really missing the classics. There really isn't any diversity at all to be found with this guitar. I don't know what I was expecting, Petrucci himself is notorious for monotony, but that's definitely the case here. The clean sounds are pretty lame on their own, a few effects or boosts here sort of help the problem but not really. The distorted sounds are generally only good if you love Eddie Van Halen-wannabes and the guys who followed the trail that he blazed. People in search of soul in their tone should look elsewhere.
OVERALL OPINION
I think that the playability of this guitar is absolutely stellar, and for that alone, it would be very versatile, just because the player would be operating at his peak ability. It's a shame that the design (maybe the basswood, maybe the Piezos) gives it such a lame tone. I doubt anybody would really want this unless they worshipped at the Dream Theater altar. Then again, I guess that's the same for all Signature models anyway. At least I'm pretty sure Petrucci plays this one!
UTILIZATION
This guitar is pretty easy to play, and I mean that in the best way. I don't think any old amateur is going to play it that well, but any reasonably experienced player is going to have a good time playing it for the sheer sake of playability. The 24 frets, with the enormous cutaway, make top-note shredding a breeze. If there ever was a guitar that was great to set you free to play all along the fretboard, this was it. That being said, playing rhythm sounds that are anything but rock and metal is a chore, mainly because of the way the guitar is setup. Everything is stable with the model I tried, and it's not too heavy and it's pretty ergonomic.
SOUNDS
Here's where I fell off with this guitar. I think that the guitar suffers from new trends in guitar tones that emerged after the "hair-metal" period of the late 80s. It's got a great natural sustain, sure. The leads almost always sound creamy and are a cinch to play. However, the tone is simply not my cup of tea. When I want to simplify things a bit, and get back to basics by playing some R&B or a Blues tune, or even straightforward rock, I find myself really missing the classics. There really isn't any diversity at all to be found with this guitar. I don't know what I was expecting, Petrucci himself is notorious for monotony, but that's definitely the case here. The clean sounds are pretty lame on their own, a few effects or boosts here sort of help the problem but not really. The distorted sounds are generally only good if you love Eddie Van Halen-wannabes and the guys who followed the trail that he blazed. People in search of soul in their tone should look elsewhere.
OVERALL OPINION
I think that the playability of this guitar is absolutely stellar, and for that alone, it would be very versatile, just because the player would be operating at his peak ability. It's a shame that the design (maybe the basswood, maybe the Piezos) gives it such a lame tone. I doubt anybody would really want this unless they worshipped at the Dream Theater altar. Then again, I guess that's the same for all Signature models anyway. At least I'm pretty sure Petrucci plays this one!