The Guitar Magazine – July 2019

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Vigier Excalibur 7 String £2,449,

Charvel Angel Vivaldi Signature DK24-7 NOVA £1,139

The most magisterial Petrucci yet, with

8 /10 genre-defining playability and tones

The three-way selector on the upper
horn works solely with the piezo, with
position one activating the piezo only,
position two the piezo and neck pickup
together (which can be blended using
the volume control and the piezo volume
control situated bottom right) and position
three, which turns it off completely. Further
piezo tweaks can be made on the back of
the guitar.
Piezo pickups have fans and detractors.
Sure, this isn’t a perfect emulation of an
acoustic guitar – in this instance its rather
bright and slightly synthetic sounding – but
it’s a close enough approximation for a
live-band mix and therefore one less guitar
you’ll need to take to a gig. But regardless
of whether you want to use it as a faux
acoustic, it does offer up another interesting
palette of sounds with which to decorate a
song, especially when you begin blending in
the magnetic neck pickup.
The 2019 Majesty sees the introduction
of John’s new Rainmaker and Dreamcatcher
humbuckers. They’re both very powerful, as
you would expect, but feel less so than the
DiMarzio Illuminators used in the JP series.
Unsurprisingly, they pair very well with
Boogies and other high-gain 6L6 amps –
Petrucci’s preference – and through a 5150
profile on an Axe-Fx III, the bridge pickup
is hot but not oversaturating.
Palm-muted lower-register riffs have
clarity and punch with a slightly scooped
midrange and the alder wings afford some
top-end bite that enables down-tuned riffs
to really cut through.
In fact, alder is a somewhat underrated
material for extended-range guitars, and
the Majesty ably demonstrates this. A/B’d
with our Vigier Excalibur seven-string,
which itself has an alder body but with
DiMarzio Blade pickups, there’s remarkably
little difference through beefy 5150 and
Mesa-style patches on our Axe-Fx – but the
Tiger Eye delivers a little more clarity in the
bottom and top end.
The neck pickup is warm and voiced
perfectly for those moody, bluesy rock
shredding passages for which Petrucci is
known, and the pick-attack noise on both
pickups is remarkably quiet considering
how they have been voiced. The boost is
very clean and we can’t detect it colouring
the tone in any way. The coil split is
slightly underwhelming by comparison,
but entirely functional. Better clean sounds
are to be found using the full humbucking
settings and a rich, full-bodied tone is easily

achieved with any 6L6-powered amplifier

or model. Add a touch of chorus and a few

open strings and you’re immediately in John

Petrucci clean territory.

Although the onboard electronics don’t

necessarily deliver tones that span a wide

range of genres, there’s no denying that this

is one of the finest metal and hard-rock

guitars we’ve played and, in this seven-

string incarnation, it’s a progressive-metal

dream machine. Whether the guitar’s

construction and exclusivity justify the

sizeable upcharge of a couple of grand

on top of the already lofty price is

debatable, but if you like your guitars

as uncompromising as John Petrucci likes

his music, this could be the one seven-string

to rule them all.

Around the back, a number

of cavities house the

guitar’s electronics and

there are further

tone-shaping controls

The three-piece neck

has mahogany sides

and beautifully flamed

maple in the middle

The Tiger Eye is the only

Majesty to offer a flamed

maple top and neck and a

body with alder wings

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