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tjon901 « Refined Petrucci model »
Published on 11/04/11 at 07:30John Petrucci is the guitar player for the popular progressive metal band Dream Theater. He use to play Ibanez guitars but a few years ago he switched to Musicman but the formula has pretty much been the same until now. Before it was just a guitar with a Basswood body and some Dimarzio pickups. Now Petrucci has a more refined taste and has started to use better wood in his guitars. This guitar has a chambered alder body with a bolt on mahogany neck. The alder body has a mahogany tone block in it. The neck has a 24 fret ebony fretboard. The frets are tall and narrow. Up top you get locking tuners and a unique Petrucci Musicman tremolo. The pickups are Petruccis current favored Dimarzio pickups. There is a Liquifier in the neck position and a Crunchlab in the bridge. There is also a Piezo system but I do not have a proper amp to test that out properly.
UTILIZATION
The neck is thin and wide, a lot different than the necks on most Musicman guitars. I guess this stems back to Petruccis Ibanez days. The ebony fretboard is a nice touch. This combined with the tall narrow frets means it is very easy to play and you can get a very low action. The tremolo is pretty stable for being a non locking unit. It holds tuning well and is heavily built. The locking tuners do their job and make up for the lack of a locking nut on the neck. The body on these newer models have more subtle contours than the older Petrucci models. They are still comfortable. The guitar is slightly heavier than the older models because of its use of better tone woods. People use to the older models may not like the fact that the back of the neck is painted. Im not sure why they did this. Maybe it was because mahogany isnt as nice to look at on the back of a neck than maple. Maybe Petrucci just wanted a cleaner look. The finish on the back of the neck can get sticky but if you really do not like it you can take some steel wool to it and give it a satin finish.
SOUNDS
This guitar with these pickups through just about any Mesa amp will get Petruccis sound. The pickups in this guitar are pretty thick sounding and it gets you a great modern sound. The Liquifier is a smooth modern neck pickup. It is built for lead playing. It is a refined version of the Air Norton which Petrucci use to play. It has a vowely PAF quality that makes it great for vocal leads. The Crunchlab in the bridge is a crunchy pickup. The Crunchlab is an evolution of the old Dropsonic that Petrucci use to play. It is slightly more refined but has a lot of the same problems. In this guitar the bar magnet is facing towards the neck. The orientation gives you a thicker fuller sound but may get muddy in lower tunings. If you plan on downtuning you may want to reverse the magnets so the bar magnet is by the bridge picking up more high end frequencies. That would give you more clarity in the lower tunings. When I said they fixed most of the problems I am talking about the noise. The old Dropsonic was very noisy. The Crunchlab is still noisy but not as noisy. You may want to invest in a noisegate.
OVERALL OPINION
I love seeing guitar players change up their signature models. It is very easy to find something and stick with it forever while everything around you is evolving. I hate when guitar makers refuse to innovate because people are still buying the same old stuff. Petrucci wants to refine his sound and Musicman is letting him. The improved wood combination and improved pickups have made the sound more refined overall. The older models are still good guitars but this version makes it a great guitar.
UTILIZATION
The neck is thin and wide, a lot different than the necks on most Musicman guitars. I guess this stems back to Petruccis Ibanez days. The ebony fretboard is a nice touch. This combined with the tall narrow frets means it is very easy to play and you can get a very low action. The tremolo is pretty stable for being a non locking unit. It holds tuning well and is heavily built. The locking tuners do their job and make up for the lack of a locking nut on the neck. The body on these newer models have more subtle contours than the older Petrucci models. They are still comfortable. The guitar is slightly heavier than the older models because of its use of better tone woods. People use to the older models may not like the fact that the back of the neck is painted. Im not sure why they did this. Maybe it was because mahogany isnt as nice to look at on the back of a neck than maple. Maybe Petrucci just wanted a cleaner look. The finish on the back of the neck can get sticky but if you really do not like it you can take some steel wool to it and give it a satin finish.
SOUNDS
This guitar with these pickups through just about any Mesa amp will get Petruccis sound. The pickups in this guitar are pretty thick sounding and it gets you a great modern sound. The Liquifier is a smooth modern neck pickup. It is built for lead playing. It is a refined version of the Air Norton which Petrucci use to play. It has a vowely PAF quality that makes it great for vocal leads. The Crunchlab in the bridge is a crunchy pickup. The Crunchlab is an evolution of the old Dropsonic that Petrucci use to play. It is slightly more refined but has a lot of the same problems. In this guitar the bar magnet is facing towards the neck. The orientation gives you a thicker fuller sound but may get muddy in lower tunings. If you plan on downtuning you may want to reverse the magnets so the bar magnet is by the bridge picking up more high end frequencies. That would give you more clarity in the lower tunings. When I said they fixed most of the problems I am talking about the noise. The old Dropsonic was very noisy. The Crunchlab is still noisy but not as noisy. You may want to invest in a noisegate.
OVERALL OPINION
I love seeing guitar players change up their signature models. It is very easy to find something and stick with it forever while everything around you is evolving. I hate when guitar makers refuse to innovate because people are still buying the same old stuff. Petrucci wants to refine his sound and Musicman is letting him. The improved wood combination and improved pickups have made the sound more refined overall. The older models are still good guitars but this version makes it a great guitar.