Who inspired you to play seven?

[Rooster]

Steve Vai! I played a Universe at a shop in Concord, CA in '91 and fell in love. I ordered my Universe in 1992. Still play it, in fact.

 

[StagD]

John Petrucci, Steve Vai, a bit of Korn and this guy on YouTube
YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

 

[hiflyer]

I always thought 7strngs are just for people who play like korn that never touches the high strings unless their making it sound like a keyboard and did not have any interest on them until I saw chris broderick on blood on the water and jeff loomis on year of the voyager dvd. so I bought a 7 and loving it every day! 6 strings feels like toys now.

I never really liked Megadeath until I saw The Blood on the water concert. I was super impressed with Broderick and the tasteful way he
plays the 7. Then I picked up a copy of Guitar World magazine with
a Jeff Loomis instructional DVD inside. Not a big Korn fan, to put it mildly.

 

[Baco]

Trey Azagthoth. Period.

He was indeed pretty convincing, yes

 

[Poho]

Petrucci almost sold me, but i didn't want a 7 string just so that i could learn DT songs. But Sikth inspired me to use G# drone tuning, and it was Periphery that opened my mind up to actually writing stuff on the 7 and transferring my drone stuff to the 7 as well.

 

[i_love_tazzus]

Intitially, it was John Petrucci, Trey Azagthoth, and Steve Vai.

I later realized that my dad had a bunch of CD's and records with some great jazz musicians using 7's, like Bucky and John Pizzarelli, and George Van Eps. If it weren't for Van Eps, we might not even have this web site... maybe. Epiphone built him a 7 string guitar in 1931. I've even heard a few classical guitarists use 7's but I can't remember any names right now.

Lately, my favorite 7 string artist has to be Marc A. Pullen. I found his music after finding out that he created the music for the open source FPS Sauerbraten. You can download all of his music at last.fm for free. It's probably the best free music I've found in a long time.

 

[Quax]

Tosin Abasi, Bulb, Fredrik Thordendal, Devin Townsend

 

[guitar4tw]

Scar Symmetry was the band that initially opened my eyes to it. I had downtuned my 6 strings (b standard) to play along with soilwork stuff, but after becomming a scar symmetry fan I got a 7. Now I own 3!

 

[ibbyfreak13]

definately korn and then so many other numetal bands, which i still listen to, i dont care.hahaha more recently there are so damn many great players and bands using 7's, its just amazing to me that there isnt now a bigger market for 7's and strings for them. one day we will have our rightful share muahahaha

 

[followjohndoe]

Meshuggah and Jesu. I equally liked the enormous, intense rhythms of Meshuggah and the droning sound waves of Jesu. And only now, years after picking up a seven, am I starting to realize the incredible potential the low B (or A, in my case) affords you in terms of music theory and learning scales, chords, etc.

 

[m4rK]

Meshuggah and Jesu. I equally liked the enormous, intense rhythms of Meshuggah and the droning sound waves of Jesu. And only now, years after picking up a seven, am I starting to realize the incredible potential the low B (or A, in my case) affords you in terms of music theory and learning scales, chords, etc.

Yes Jesu is incredible!
My main influence on 7s is for sure Deadsy and Head from korn. I strung my old 6 up like a 7 when korns first cd came out and it still sits there that way today. Now I have two 7s and couldnt imagine spending money on a six again, almost like I'd be getting ripped off..

 

[Antimatter]

I didn't even know Korn played seven strings for a while.
The first artists who got me into extended range were meshuggah and dream theater

 

[Fantomas]

This

that really got me hot for a 7, but I had just been given a brand spanking new RG570 so I was content for a few years.

Also, Rocky George played a UV7PWH in a Suicidal Tendencies videoclip, that helped a lot

I only actually bought one in 2002 or so when I joined a deatmetal band of which the other guitar player had a 7.

 

[CrownofWorms]

no one really. i saw a cheap 100$ washburn 7. i thought wow a seven string i could afford. though i knew chris broderick used 7's(speculating that nevermore uses 7's). when i bought the guitar i discovered meshuggah, dream theater, morbid angel, and cannibal corpse. now i know many bands that use 7's.

 

[SerratedSkies]

I bought my first 7 strictly because I wanted massive range. I grew up a Meshuggah fan, so I thought why not.

The thing that convinced me to invest money into a good 7 was Necrophagist. I was using an RG7321, and I saw Muhammed walk on stage with a white RG1527. Purchased it the next day!

 

[Mordacain]

Petrucci for me as well.

I mainly wanted one after playing one at my brother-in-law's over my recent vacation. It was so easy to adapt to and I've always hating having to downtune and lose my upper register and string tension. I haven't had much time to experiment, but currently I'm setup BEADGBE with 10-66. The kid I bought it from had it setup like this but downtuned to A.

 

[xxxyyy]

Jeff Loomis, definitely.
Not that I'm playing one right now... still looking for the perfect 7... which will be a BRJ Jeckyll 727, BTW. This Xmas, a nice trip to California and I'm done with this madness, FOREVER.

 

[Gila_Crisis]

Davide Tiso from avant-garde metal band Ephel Duath and myself, since in the last times I need to achieve a wider sonical range from my guitar (on the 6 string I'm tuned one step down, DGCFAD or DropC, so the step to B it's not that far away from what I'm used to) and the more I think how I can transpose the 6 string songs on the 7, the more I enjoy the choice to switch to 7.

btw, without Davide's music, maybe today I'll had taken another musical path!

 

[Darth Nihilus]

Dino Cazares

 

[diatron5]

my friend had one and I was like "damn I want to go that low" so I bought one.