G3, Atlanta, 31 days from now. Last week I talked about guitarist Paul Gilbert, one of the 3 guitarists on this tour. This week I’m going to take a little different tact talking about another guitarist. I’m going to talk about John Petrucci’s Ernie Ball signature guitar.

Most popular guitarists have a signature model. Paul Gilbert, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Scott Ian … the list goes on. Petrucci is no different. But where many guitarists will simply take an existing model and tweak it to their liking, Petrucci (after doing that very thing with Ibanez for several years) sought out Ernie Ball Music Man to build him a brand new guitar from scratch.

What they produced is a little different, heavy, fast and great sounding.

At about seven-and-a-half pounds, the guitar is heavy for a “super Strat” style guitar. But that substance equals a ton of resonance. As with all Music Man guitars, the six strings have a four x two tuner configuration on the peg head, but that’s where the similarities with other Music Man guitars end. You can click the link above to get the specs, but the biggest innovations in this guitar are the custom DiMarzio pickups and the John Petrucci-designed tremolo bridge. The guitar can come equipped with piezo picups built into the saddles of the bridge. The upshot of his design is one of the most acoustic-sounding electric guitars out there.

Of course, you’ll pay a premium price for this weapon of shred construction (sorry, I had to) but it’s comparable or lower in price than other guitars in its class. If you have the chance, pick one up at your local Ernie Ball dealer and give it a test run. You won’t be disappointed.

Lastly, there are some great John Petrucci parody videos on You Tube. Years ago, Petrucci did a video called “Rock Discipline” that taught guitarists how to warm up to play so you don’t hurt youself while shredding like the demon he is. This YouTuber took clips from that, dubbed in new vocal for some entertaining videos. The guy doing them is obviously a Petrucci fan, you can kind of get that from his treatment of Yngwie in one of the videos.

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