The Q
The Engineer
[Review. Lots of blabbering ahead]
One thing I always wanted, was a vibrato equipped guitar, just to see what I can do with it. I really wanted a guitar with a maple fretboard too because all I had was ebony and rosewood and finally, a sevenstring would be great, even though I have an eight string.
I found out about ESP BUZ-7 and was between this and the new Loomis. The Loomis, even though it was more expensive was equipped with the 57/66-7H set which I've installed on my 8 string and is probably one of the best pickup sets I've ever used. Plus it was a longer scale which I always like.
Thanks to google however, I found out that a SSO member (from the EU no less) was selling one, practically unused for a great price. The negotiations started and the sale was made! Here is the original thread that contains the (great) pictures Alex got of the guitar so I won't bother posting mine. Well OK, just one (the other instrument is an electric greek bouzouki with an extra pair of strings; 5-course).
And here's my review of it.
First of all, I need to thank Alex for being a great seller and patient as well, dealing with my questions. Highly recommended.
Now as far the guitar goes. I'll admit that I wasn't a fan of the whiteburst design, being a person that likes natural wood designs on guitars. However, from up close the whiteburst actually looks quite good and weirdly minimalistic which grew on me within only a few days. The maple fretboard is excellent and, while it appears unfinished, I think it might have some thin coating of some kind. I'll need to research this a bit more in order to apply proper maintenance.
I am not really a fan of reverse headstocks, but it doesn't actually bother me either (I couldn't stand an Explorer banana headstock however). There is an issue here though, which has to do with the spacing between the machineheads, making tuning of the guitar a bit difficult for someone with large hands like. Again, nothing serious.
Fret access is amazing. Every single one of the 24 frets is easily accessible, even the low-B string (within reason). It's a 25.5" scale guitar and with the .60 on I can do Standard Tuning without a hint of floppiness. The neck is very thin, one of the thinnest compared to my other guitars and to be honest I don't think this works out great for me (I like the necks to have some thickness; remember: big hands). I'm getting used to it rather quickly, but still... Ibanez lovers will probably like this one though.
The pickups are rather unimpressive to be honest but not bad. I obviously applied the 18V mod on them and the differences were very subtle, to the point that the mod might not be worth it really. But despite the mod, I can see what EMG tried to do with the 707 pickups. It's as if they tried to be conservative, focusing on a compressed (and flat) sound that would sound good when distorted in an attempt to tame the 7th string.
Well, they succeeded. While not very obvious at the higher strings, the tone of the lower ones cannot match the one of the 57/66, but it's usable for cleans and distortion and I won't bother replacing the pickups; I've already spent more than 1000 on pickups so far.
Finally, I also like the black nickel hardware.
That's the good stuff. Now, the BAD can be summed up with two words: Floyd Rose.
I had to replace the strings which were quite corroded, plus I use Elixir 11s for everything. I've already researched how to properly setup a Floyd Rose bridge while waiting for the guitar, but boy oh boy was I in for trouble or what...
First, the strings require 5 springs for the tremolo to float properly (remember, 11s). That wouldn't be a problem if I didn't also want to buy a backbox or something similar since the float won't return to zero properly. The knife edges were good (sharpened them just a bit to make sure; no change) the posts were good too (same deal), so I guess I have to deal with a +/-7 cent difference.
I don't want to go on a lighter gauge if I can avoid it, because I'm quite used to the feel of 11-49 & 60 of the Elixirs, but unless I can find properly hard springs, I might mover to the 7-string set from Elixir (cheaper too, a .60 Elixir single bass string costs more than a whole guitar set). I don't think I'd mind the feeling of a trem-stabiliser; tuning stability is much more important to me, because I always tune within +/-1 cents on my other guitars.
One of the greatest problems I've faced with the Floyd is that I cannot get the strings low enough. While I can reach 1mm on high E and 1.5mm on low B, this makes bending up with the trem-bar impossible; lifting the bar lowers the action on the strings causing them to stop vibrating due to coming in contact with the frets. I've settled with setting them to 1.5mm (high E) which allows 1 to almost 2 semitones of range. It's not very comfortable compared to what I'm used to, but not unusable either.
After spending about 10 hours in total in the span of 3 days, fiddling with the Floyd I think I've decided I don't like vibrato bridges very much. I'm not selling the guitar which I like (despite the Floyd and the extra weight it adds), but I don't think I'll be buying another trem-equipped one soon.
Would I recommend this one? It's a solid guitar and comes at a good price, provided that you don't mind the floyd and the flatness of the pickups.
If I were to pay full price for it however, I'd rather pay something extra and go for the Loomis. A bit fatter on the neck, better pickups, longer scale - you only have to deal with those ugly cross inlays.
One thing I always wanted, was a vibrato equipped guitar, just to see what I can do with it. I really wanted a guitar with a maple fretboard too because all I had was ebony and rosewood and finally, a sevenstring would be great, even though I have an eight string.
I found out about ESP BUZ-7 and was between this and the new Loomis. The Loomis, even though it was more expensive was equipped with the 57/66-7H set which I've installed on my 8 string and is probably one of the best pickup sets I've ever used. Plus it was a longer scale which I always like.
Thanks to google however, I found out that a SSO member (from the EU no less) was selling one, practically unused for a great price. The negotiations started and the sale was made! Here is the original thread that contains the (great) pictures Alex got of the guitar so I won't bother posting mine. Well OK, just one (the other instrument is an electric greek bouzouki with an extra pair of strings; 5-course).
And here's my review of it.
First of all, I need to thank Alex for being a great seller and patient as well, dealing with my questions. Highly recommended.
Now as far the guitar goes. I'll admit that I wasn't a fan of the whiteburst design, being a person that likes natural wood designs on guitars. However, from up close the whiteburst actually looks quite good and weirdly minimalistic which grew on me within only a few days. The maple fretboard is excellent and, while it appears unfinished, I think it might have some thin coating of some kind. I'll need to research this a bit more in order to apply proper maintenance.
I am not really a fan of reverse headstocks, but it doesn't actually bother me either (I couldn't stand an Explorer banana headstock however). There is an issue here though, which has to do with the spacing between the machineheads, making tuning of the guitar a bit difficult for someone with large hands like. Again, nothing serious.
Fret access is amazing. Every single one of the 24 frets is easily accessible, even the low-B string (within reason). It's a 25.5" scale guitar and with the .60 on I can do Standard Tuning without a hint of floppiness. The neck is very thin, one of the thinnest compared to my other guitars and to be honest I don't think this works out great for me (I like the necks to have some thickness; remember: big hands). I'm getting used to it rather quickly, but still... Ibanez lovers will probably like this one though.
The pickups are rather unimpressive to be honest but not bad. I obviously applied the 18V mod on them and the differences were very subtle, to the point that the mod might not be worth it really. But despite the mod, I can see what EMG tried to do with the 707 pickups. It's as if they tried to be conservative, focusing on a compressed (and flat) sound that would sound good when distorted in an attempt to tame the 7th string.
Well, they succeeded. While not very obvious at the higher strings, the tone of the lower ones cannot match the one of the 57/66, but it's usable for cleans and distortion and I won't bother replacing the pickups; I've already spent more than 1000 on pickups so far.
Finally, I also like the black nickel hardware.
That's the good stuff. Now, the BAD can be summed up with two words: Floyd Rose.
I had to replace the strings which were quite corroded, plus I use Elixir 11s for everything. I've already researched how to properly setup a Floyd Rose bridge while waiting for the guitar, but boy oh boy was I in for trouble or what...
First, the strings require 5 springs for the tremolo to float properly (remember, 11s). That wouldn't be a problem if I didn't also want to buy a backbox or something similar since the float won't return to zero properly. The knife edges were good (sharpened them just a bit to make sure; no change) the posts were good too (same deal), so I guess I have to deal with a +/-7 cent difference.
I don't want to go on a lighter gauge if I can avoid it, because I'm quite used to the feel of 11-49 & 60 of the Elixirs, but unless I can find properly hard springs, I might mover to the 7-string set from Elixir (cheaper too, a .60 Elixir single bass string costs more than a whole guitar set). I don't think I'd mind the feeling of a trem-stabiliser; tuning stability is much more important to me, because I always tune within +/-1 cents on my other guitars.
One of the greatest problems I've faced with the Floyd is that I cannot get the strings low enough. While I can reach 1mm on high E and 1.5mm on low B, this makes bending up with the trem-bar impossible; lifting the bar lowers the action on the strings causing them to stop vibrating due to coming in contact with the frets. I've settled with setting them to 1.5mm (high E) which allows 1 to almost 2 semitones of range. It's not very comfortable compared to what I'm used to, but not unusable either.
After spending about 10 hours in total in the span of 3 days, fiddling with the Floyd I think I've decided I don't like vibrato bridges very much. I'm not selling the guitar which I like (despite the Floyd and the extra weight it adds), but I don't think I'll be buying another trem-equipped one soon.
Would I recommend this one? It's a solid guitar and comes at a good price, provided that you don't mind the floyd and the flatness of the pickups.
If I were to pay full price for it however, I'd rather pay something extra and go for the Loomis. A bit fatter on the neck, better pickups, longer scale - you only have to deal with those ugly cross inlays.
