Help with Petrucci

[CustomX]

Ok so basically I have decided to immerse myself with Petrucci and his style. I absolutely love the variety and diversity that he has incorporated in his music throughout the years and I would like to take some similar approaches to my own guitar playing, because it is exactly what I love. So, bear with me guys, I just want a few tips and helpful info about tone, how-to's, and what not.

First off, if anyone has the song Lines in the Sand, could you suggest some settings that'll get me pretty close to the distorted bluesish solo that Petrucci plays? If you need the song, just let me know and I can send it to you somehow. The solo part im wondering about starts at 5:50 or so (you'll hear it). I think this is one of the most beautiful parts of any song Ive ever heard. Taller, I know you are a big blues guy, could you give me some suggestions? WHat pickup should I use? SHould I use delay or reverb instead for the echoey sustained effect. I dont know much about how Petrucci does what he does, but thats why Im asking for help. Thanks so much for getting me started everyone.

[Serious_Poo]

Ok so basically I have decided to immerse myself with Petrucci and his style. I absolutely love the variety and diversity that he has incorporated in his music throughout the years and I would like to take some similar approaches to my own guitar playing, because it is exactly what I love. So, bear with me guys, I just want a few tips and helpful info about tone, how-to's, and what not.

First off, if anyone has the song Lines in the Sand, could you suggest some settings that'll get me pretty close to the distorted bluesish solo that Petrucci plays? If you need the song, just let me know and I can send it to you somehow. The solo part im wondering about starts at 5:50 or so (you'll hear it). I think this is one of the most beautiful parts of any song Ive ever heard. Taller, I know you are a big blues guy, could you give me some suggestions? WHat pickup should I use? SHould I use delay or reverb instead for the echoey sustained effect. I dont know much about how Petrucci does what he does, but thats why Im asking for help. Thanks so much for getting me started everyone. X, I posted some additional gear thoughts for this song on your other thread so be sure to check it out. Great song BTW. Watch out though, it's not just pentatonics - he changes scales & modes a fair bit during the chord changes. First off, most of the intro part is keyboards with guitar samples, not actual guitars. Blew me away when I saw them do this live. First part is his rhythm high gain Mark IIC+ with a scooped EQ. (see picture from other thread) He switched to his lead amp for the lead parts, but it sounds like he did it all in one take so you shouldn't have too much trouble if you take your time with it. Effects-wise, he's using his volume knob a fair bit on this song to change tone and in the first lead part I can tell he's turned down the guitar a lot. Be sure to have a trem, delay and possibly a chorus (hard to tell, if he's using one it's pretty subtle) for that huge chord at 2:39. That's him giving a big hello to Alex Lifeson right there. ;-)

He also uses a Dunlop rack wah a lot. It's there, but it's subtle (around 6: 25 - 7:28). Most of the vibrato in this part sounds like it's coming from his trem bar (his finger vibrato is usually much stronger). It also sounds like he's switching pickups a couple times - the bluesier parts are done with the neck pickup, but it's hard to tell if he's split the coils or not. At 5:40 he's got one of his TC 2290's set around 375-400ms with 2-3 repeats, mixed appx 25-30% I'm guessing. I suspect he got the reverb from the room, but if you've got a digital delay a church or hall setting mixed somewhat low (15-20%) should get you close. At 9:00 it sounds like the same tone as the part at 2:39.

Cool, think I'll mess with this one today. :D

Not that I'm a Dream Theater fan or anything...

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[CustomX]

I cannot thank you enough for the wealth of info you just stated. That really helps me alot, especially since I have a Vetta to dial in and mix some of the effects and tones. I'll play around with using the neck and splits for the 5:50 to 8:38 parts. At 8:38 I love that simple, yet very very cool sounding guitar riff. Thanks so much Poo, this will really get me going.