Our Match the Master contest challenged guitar players from all over the United States to submit videos of themselves playing John Petrucci’s riffs from Dream Theater’s new album, The Astonishing. Over the course of the competition, John reviewed entries and hand-selected 8 weekly winners who each received a Sterling by Music Man JP60 guitar and a package with gear from Dunlop, TC Electronic, DiMarzio, and more. Now, after over 1,500 participants and thousands of video submissions, we’re ready to announce our grand prize winner!

Here’s John Petrucci with the official statement…

“After carefully reviewing the top 100 entries, I’m happy to announce that the grand prize winner of the 2016 Match The Master contest is… Evan Bradley! Amazing job Evan! You really matched every one of my riffs with precision, accuracy and incredible feel. Wow!! I’m looking forward to meeting you real soon and trading some licks!

It’s been so inspiring to see everyone’s videos and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all of the effort that you put into producing your entries. Some of them were extremely entertaining!
Congrats to all of the weekly winners and everyone who participated in the contest! Looking forward to doing this again down the road. I had so much fun!”

Match the Master Grand Prize Winner: Evan Bradley | Lincoln University, PA

Congratulations to Evan, who was also selected as our week 4 winner. Here’s what he wins!

• Tickets, flight, hotel and transportation for him and a guest to see Dream Theater live
• Private master class with John Petrucci backstage at the show
• Ernie Ball Music Man Majesty guitar
• Year supply of Ernie Ball strings
• Mesa Engineering Mark Five guitar head + 4×12″ guitar cabinet
• Fractal Audio Systems Amp Modeler / FX Processor
• TC Electronic Triple Delay Pedal autographed by Dream Theater
• 2 DiMarzio John Petrucci custom pickup covers

Check out a sample video below, and all his submissions here. Thank you to everyone that entered the contest and to all those that voted. Stay tuned for more chances to win in the future!