General advice wanted.

[Olin]

Hi guys, first thread here after a while of lurking the forum and finally convincing myself to set up an account.

After months of personal debate, I've decided I will finally buy a 7 string guitar (we can all blame Pig Destroyer for that!). I've been playing 6 strings for a while now, and have literally never laid my hands on a 7 string for more than a mess around.

I'm not going to dive right in and spend £700 on a guitar I might not find, and I'm a fiddler and modifier, I can't help tailoring guitars for myself. I'm looking at a Schecter SGR C-7. From what I gather, SGR are the equivalent of Squier to Fender. I have no problem with that, and have read a few favourable reviews of the guitar, and it has a very simple/easy to modify set-up which is something I will always be fond of.

If any of you guys have any better suggestions/general alternative suggestions, that would be neat. I would be using this in my main band which plays a more chaotic form of grindcore, and much more technical than Scum era Napalm Death stuff. I will always prefer thinner, flatter necks, but don't mind hugely either way, just in case anyone knows of a nice solution.

My current amp set-up is a borrowed Blackstar HR-20 through my Marshall 1960a cab. I avoid pedals where I can, I like the simplicity of not shoegazing when I'm playing grindcore! I'm looking for any good starter tips that I may have missed, or any nudges in the right direction of this.

I'm still not very familiar with 7 string tunings, but I was planning on dealing with that when I got the guitar. My band plays in either Drop C or E standard, for 7 string I was considering GCGCFAD, but that seems like it would inundate the whole point of getting a 7 string, I know there's a plethora of tuning threads, so feel free to tell me to shut up and go look at them, otherwise, what tunings should I be experimenting with around Drop C?

Anything you guys have to offer, I want to hear, thanks!

 

[CM_X5]

I don't have any experience with the guitar you're looking into, though a friend of mine did have a more "budget friendly" Schecter that may have even costed more than that. It had all kinds of setup problems and I'm guessing at $200 that one won't be much better. I am willing to believe he had a lemon so to speak but I generally don't trust cheaper guitars (in that price range anyway).

I suggested this in another thread but maybe look into an Ibanez RG7321. It is more pricey but you may be able to find it used for cheap. I tried one out and if I wasn't trying to get an 8 string I'd be going for that. Pretty good value-wise imo and not a horrible place to start.

As far as tunings go the best thing I can tell you is to experiment. It's not too hard to switch tunings to see how you like one or the other.

 

[Loganator259]

I played one of those SGR 7's the other day, it wasn't bad actually,the action was somewhat low without buzz, it sounded decent, and there were no sharp fret ends, but I only played it for like 5 minutes, it seemed like a decent guitar.

 

[Olin]

I'm also very skeptical about "cheap" guitars, but I have heard good things about this, and have enough tech ability to be able to change whatever I don't like. One of my six strings is an Ibanez S470, and would love to try a 7 string version of that, but stop tail rather than vibrato.

I'll most likely be swapping the pickups out for some BKP's, so that area isn't much of a concern for me.