John Petrucci's "touch" or "feel"

i was really really impressed with petrucci when i got into dream theater, and i was pretty surprised when a freind told me he has no touch/feel whatever you choose to call it.
what do you think? i definetly can't see what he was talking about, and we had some arguments but he never said anything to satisfy me.
i think that especially when it comes to wah his soloing sounds really great.. songs like innocence faded, erotomania, peurivian skies, everything in six degrees, pull me under, another day and the list just goes on..
what do you think?

Personally, I hear zero "emotion" when I listen to Dream Theater. The best way I can describe their sound when I listen to it is "dry." I'm totally blown away by Petrucci (and the rest of DT's) technical skills, but their phrazing and song writing just don't do anything for me.

But we all hear these things differently, so there isn't much point in arguing about it.

Whoa, I'm surprised to hear that you hear "zero" emotion, Rask. I don't know much Dream Theater, but one of my favourite songs is "Space Dye Vest" off of Awake. If you haven't already, check it out. No guitar solo, but it still is a wicked song with plenty of emotion.

Yeah man, Space Dye Vest is such an emotional song, as is the last track CD1 of Six Degrees, sorry, can't remember the name, ha.

I get really wrapped up by Dream Theaters' sound, I think their songwriting is amazing, everytime I listen to Scenes From A Memory I take away something different from it, something I hadn't noticed before, love it.

If you ever seen Petrucci live you know he plays with emotion...i mean damn where do you think those faces come from ? =P most of the LTE stuff like umm Kinderd Spirits and Chewbacca and uhh some other ones you can tell he plays with this 'feel' you speak off, especially in the solos, some of the bends and harmonics whew...good stuff.

Only a drum machine , midi player , or something like that can play dry (feelless) music .
Dream Theater somehow sounds a little dry cuz lots of their stuff is boring , not that it's played without emotion.

If you want to get that Petrucci's touch or feel , just imitate some of his solos that you think it his touch note by note , and you'll get it by time.
Actually I believe that's what Petrucci himself used to do, cuz I can hear other people's touch/feeling in some of his solos ... He get to sound a little bit like Steve Vai in "Under A Glass Moon" solo ,and you can hear Malmsteen's influence in some solos too , but there are still other solos that sounds unique.

Getting to play other people's music with a touch/feel similar to theirs can make you an extremely versatile guitarist.