Gear Shift: John Petrucci on the Majesty’s New Kinetic Blue, Flipped-Out Finish

John Petrucci’s new Majesty signature models have a habit of stealing the spotlight. Right now, at a sell-out arena show near you, all eyes are on these stunning guitars as they power the Dream Theater setlist. With seven fresh finishes available, every model in the 2019 Majesty range is a head-turner and heart-stealer in its own right. But something magical happens when the spotlight hits the Kinetic Blue Majesty — thanks to a unique color-shift finish that’s keeping audiences guessing on this summer’s Distance Over Time Tour.

This one,” Petrucci said, “Is really cool.

History Repeating

Nobody believed their eyes when Petrucci’s Kinetic Blue Majesty made its show-stopping world debut at NAMM 2019 — but the truth is that the color-flip concept goes right back to the roots of our collaboration. Rewind to 2001, when the original Ernie Ball Music Man JP6 hit the scene, it didn’t take long before the color-shift model became Petrucci’s go-to instrument and our best seller. We’ve kept the same flipped-out DNA flowing down the Petrucci signature line ever since, and you’ll still find it in current models from the JP6 Mystic Dream to the brand-new Kinetic Blue.

The new Kinetic Blue model goes back to that color-change thing,” Petrucci said. “What I wanted to do, right from the beginning, was have a guitar that was incredibly comfortable to play, that sounded amazing — and looked beautiful.

The Science Of Shift

Call in to our San Luis Obispo factory and you’ll realize that everything you thought you knew about the color-shift paint process is wrong. It’s a common misconception, for example, that flip paint is two different colors applied one on top of the other. In fact, the Kinetic Blue Majesty achieves that eye-popping effect with one, single-color paint, applied like any other by our expert team and carefully left to dry at the optimum rate to avoid unwanted patterns in the finish. The key difference is that the flake in this special paint means different colors are reflected based on lighting conditions and the angle you hold the guitar. Hit the stage, throw some moves under the spotlight and you’ll feel like you’re playing two equally stunning guitars.

Depending on how the light hits it,” Petrucci said, “it’s either blue or purple, or somewhere in-between.

Looks That Thrill

Even in the rack, the unique finish ensures that the Kinetic Blue Majesty has your undivided attention. But if you’ve heard this guitar in the hands of its virtuoso creator — or bought one yourself and have seen how it transforms your own technique — then you’ll know its appeal is far more than skin-deep. Beneath that color-shift paint, you’ll find one of the most devastating instruments on the modern scene, with a premium basswood body, Honduran mahogany thru-neck, chrome-plated hardware and a lineup of custom-designed DiMarzio Rainmaker and Dreamcatcher pickups that ensure Dream Theater’s shows rattle all the senses.

I don’t know how they did it,” Petrucci said, “but they somehow made these guitars even more gorgeous and better-sounding…