Das Gitarrenwiesel
SS.org Regular
I had been looking at getting a seven string for ages ... I mean part of my living is making pickups for them ... so I really ought to play one myself. 
I could have gone out and bought a multiple hundreds of pounds seven and just played it, but I'm the sort of person who likes to see how far they can take a cheap guitar with upgrades ... quite a long way it would seem!
So my usual eBay browsing turned up a bit of a bargain Just before Christmas . An Ibanez Geo 7, brand new but transit damaged.... a ding on the back of the bottom horn ... messy but not visible from the front of the guitar ... and fairly easy to 'touch in' ... £150! I went for it and in due course it arrived.
I always make a point of playing a guitar for a while ... usually weeks before deciding what upgrades I'm going to make. First impressions were quite good ... but a negatives reared their heads quite quickly. The action was WAY too high and if I brought it down to sensible levels the saddle adjuster screws chewed up my hand when palm muting. So a neck shim was definitely on the cards. It also wasn't playing terribly in tune up the neck ... and I see that as super important with a seven where you are bouncing between high fretted and open notes a lot while riffing.
One of my other guitars is fitted with an Earvana compensated shelf nut ... and plays the most in tune across the whole instrument of any guitar I own ... so I figured I'd try an Earvana 7 string nut.
Also, while adequate (just) the tuners would get swapped for some locking ones.
So first Santa (well me actually) came up with the Earvana nut
Got from my friends at Feline Guitars in Croydon ...
The poor Purpleheart fretboard was absolutely bone dry ... so after the nut fitting I was going to have to do something about that ...
Off with the truss rod cover ... note plastic pots for putting bits in so as not to have them fly off onto the floor!
I have a chunk of maple about six inches long and an inch thick that maeks short work of popping off nuts with a swift tap.
The Earvana nuts are 48mm wide and made over height so they need a Dremel and a sanding block to trim the bottom of the nut ...so the shelf sits nicely on top of the fingerboard.
And very nearly there ....
Can never mask too much when you use cyanoacrylate ... this one is a gel formula with a tiny bit of elasticity. Not so easy to dislodge the nut with an accidental bump as if I'd used a thin cyanoacrylate which dries brittle.
I'd also Picked up some cheap but very solid locking tuners from Six String Supplies ... easy to fit ... just dropped on with the mounting holes aligning exactly ... result!
You can buy all sorts of expensive fingerboard treatments that are meant to nourish and darken/relic boards ... but I use ...
Note cat in background
Yep it's a staining leather treatment (black tinted) ... but it's fabulous for boards and is less than £6.00 for a huge tub from Amazon!
Okay .... will continue the saga later
I could have gone out and bought a multiple hundreds of pounds seven and just played it, but I'm the sort of person who likes to see how far they can take a cheap guitar with upgrades ... quite a long way it would seem!So my usual eBay browsing turned up a bit of a bargain Just before Christmas . An Ibanez Geo 7, brand new but transit damaged.... a ding on the back of the bottom horn ... messy but not visible from the front of the guitar ... and fairly easy to 'touch in' ... £150! I went for it and in due course it arrived.
I always make a point of playing a guitar for a while ... usually weeks before deciding what upgrades I'm going to make. First impressions were quite good ... but a negatives reared their heads quite quickly. The action was WAY too high and if I brought it down to sensible levels the saddle adjuster screws chewed up my hand when palm muting. So a neck shim was definitely on the cards. It also wasn't playing terribly in tune up the neck ... and I see that as super important with a seven where you are bouncing between high fretted and open notes a lot while riffing.
One of my other guitars is fitted with an Earvana compensated shelf nut ... and plays the most in tune across the whole instrument of any guitar I own ... so I figured I'd try an Earvana 7 string nut.
Also, while adequate (just) the tuners would get swapped for some locking ones.
So first Santa (well me actually) came up with the Earvana nut
Got from my friends at Feline Guitars in Croydon ...
The poor Purpleheart fretboard was absolutely bone dry ... so after the nut fitting I was going to have to do something about that ...
Off with the truss rod cover ... note plastic pots for putting bits in so as not to have them fly off onto the floor!
I have a chunk of maple about six inches long and an inch thick that maeks short work of popping off nuts with a swift tap.
The Earvana nuts are 48mm wide and made over height so they need a Dremel and a sanding block to trim the bottom of the nut ...so the shelf sits nicely on top of the fingerboard.
And very nearly there ....
Can never mask too much when you use cyanoacrylate ... this one is a gel formula with a tiny bit of elasticity. Not so easy to dislodge the nut with an accidental bump as if I'd used a thin cyanoacrylate which dries brittle.
I'd also Picked up some cheap but very solid locking tuners from Six String Supplies ... easy to fit ... just dropped on with the mounting holes aligning exactly ... result!
You can buy all sorts of expensive fingerboard treatments that are meant to nourish and darken/relic boards ... but I use ...
Note cat in background
Yep it's a staining leather treatment (black tinted) ... but it's fabulous for boards and is less than £6.00 for a huge tub from Amazon!
Okay .... will continue the saga later
