In addition to the company’s
legendary tonal quality, TC Electronic TonePrint
pedals offer downloadable, tweakable presets
designed by guitar stars like Paul Gilbert, Lee
Ranaldo, Steve Morse, and John Petrucci. On
March 30, 2012, Petrucci came to Manhattan’s
Guitar Center to launch the line’s first signature model: the John
Petrucci Dreamscape. The pedal combines the Dream Theater guitarist’s
previous TonePrints for chorus, vibe, and flanging, with a new
flanging sound in the TonePrint slot.
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| This Performance Flame guitar was in the Freedom Guitars booth at the Dallas International Guitar Festival. It is serial #3. Steve Vai famously played serial #1. Freedom Guitars is run by Dewey Bowen, of the Bowen Handle fame. |
“I have been using their stuff since forever,” says Petrucci. “One of my favorite things
was the TC Stereo Chorus/Flanger; I have used it on so many albums. When I started to
talking to the company about doing a signature pedal, I told them I would love to make
the Stereo Chorus/Flanger more like a modern boutique pedal—i.e. change the shape, use
better components, make it more roadworthy, increase the headroom, add true bypass,
make it a little less noisy, add stereo ins and outs, and getting rid of the cabled power
supply and using an adaptor. They told me they could do it all in their TonePrint package,
it was just a question of tweaking the sounds. We didn’t have to tweak much. The sounds
they showed me were already incredible. We decided we didn’t have to be limited to just
chorus; we could incorporate the flanging and vibe sounds because they use the same
algorithms. If they have the technology to fit all that into one pedal then why not do it?”
The Dreamscape pedal lists for $345 and streets for $249.