Dream Theater is known for mixing up its setlist on tour, but Dream Theater normally performs for 2-plus hours. On this tour, do you think you’ll stick to one setlist?

It’ll be pretty consistent every night. As far as changing things up all the time, which is fun to do as well, you have to be prepared for that because everyone has to be on board — it’s not just us playing the songs. There’s a lot of coordination with the other creative operators that are involved with the whole production from the sound and lights and other things in between.

What's your main priority when preparing for a tour like this? Do you ramp up your practice a lot?

I find myself kind of just jumping straight into the songs, then I worry about all the other things, like ramping up my endurance, stamina, conditioning. The whole getting ready for tour aspect, that kind of starts when the tour starts.

For me, it’s just familiarity with the songs. I spend the most of my time just cycling the songs at home, just playing along to the record more or less.

One of the main features of your signature Ernie Ball Music Man 6-String Bass is the narrower fretboard; you've described it as a 6-string bass with a 5-string bass neck. Did that feature resonate with you because of an injury? I know 6-string bass can be hard on the hand, wrist and shoulders.

I did have a lot of issues. Basically, my hands felt like they were about to fall off. I’d be in my bunk on the tour bus traveling on the road and my hands would literally be throbbing. I’m like, 'Something has got to change.'

I would correspond back and forth with Ernie Ball Music Man, and we started working on getting something that was more comfortable for me to play. It’s made all the difference because it all starts with your hands and how you feel. And that translates into how you sound. It was a really big deal for me — it just sounds more comfortable.

You can just tell. Everything is relative. I think this is about as close as you can get to having a six-string bass guitar that’s really, really comfortable to play without it being just a guitar. It’s a bass with really heavy strings. In terms of string-spacing and comfortability and everything else. It’s been a while in the making but it’s dialed in now.

When you were having issues with your hands, did you consider trying to make the set work with a 5-string?

For a while I would have a 5-string out with me, but it was just easier to stick to a 6-string, which had the range I needed for every song.

I had a 5, and I had 4s. Everything has their pros and cons, there’s a little more freedom with the spacing; you can be not as careful with how you fret things. I enjoy going back and forth. But just to keep things kind of streamlined, where I have everything covered, I just stay with the 6 for now.

I’ve noticed that you seem to stick with a bass for as much of the set as possible, as tuning allows, while John Petrucci is more inclined to change guitars every couple of songs.

Yeah. John will go back and forth between a 6-, a 7- and an 8-string. With me, I can cover all those ranges. When he goes into the 8-string track, “Awaken the Master,” I just apply a capo [to the second fret] to kind of get that relative tuning across the strings, which I believe is F#. So I can make it work just by sticking with one, unless I break a string, or feel like I have to switch up the color.

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