John Petrucci interview (excerpt)

John Petrucci was asked how playing an eight-string guitar has changed the way he approaches writing songs, having that extra dimension to the instrument. He responded (as transcribed by blabbermouth.net): “Well, here’s the thing: honestly, it didn’t really change things at all, which was my intent.

“Way back on the third Dream Theater record, Awake, when we went in to record that record, or write that record, I got my first seven-string. I came into the studio. I’d never played a seven-string before; I was always a six-string player. And then we started writing with it, and I wrote ‘The Mirror’ and ‘Lie’ and ‘Caught In A Web’ and all these songs that are on Awake that just became these cool fan iconic Dream Theater moments. I didn’t think much of it. And so I wanted it to be seamless. And it was. So when it was time to kind of consider, what would an eight-string bring to the table? What would an even more extended range do? I sort of wanted to have that same experience. So I purposely didn’t play eight-string at all – I never played one – until I got the prototypes of my Ernie Ball/Music Man Majesty eight-string. And then I really had the same kind of experience. We wrote the song ‘Awaken The Master’ that’s on A View From The Top Of The World; that was the first thing I wrote on it. And so just because it was one of my signature guitars, it felt really familiar. The extended range and the things about it that are different didn’t throw me, but it kind of just helped open up a new world of dimension and range with the instrument. So, [it’s] so much fun.”