John Petrucci’s New Rig Is Actually Pretty Simple… for Petrucci Anyway

This may be the most straightforward rig I’ve seen in John Petrucci’s corner in quite some time. I’m used to seeing one amp for cleans and one for distortion, multiple processors, paths of cables going every which way. So it’s a bit surprising to catch just one Mesa Triaxis (okay fine, there’s a backup) into a pair of power amps, along with a single effects unit and a few stompboxes.

Also, I just think it’s notable that he’s back to the Triaxis at all. Is it purely for lightweight rackmount simplicity, or does he prefer the tone to the Mark V amps he was using previously, or the Road Kings with Mark or Lonestar for cleans that he had for a while, or any of the other various setups that he constantly seemed to switch up?

One alarm bell rang out for me: what kind of 112 cabs does he have hooked up to that 2:90 power amp. I get the impression from the video that he’s using one cab per side, which is a lot of power for one speaker even if he’s using Custom 90 Mesa/Boogie speakers, and especially if he’s using Vintage 30s, which are 60 watts contrary to the name.

That RJM switching gear is legit, by the way, if you’re not familiar with it. They’ve taken over the crown for “best North American manufacturer of little midi-controlled switching boxes” (I know that’s a really niche market) since Axess Electronics shut down. Well, that’s my opinion anyway. If anyone has a better candidate I should check out link to them in the comments. But anyway, that Mini Effects Gizmo is a great little box with 5 bypassable, midi-operated send/return loops that John is using for his pedals. The foot controller is from RJM as well, a Mastermind GT.

So yeah, the video focuses on the RJM gear since they’re filming, but I do highly recommend all of it (except the original Mastermind, which I think is a just too damn big for its limited number of buttons, but I do have small feet).