Dream Theater

John Petrucci welcomes TG onstage at Hammersmith Apollo for the Images And Words 25th anniversary tour

- Amit Sharma

“There are no nicks on any of my guitars!” notes John Petrucci before tonight’s sell-out show. And, yes, under close inspection, we can confirm these instruments are as immaculate as the technique of the man playing them.

On the current run, the band are performing their 1992 album in its entirety – sandwiched in between two other sets – and, as one would expect, the guitarist is in total control of every aspect of his signal flow. Welcome to the precision-led world of Dream Theater…

ERNIE BALL MUSIC MAN MAJESTY

1“This pink/purple sparkly guitar is used for pretty much the entire Images And Words set. Though, occasionally, I might use the blue Majesty, which is the backup, for a couple of songs. I have a backup guitar for each one I need, which is why there are so many. For example, there’s the main standard tuning, plus a back up, same for the main seven-string in standard, then E-flat six and seven-strings. I also drop tune for another song... so you can see how they build!”

ERNIE BALL MUSIC MAN NOMAC MAJESTY

2 “For our last album, The Astonishing, we had this guitar specially made – just a small run of 20 were made for NAMM. It was modelled from the album cover, there’s a creature called the NOMAC, which has black diamonds surrounded by white gold, three rubies and LEDs behind them that shine through. There’s stainless steel, a two-piece abalone inlay for the symbol… it’s unbelievable and a very special guitar to me. I’ll use it for Our New World and as it’s a $20,000 guitar, I have to be pretty careful with it!”

ERNIE BALL MUSIC MAN JP-15