John Myung

Myung has used a 12 string Grand Chapman Stick on two songs on Falling Into Infinity, most prominently New Millennium, which he performs live on Stick. Dream Theater sources report that The Stick routinely comes into the studio and has sometimes made it so far as tracking (the song "Home" from Scenes from a Memory originally featured it), but it has not made the mix since Falling into Infinity. He did, however, use The Stick on several tracks on Sean Malone's second album Gordian Knot including "Srikara Tal" and "Redemption's Way." Myung used a fretless bass on the Dream Theater songs "Through Her Eyes", "Far From Heaven", "Hollow Years", "Peruvian Skies", "Hell's Kitchen" and "The Silent Man". He has also used Moog Taurus 3 Bass Pedals since 2011.

In an interview with MusicRadar in 2010, Myung stated that he was working with Music Man on a modified Bongo. The finished product was a bass with a 6-string body but with the 6 strings accommodating a 5-string neck, resulting in a tighter string spacing. In a later interview, he said that this will not be considered a signature model, per Music Man's company policy.[2].

On July 23, 2007, Sterling Ball announced that Myung was moving to Music Man, writing that "John has fallen in love with the prototypes that we made of the Bongo 6 and is now playing them exclusively."[1] Ball added that the Bongo 6 "is not a signature bass", but "part of the regular line."

Footage from the recording of Systematic Chaos in 2006 showed Myung playing various Music Man basses. Early in the 2007 "Chaos in Motion Tour", he was seen playing a MusicMan Bongo 5 HS in an signature "Inca Silver" (flat gray) finish on stage, the first time since before Images and Words that Myung had toured with a five-string.

In 2002, Myung and Yamaha unveiled the RBX-JM2, an updated version of his signature bass that echoed the redesign of Yamaha's entire RBX-series of basses. A 34" scale was used instead of the 35" scale used on the RBX6JM had, and a single Seymour Duncan Music Man-type humbucking pickup was used, influenced by Myung's use of the StingRay on Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. (Myung's personal RBX-JM2 differed from the production model, having a second pickup and additional controls.) This instrument was used on Dream Theater's Train of Thought and Octavarium albums and tours.

After Tung ceased production, Myung began endorsing Yamaha instruments, using its TRB and John Patitucci six-string fretted and fretless basses live while working with Yamaha's Artist Custom Shop on what would become his signature instrument. Prototypes of the RBX6JM along with his TRB basses were used for the recording of 1997's Falling into Infinity. A bolt-on bass with alder body with flame-maple top, 35" scale, and "Infinity" dot inlay on the fretboard, various Red and Blue RBX6JM models were thereafter his main studio and live instruments until 2002, although he experimented with a Hamer 8-string bass and Music Man StingRay five-string while recording Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence.

For When Dream and Day Unite, Dream Theater's debut, Myung played a modified Music Man StingRay four-string bass and a Fender Jazz Bass. The StingRay (his main live instrument in that period) was customized with an added front pickup driving a clean bass amp, while the bridge signal was sent to the effects chain. A four-string Spector NS-2 was used for tracking 1992's Images and Words.

John Ro Myung (/ˈ m aɪ . ə ŋ / ; born January 24, 1967) is a Korean American bassist and a founding member of the progressive metal group Dream Theater.