Petrucci Rigs

[spanny]

After watching the new 2007 video and the video of Mark Synder building the 2004 roadking/lonestar rig, why does he leave channel 4 of the amp switcher on at all times?

i cannot figure that part of it out.

 

[Octavarius]

Because, as you can imagine, the amp switcher is using loops to switch the amps in and out of the signal path. In other words, the instrument signal is first split into four outputs that go into each amp, then the preamp outs (effect loop sends) or Slave outs are patched back to the switcher and mixed into one output.

Now, he needs to switch between FIVE amps in that particular rig, while the Amp Switcher only has four "amp loops". To solve that problem, one instrument output is patched to another switcher to extend the switching possibilities. In other words, he uses one of the first four outputs to split the guitar signal to another amp switcher (in the Lonestar rack) that can additionally switch between its own amps.

This could be equally solved by splitting the guitar signal before the two switchers.

Now, he leaves it always on because he simply wants the loop with the second switcher to always be a part of the signal path.

Using this method, you now get 7 loops to use for switching amps (7, not 8, because one is used to insert the second switcher)


Hope I made myself clear. This is pretty hard to explain without a diagram!

 

[spanny]

that makes a lot of sense, i dont know why i didnt think of that. do you know if he uses more than 1 preamp at a time, or does he have numerous different sounds throughout all of the amps?

 

[woodtones]

Spanny... where did you come across a video of Mark Snyder building JP's rig? I would like to get ahold of that one...

-DLM

 

[spanny]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=KXYdUtL6xnI

and

http://youtube.com/watch?v=yDckVFz_4vU&feature=related

 

[Octavarius]

No, nowadays he's using 1 preamp at a time, mostly. However, in the Falling Into Infinity/Awake/Images And Words days, he sometimes had more amps running. You can read about it in the Mesa Boogie Interview.

He also combined clean and dirty in the Train of Thought Rig, which you probably already knew, and that was by selecting more amps in the switcher. However, the amp sends didn't go back to the switcher in this rig. The switcher(s) were simply used as splitters for patching the guitar signal to multiple amp inputs. Instead, the amp signals went through their corresponding power sections and into their own cabs. 8)

In the current rig of his, yes. Both Mark IV's have different settings. Plus, he's using boost pedals to get even more tones. Same goes for the Lonestar. But the ToT rig didn't really have that many tones, as he really only used one Road King preamp into two power sections, and two Lonestar preamps with different settings on one channel each (he didn't use the second channels). The third Road King was a backup.