ERGs - Once You Play Them, You Can't Go Back? Your Thoughts

[ellengtrgrl]

Yuppers!! I've been there before with standard guitars. Now, it's hit me evn worse with 7 & 8-string guitars!

 

[GorillaSalsa]

I only own an 8-string, and my next guitar purchase will also be an 8-string. It would take a lot for me to want to own a 6-string.

 

[cyril v]

currently i own a seven stringer and i don't think i will ever own a 6er' regardless how good it is.
I'm seriously gassing for an 8 stringer and i pretty sure I'll move to 8 stringers only and sell the 7.

i kinda agree with you to a point... there are two exceptions though, i'd definitely be up for a Parker or a Steinberger. But, i'll be damned if i wouldn't prefer them to be 7's.

 

[Krauthammer]

In my opinion, I wouldn't sell my six-strings. Though they are rarely played, (and never more than 10 minutes..), they are my 1st axes I've ever owned. Have a fender Jag-stang that I never play, but I know down the road I will like to have that in the family. I have a few 7-strings that I obtained 2 years after I first started playing guitar(1996), and never looked back. Then, mid-2008, I ran across the Ibanez 8, had been listening to ALOT of meshuggah, and decided to do the lay-away. I loved the ibby so much I got a complimenting Agile the next year(2009). Point is, I have 6's, 7's, and now 8's. They are staying with me for life or until they break in half. Don't sell your Gretsch!!! Even if you get the agile and never play the Gretsch, I believe that you would miss it.

 

[ellengtrgrl]

Yeah, I would. My affinity for Gretsches started in the weirdest way back in 2002. I was going through some hard times. I'd sold all of my good Mesa, and Gibson stuff to help pay bills. I HATED the crappy Epiphone Slasher I was playing at the time, and wanted it gone! A friend of mine who also plays guitar (she's such a Strat nut, that she won't even consider any other electrics) and I went to a blowout sale. I started looking at the Squiers and Epis (all I could afford), when she pointed at a dust collecting Gretsch Synchromatic Jet Club. I blew it off (up until that time, all I envisioned Gretschs as being, were Chet Atkins, and rockabilly guitars, with a little Beatles thrown into the mix). While I was looking, I heard this great sounding guitar. It was my friend, playing the Gretsch through an amp with some overdrive. It got my attention. I plugged in and played, and liked the sound much better than my Epi Slasher. It wasn't like my old Gibson Howard Roberts Fusion, or any of the Fenders I used to have, but it had potential. The $125 price ($60 after trade-in) made it a no-brainer. So I bought the guitar. It served me well for tne next 3 years playing everything from gigs to jam sessions, - hard driving indie rock to metal. In 2005, I had a better paying job, and enough cash to get a semi-hollow body guitar (during the past 25 years, 60 to 70% of the time, my main guitars have been semi-hollows). I wasn't in a band at the time, so I couldn't see any reason to have 2 guitars. So I foolishly traded the Gretsch Jet Club for an Ibby Artcore. It was a nice guitar, but didn't have the character of my old Gretsch. When I finally had a little extra income, I decided last year to get a Gretsch again. I've went through 3 of them to get to a sound that really was what I was looking for, and finally settled on my Country Club several months ago. It's a hollowbody, but I've even played it through stacks (easy enough to do, if you know how to control feedback). It just plain rips.

Gretsches have a bit of an image problem (as do Rickenbackers - I used to have a 360). Too many players assume (as I once did), that they're only good for rockabilly, oldies, Chet Atkins, or Duane Eddy style music. Unfortunately, Gretsch seems to go out of its way to cultivate this image. And, it doesn't help when every greaser and wanna be greaser says that they want to twang away on a Gretsch (I HATE twang!). This is not true. There are more players than Malcolm Young, who like to crank and blast away on a Gretsch. I know a few metal heads, and punk rockers, that have made Gretsches their, main guitars.

I like the playability, and the sound of Gretsches at high gain. It's not muddy like some guitars, but not shrill like some Fenders can get. I can go from jazz (one of my guilty musical pleasures - grampa [who along with being a luthier, was a jazz guitarist] would approve) to full on thrash. I consider my Gretsch to be that versatile. If Gretsch made an 8-string, I'd seriously consider getting it. I'd even buy a Gretsch George Van Eps model (as I mentioned in another thread, it's probably one of the first production 7-strings ever made [from 1968 to the late 70s]), if they were easier to come by, and didn't cost a bundle on the vintage market. But neither 7, or 8-string Gretsches are possible at this time. So I have to look elsewhere.

 

[daemon barbeque]

I
Even though I'm still awaiting that fanned 8-stringer, I know it'll feel perfectly natural in no time.

It took less than 1 sec. to adjust! Actually, I don't even felt any difference till I made a faster run upwards. That was a heavenly feeling.

 

[Bevo]

Sounds like you need to do some homework on the 8 you need. You have an exact sound in your head that your looking for, an 8 can do it no problem but probably not stock.

The woods and pickups are the main items I would look at, the guys here can guide you to get your Gretsch sound out of an Agile.

I would skip the 7, keep your 6 and save up for the 8 with the parts needed to make it perfect for you.
If you just got any 8 you may not be as happy as one custom tuned for you.

 

[canuck brian]

I've got 6's , 7's and 8's and they all see equal use. I just love different guitars.

 

[obiwan]

As some already stated, if the Gretsch is a sentimental issue, I would not sell it. It is also good swapping back to a 6string from time to time although for me the sixes always lack of at least one string.

For the high string frequency issue, if it sounds to shrill for you, try to get a fanned fret guitar with scale 25-28. So you will avoid tension problems with the low string and still behold a good quality in the higher ones.

This is an example for a fanned fret: Blackmachine F8

 

[Fred]

I'm ashamed by how little I play my 8-string. It's at home at the moment because I didn't want to risk having it at uni, but even when I'm at home it's always the Kramer I reach for first. My 7's out of action at the moment, too, so I'm essentially just playing 6ers right now. I don't know what it is but I don't feel as though I've quite found my musical feet on the 8-string yet. I struggle to write anything that I don't feel is particularly derivative or uninspired, whereas the second I pick up the 6-string I'm away!

I don't know if it's because I'm having to make a conscious effort to make use of the full range of the instrument or whether I just haven't quite settled in yet, but the day I write an 8-string piece I'm happy with will be an exceptionally good one! Maybe the break from it I'm going to have before I go back home at Christmas will be healthy, inspiration-wise... I dunno.

 

[TMM]

I'd say this may be true, so long as you can handle an ERG.

For me, where I learned to play on a 7, 6's have always felt inadequate, no matter how nice. Having the Oni 8 and Schecter DS8 around, the KxK hasn't seen quite as much play time recently, either. It's not that I don't love it, but for me, if the difference in quality / playability / tone isn't drastic, I'll tend to play on the guitar with more strings, because there are always more options from any one position. It's not that I "can't go back", but I choose not to limit myself. There are plenty of times I sit down to play the Oni for a couple hours and don't end up touching the 8th string (and sometimes even the 7th), but, so long as I will use them sometimes, I'd rather have them and occasionally not use them then want them and not have them.

The only thing I had trouble adjusting from was from fanned-fret to non-fanned. My first Oni had fanned-frets, and it was incredible to play on - very ergonomic and comfortable. But I got really used to it, and had an adjustment period going back to playing any non-fanned guitars that I didn't really like, hence my new Oni not having fanned frets.

 

[Maniacal]

I switch between my black machine 8 string and my telecaster all the time. 6 strings are much easier to play and there are some styles you just cant play well on an 8 string that you can on a 6.

 

[ellengtrgrl]

Hmmm, maybe I should have had a slightly different thread title - say with the wording:

"ERGs - Once You play Them, Do You Want To Go Back? Your Thoughts.


I've read some great responses here. I would have posted sooner, but it's been a crazy day here at work (I'm finishing up my lunch break, and I REALLY need to get back to work). To steal a phrase from an old Jon Spencer Blues Explosion song - "now I've got worry!" In other words, upon further thinking, I may not have any choice in the matter, with regards to keeping the Gretsch. I have to calculate out how much I will pay out for bills (including my dreaded semi-annual car insurance premium) tonight, after I get home from helping out at the cat shelter I volunteer at on Mondays after work (I help with the cleaning, and I also do pet adoptions). The chance exists that I many not have enough to make ends meet through the end of the month, with the paycheck I get on the 15th (I'm salaried, and I only get paid on the 15th, and the end of the month). If that's the case, then I will have to sell the Gretsch!

 

[vampiregenocide]

Depends man. Some people get a 7 or an 8 and never go back, me however, I treat each one differently so I will always have use for all of them. Saying that, I don't currently own an ERG but someday when I feel I need one.

 

[All_¥our_Bass]

The only axes I own now are a four string bass tuned to DGCF and a 6 string guitar tuned in fifths-going from a low F to a high E. For the way I play a fifths tuning is actually easier for me to use then a fourths one. I feel like I'm missing a lot when I pick up a standard(or fourths) tuned sixer. I can still play one just fine and will be getting one sometime but it won't be a main axe by far. And for the longest time I've wanted to get a six string bass to tune DGCFBbEb. However I'd like to have 6's, 7's, 8s and 9s in both straight fourths and straight fifths tunings, since I have uses for both.

 

[Koshchei]

This certainly seems accurate for me. I'm utterly dependent on my 7. It's so much easier to play than a 6, with all the extra notes under each hand.

 

[ellengtrgrl]

My goodness!!! I'm beginning to think I've created a monster!! I've read great responses from everybody!! Please feel free to keep it going!

 

[NDG]

Personally, no, I like my 7 for some things but not all things.

I also would have a hell of a time selling that Gretsch. I'm sure the tone of that guitar is gorgeous and I have difficulty thinking of any production 7 or 8 that could emulate it.

 

[Hollowway]

Yeah, I've gone from 6s to 7s to 8s. I got my first 8 six months ago just as an experiment, and now I'm trying to force myself to play my 7s! I may be in the minority, but I love the low F# (actually, I gravitate a lot toward the G# for some reason). I have a 1984 Kramer Pacer Custom (my first real guitar when I was a kid) that I technically have no use for, but I can't bring myself to sell it. And I have a Jackson SL1 that I can't part with because, well, it's a Jackson! But I will never buy another 6, and I'm not sure I'll get another 7, unless there's no way I can get the same thing in an 8. And FWIW, I'm not sure I'll ever want to play anything shorter than a 27", because I love how much it opens up the upper fret access.

 

[ellengtrgrl]

Personally, no, I like my 7 for some things but not all things.

I also would have a hell of a time selling that Gretsch. I'm sure the tone of that guitar is gorgeous and I have difficulty thinking of any production 7 or 8 that could emulate it.

Yep, it is unique. But realize this - I not only use it clean, I'm also an oddball in the Gretsch community (although there are a growing number of Gretscheads who are like me), in that I did NOT buy the guitar purely for it's clean sound. I had to deliver the goods for me at seriously high gain (as in like Dual Rectifier, and Framus Cobra levels). After 30 years of playing, I try to avoid one-trick ponies guitarwise.

It was too late for me to write checks for bills last night when I got home from doing my weekly volunteering at the shelter I adopted my 2 cats from (yeah, I know, I could pay online, but I guess I'm kind of old school in that regards, which is kind of odd for a tech head like me [I work as a Quality Engineer]). I'm getting kind of nervous, since I'm worried that I may not have enough cash to make it through the rest of the month, unless I sell the Gretsch (I have nothing else I can sell quickly or pawn off). THAT would hurt!! If I can, squeak by, I may possibly have a couple of leads on some cheapo 7s to keep me going until, I can get an 8.