Noob-eyed view on Schecter Omen 7, Omen Extreme 7, Ibanez RGA7

[randumbTune]

I am a 6 string guy looking to start off with 7 strings. So was out in music shops trying the Schecter Omen 7(price: 2700 SEK), Omen extreme 7 (price: 3600 SEK) and Ibanez RGA 7 (price: 5600 SEK).
I live in Sweden and after searching a lot, these three were the most affordable 7 strings I could find. And everyone in Sweden thinks used guitars worth as much as the new ones (sometimes more than the new ones, as the guitar was rusting in joe-nobody's garage for past 10 years, and has now earned the status of "vintage"), so they give not more that 500 SEK discount on the original list price, and as I am a beginner it is easy to sell me anything crappy, So I am keeping myself away from used ones.

Ahem back to the thread topic.
And based on my experience, RGA 7 was most comfortable to play, nice thin body, my left hand is broken so I really want the fret board to be as close as possible to my chest to play comfortably, and in light weight and thin body was really a major plus. However the setup was quiet bad, it buzzed even on 2nd fret 7th string. Or I am a jerk and don't know what tuning I should be using, I was using, EBGDAD-F# , basically F# on 7th string and Drop D on rest of the 6.

I am a big time addict of Lamb-Of-God sound, That is what I play and practice mostly on my 6 string Jackson performer ps4, with Dimarzion Tonezone on it. And I agree with the reviews on RGA7 pickups; that they are not good, very muddy. Or may be I am too used to the awesomeness of Dimarzio ToneZone.
Overall impression: Very comfortable to play, but not impressed with the sound.

Omen Extreme 7 with same tuning, sounded very good better that RGA7, it is 2000 SEK cheaper. but wasn't as comfortable as RGA7, and I am used to jumbo frets, found it a bit difficult to adjust to Omen Extreme 7, and its a bit heavy too.
And I tried Omen 7, really liked its price (2700 SEK ), but guitar was lower in comfort that Omen Extreme 7, even though both are almost same, but not really, Omen Extreme 7 better, but yeah that justifies its higher price. Setup on Omen 7 was bad (according to me) lots of buzzing, and it was tuned to god knows what, I was tired already and didn't had much patience left. so I went home.

Summary: Not thinking about Omen 7, yes it is cheapest but I wasn't impressed with anything in it. Omen Extreme 7 was very good fairly priced decent sound, bit heavy though and neck is a bit thick (but just optimum).
RGA7 with look and feel and comfort it felt very nice, but RGA7 is just on the borderline range of what I can spend, i.e I can't afford new pickups for quiet some time after buying it.

, ,

What do you folks suggest ?

 

[Domkid118]

You said yourself the RGA7 was the most comfortable and nicest to play, its all down to personal preference in the end,

from what you have told us, i would get the RGA7 and save up for new pups, you can still get a decent tone out of them.

 

[Tobi]

I say order from thomann.de
they ship to sweden for a very small fee, give you 30 days money back and 2 years warranty. and within the EU I dont think you will need to pay import taxes or anything stupid as that.
I am too lazy to translate currencies, but generally there prices are very competetive compared to the rest of the european marke.
Have a look anyway

 

[allshallperishfan]

ok so you should be in B standard BEADGBE or drop A if you like drop tunings like drop D. drop A is AEADGBE

Anyways i have a schecter omen extreme 7 and i reccomend it. its a good guitar and its cheaper than ibanez so if you ever want to ugrade it you can

 

[allshallperishfan]

ok so you should be in B standard BEADGBE or drop A if you like drop tunings like drop D. drop A is AEADGBE

Anyways i have a schecter omen extreme 7 and i reccomend it. its a good guitar and its cheaper than ibanez so if you ever want to ugrade it you can

 

[Metamurphic]

Sounds like the RGA7 is the one you want most. don't let price get in the way. If you get the RGA now you'll be happier for longer, and when you get around to a pickup swap you be happier still. If you get the schecter feeling like you compromised for price it won't be long before you'll start to want another new guitar and end up back where you started.

 

[randumbTune]

yes, RGA7
I will go to shop and play it more today, I really don't know how to test a 7 - string guitar.
This is what I do:
1) Play all the stuff that I can play smoothly on 6 strings, and see till what level the big neck is hindering me. if the difference is too much then guitar gets negative points.

2) then I check for fret buzz.

3) Then I try to do some palm muting on 7th string to see how chunky it sounds. And then I play some random stuff without palm muting to see how distinct the notes sound. I do this with and without distortion, Different gain values (low, mid, high).

Is there some other approach to test a 7 string guitar that you folks use ?



Thank you all ! that Thomman tip sounds good, but the price difference wasn't much for RGA7, however I found ESP SC207 (4700 SEK)there 700 SEK cheaper than RGA7.
I checked the websites of all the local shops, even the big time ESP dealer doesn't has ESP SC207. So I have no possibility to check it personally. How does it fairs in comparison with RGA7 ?

 

[JerSim94]

I would honestly suggest the Ibanez RG7321. It's only 400 bucks, and it plays very well. I have one, and I have factory pickups in it and it sounds great with just that. I'm gonna get better pickups in it, but I can only imagine how good it'll sound with those. So I'd recommend that one, or if you were on a budget, the Dean Vendetta 7 is supposedly a good guitar and is great for beginning 7-stringers. It is only 174 bucks on musiciansfriend.com. Hope I helped a bit.

 

[Konfyouzd]

The 7321 isn't a bad guitar at all, especially for a first 7. I got mine for $220, but it was used and you already said you want to avoid that. I've been a bit curious about the RGA7s and it sounds like you A) Like it (very important) and B) Can afford it (equally important)

So I would say go with something you know you like. Minimize disappointment.

 

[randumbTune]

Yes RG7321 was the most talked guitar on this forum, so that was the 1st one I searched for in the local shops, didn't find it anywhere. Even on Thomann.de

Vow Dean Vendetta, for 200 $ that's kickass. ,,,, 20 mins latter ... finished searching on all shops websites. God dammn it. Well, if I order it from USA it will cost me same as Schecter Omen 7 + 2 weeks shipping time.

 

[randumbTune]

Yeah I know this sounds crazy, I was totally not interested in Omen 7 in the 1st post.

I checked the specs on Scheter and Ibanez websites.
and here are the differences between Omen 7 and RGA7

Neck: Ibanez RGA7 's neck is 1 mm thinner, than Omen 7
Scale length: RGA7 = 25.5 , Omen 7 = 26.5
Pickups: = RGA7 = crap , Omen 7 = ok, also they are passive so easy to replace with another set of passive, over that not really necessary to replace pickups, until and unless I am really bored and itching to do something.
Price:: RGA7 = 5600(+ price of new pickups), Omen 7 = 3200 (With Life time free service such as intonation, re-stringing, replacing pickups , now all this sounds not necessary , but hey its free and some one will do it for me with better tools)

I had all these points in my head, so I went to the shop which had RGA7 and played it, this time I tuned it to the proper tuning, EBGDAEB, and the Low B started to buzz even when it was played open. I asked the dude in shop that can he adjust the action because it is not playable at all. Or if he is too busy I can do it by myself just give me a small allen-key. And he gave me an interesting reply:
"Buzz is not really important in electric guitars, because sound comes from amp, so if amp is loud enough buzz is no problem" and he increased the amp volume and walked by.
I spent a good 30 mins doing everything possible on it, then I got pissed off and I went to the other small shop, they had only one 7 string; Schecter Omen 7 with Walnut satin finish.
Unlike the Omen in 1st shop this one was very nicely set up (action, tuning etc) I played it through a small (infact smallest) blackstar amp. It sounded decent, I played it for a good 1 hour (shop owner was like, WTF looks like you really like that guitar, hehe) After 1 hour of playing it I didn't find any thing negative about it.
So I decided RGA7 might look fancy and costly but that doesn't makes it a better guitar, Schecter Omen 7 priced is in an optimum way. And I didn't see any reason to pay 3000 bucks more and go for RGA7.


And there something sexy about the Walnut Satin finish :

 

[mikeYekim]

If some guy said that to me I'd tell him 'well you obviously have no clue what you're doing, bye.'

I'm thinking of getting that same guitar for my first 7 string, I can't wait to play the shit out of it \m/