JP Michigan Clinic

[kneeoh]

Just got back from the John Petrucci Clinic in Detroit Michigan. It totally ruled! John is the most down to earth person one could meet. He answered a bazillion questions over a 2 1/2 hour period on topics ranging from his EBMM's to who can play more notes in a second, him or Jordan (the answer is Jordan with 15). He did get the inevitable question regarding the switch from Ibanez to Ernie Ball and he most graciously answered it. I stupidly forgot to ask him about the progress on the updated Petrucci model - D'oh!

To top the evening off, he signed the trem covers for my Pets Sweeeet! He had nothing but praise for Sterling and the crew at EBMM. I can't wait for Gigantour tomorrow!

James

 

[roburado]

[Originally, posted at the mp.com forum by me]

Yeah...from what everyone says, I think that you guys can see it was a really fun time. To flesh out the experience a little, I'll tell my story.

I first heard about the clinic sometime last month. I was off from work that week. So, I got in the car to go check out the store and to get a ticket. I got what seems to be one of the first tickets from the numbering. We had to buy something either JP- or DT-related. It felt kind of weird, because I thought these clinic things were supposed to be free. Well, anyway, the clinic was free, but I had to buy the SFAM book. It was the only JP- or DT- related thing in stock that I didn't already own.

So, yesterday, from the parking lot at work, I called my buddy who was also going. He had gotten there at 6, and there were already people at the store waiting for the clinic. So, at that time, it was about 6:15, and I jumped in the left lane on I-75 North to get from work to Waterford, MI. I got to the store and saw a whole heck of a lot of cars. By then, it was about 7. I walked in to see a line already formed. I got in line, which snaked around the entire store. I asked the dudes at the end of the line, "Are you guys the end of the line?" They answered in the affirmative, and I jumped in line behind them.

There was someone playing guitar when I got there. Just going through random stuff. I thought it was a tech sound checking JP's stuff. Turns out, it was JP himself. I laughed when he played some Van Halen. The title of the song escapes me. It's the one that goes, "I can't wait to feel your love tonight." After a while, JP started ripping through the beginnings to the songs he was going to play. So, I had to stand there in line for an hour with JP teasing me with snippets of his songs for almost an hour. At some point during all of that,
my friend found me there at the tail end of the line. He had been talking to some folks. One dude apparently had come from Houston with his guitar for JP to sign. Apparently, he got off the plane, got in a cab, and he asked the cabbie to bring him there. My friend showed him the backplate to his EBMM JP and OLP JP guitars, which he brought for JP to sign, and the guy told him something to the effect of, "Hmmm...that would have been a better idea [than bringing my whole guitar all the way from Houston]." I could see from where I was that there was a video screen, on which seemed to be playing WDADRU. Man, I felt like putting on the CD after hearing it.

At around 8, we were able to start getting into our places for the clinic. Some got to sit. The rest of us had to stand, which was no big deal. I mean, I'd never met JP. I'd never had him dissect his songs for me. I'd never seen him do any of the things that he does at a clinic. So, I wasn't going to let anything like standing for a few hours detract from my enjoyment of the experience. It was standing-room-only. One of the guys at the store introduced JP about 30 minutes later. He said stuff about how JP's just a really nice guy who had to endure flying out early and getting lost in the car on the way over. JP got up on stage in front of 2 Mesa Engineering Road King half-stacks. There was a back-up Mystic Dream-colored EBMM JP on stage right. Stage left had a bunch of OLP JP guitars. JP started off just talking to us a bit. He asked us who came from the farthest away. One dude said he was from Germany. JP said something like, "...and I just came from Tampa. I thought that was far." []

Musically, he started off with Glasgow Kiss. Then, he went on to talk about how it's Mixolydian and the main sound of the whole song is the dominant 7 chord. He basically just outlines a 7th position chord to make a melody out of it. Then, he went on for a few minutes about the technique involved in playing that opening lick. Then, he told us how to make an exercise out of it. I have a .mov of this. Unfortunately, it kinda didn't want to upload to yousendit. It just kinda didn't ever finish. So, I aborted. I'll try to upload to there again sometime, probably after the Gigantour show. Sadly, my movie is a bit grainy, but what can you do. I was kind of far away. Not as far as some others, but still, it was pretty far. I wished the place was better lit. I would have gotten better pics. I took one pic, which just showed me that I was too far for my flash to have any effect what so ever. Oh well... The one pic just sucks. So, I won't bother posting it.

Anyway, JP then went on to answer tons of questions. Unfortunately, he kept getting off track with all these questions. It was a Mesa-sponsored clinic, and I wanted to hear what he had to say about his Road Kings. I guess other people would have been bored stiff by that, but that's what I wanted to hear about. That and about his songs that he was playing for us that night. Anyway, JP was cool about answering whatever questions. JP's a funny guy too. One guy asked him if he'd ever experimented with writing in the Locrian mode, because he hadn't really seen or heard it used much. JP said he hadn't. The guy said something like, "I just haven't heard in used much. And I was wondering why it's..." Then, JP finished the sentence, "...the neglected mode?" That got a chuckle from the crowd. JP talked about a lot of little stuff like how he doesn't really demo songs anymore with the exception of G3 material. DT and he apparently have this thing where they each come up with the seed of an idea. They say, "Plant the seed, but don't water it until I get there." Then, they get lots of participation and input on where the song will go from there. Basically, they write as a group now--with everyone in the room.

[Non-guitarists may want to skip this part.] Finally, he got to talking about his Road King amps. He apparently used the same exact set-up for G3. Two Road King half stacks, a boss delay pedal (I forget which one, but it has a panning feature.), a Cry Baby 535 Wah, and that's about it. That Boss delay seems like it might be the DD-6. He had it set up to ping-pong back and forth between the two Mesa half-stacks. Basically, he plugged into the one head towards stage left. Then, the signal went out of the effects send to the delay pedal. The stereo delay pedal out went back to the effect returns on both of the of the half-stacks. That was his basic set-up. No inner-ear monitors that night. Just the old fashioned wedge ones. No 7-string either. He talked a little about the settings of the Mesas. He doesn't use channel 1, which is clean. He doesn't use channel 2, which is clean, but you can overdrive it. He uses channel 3 for lead, and he has it set to vintage mode. He uses channel 4 for his crunchy rhythm sounds, and it's set to modern. Apparently, he doesn't use quite so much gain on the rhythm sounds. He tries to find the sweet spot where the tone falling apart and going "blah" but it's like, "knocking on the door with a lead pipe." He demonstrated this by just hitting muted notes on the guitar and turning the gain control to find that sweet spot. After he found it, he started to bang out the crunchy riff to TTTSTA.Tone controls are set roughly close to 12 o'clock. Midrange is dialed back a little to scoop the tone. The other ones are just a little bit off 12 o'clock, because on Boogies you can't max out a tone dial, because it negates the effect of all the other tone controls. I guess he uses lots of gain on lead sounds. Lone Star heads are what he uses for clean. His guitar's piezo pickups go direct.

So, JP answered a lot more questions. Someone asked if he ever spit back at MP. He said James spits water back in MP's direction. JP jokingly said, "...no, I don't do disgusting things like that. I'm not that kind of person." [] He also played Curve, which was apparently written for an Ernie Ball event. It wasn't intentionally a Joe Satriani tribute, but it's got that E Lydian thing going on, which Satch really seems to use a lot. JP said he always gets asked if it was a tribute to JS. He said, "I love Joe, but it's not a tribute to him." He also played Damage Control. The clinic part lasted about 2 hours. Then, came the meet-and-greet.

There were some females in attendance. One little girl had an Ibanez guitar for him to sign. Another little girl had her little autograph book or notebook, or whatever. Some woman had her Octavarium CD booklet. I brought the backplate to my EBMM JP. He asked me if I wanted him to sign the inside or the outside. I said the inside, because, "I like it new-looking. You know what I mean?" JP said, "Yeah...you don't want to ruin it with some cheesy signature." [] He also signed the back of the booklet of my copy of Suspended Animation. He signed it kind of carefully, respectfully--not just making a mess of it. He signed it in such a way that it almost looks like his signature is part of the artwork. I thought it was thoughtful. He endured a pic with me too. He signed my buddy's backplates to his OLP JP and EBMM JP, a Mesa poster, and his Octavarium CD booklet. JP seemed to be tired, but still he went through everything like the nice guy and true professional that he is.

See you at Gigantour, JP! Thanks so much for taking the time for us. Thanks for the decades of great and inspirational music. Here's to many more years of fun!