DiMarzio Dreamcatcher 7 / Rainmaker 7 Set

The Dreamcatcher 7 and Rainmaker 7 humbuckers are the 2019 release of John Petrucci’s (Dream Theater) signature 7-string pickup set. When a player such as John Petrucci is at the top of the heap of progressive metal guitarists, where else is there to go? Bigger and better, if his tone is any indication.

Dual Resonance Tech

The Rainmaker 7 neck uses the DiMarzio Dual Resonance technology.

Dual Resonance is basically mis-matched coils. It’s common for several pickup companies to allow about a 5% variance. But Dual Resonance is an intentional mis-matching of the coils to produce a specific “tuning” of the pickup’s voice. According to the patent, it is pretty much about putting a similar number of turns on each coil. But with different wire gauges.

Installation

This set is going into an Ibanez Universe 7-string. That’s a basswood body, 24-fret maple neck, 25-1/2″ scale rosewood board, and Edge 7 locking tremolo system. The harness is original, as is the middle Blaze single coil. The guitar has a standard tuning of low B on the 7th, using 09-54 strings. This is the same guitar in use for all 7-string evaluations, including the Crunch Lab 7 / Liquifire 7 and Illuminator 7 sets.

The Ibby Universe switching that I’ll be covering is as follows:

Evaluation

This is a really impressive 7-string set. Admittedly, anyone that reads my stuff know the DiMarzio Titan 7 is way up on the list for my personal preference. It’s not a showdown or a cage match between the two for ultimate Intergalactic dominance. LOL! They are both excellent-sounding sets of pickups that are great at what they do.

When it comes to the Rainmaker 7, it has a strong low end that retains articulate clarity. While being bold, the lows are not like a thick brick wall. The nature of Dual Resonance means that each coil has it’s own resonant peak, broadening the overall tonal sweet spot. That makes the mids slightly more open with less compression that Petrucci usually displays. So it’s still great for the fluid leads, but it’s also excellent for heavy blues and for clean amp settings. Also consider trying this one with the coils flipped to find your own sweet spot.

The Dreamcatcher 7 is an interesting voice. Punchy lows and firm highs with an overall presence underscored by a transparent personality. Find a big open chord and you will hear each note ring through. Pummel down on a riff and expect to get thrown up against the wall. Throw out your shreddiest lick and discover the Dreamcatcher 7 already ahead out front, waiting for you to catch up… meaning more so that it will lead you where you’re wanting to go. Parts of my ears want to think this is what happens if you dial back the impact of the Tone Zone a notch, but keep the same output.

Demo

Here are a few examples from Dream Theater’s “A View From The Top Of The World” release:

Specs

Since some will ask, I’ll throw the 6-string specs in there as well:

Conclusion

Some of the aspects of this signature set remind me of what we see from some artists are they develop. As players get better, they want to put their skills on display. Many of us can say that when we first started we hid behind gain and effects and pickups with lots of natural compression. And then as we (hopefully!) get better, we don’t want or need to those crutches. Yeah, Petrucci has been at the top of his game for decades. This just sounds like all the elements finally came together for him to where he can finally benefit from the more clear, more transparent, and more open characteristics that DiMarzio put into these humbuckers.

The Dreamcatcher 7 and Rainmaker 7 set is going to be good for hard rock, shred, metalcore, prog rock, doom, thrash, extreme metal, hardcore, classic rock, punk, djent, nu-metal, 80s metal, blues rock, garage, prog metal, fusion, grunge, heavy metal, and more. These come with 4-conductor lead wire and is available in 9 color options, a half dozen covers, and with your choice of nickel, gold, or black poles.

For reference, this DiMarzio Dreamcatcher 7 and Rainmaker 7 humbucker pickup set evaluation was conducted with the following: Fractal Axe-Fx II XL+ featuring Celestion Impluse Responses and Fractal MFC-101 MIDI Foot Controller. ADA MP-1 Tube Pre-Amp loaded with Tube Amp Doctor ECC83 Premium Selected tubes, using the ADA MC-1 MIDI Controller. Fryette LX II Stereo Tube Power Amplifier. Physical cabs use are Marshall 1960B, Mojotone British, and Peavey 6505 cabs loaded with Celestion Classic Series Vintage 30s and Classic Series G12M Greenbacks.

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