Who inspired you to play seven?

[Drew]

Vince.






Nah, actually, most of it was just I dug the symmetry of a "middle" string. also, I'd been transcribing a Strangers With Candy tune in B, tuned my strat down, and thought it sounded massive.

 

[newamerikangospel]

Haha, mine was kinda like drews.

Its hard to play a metal song above G (on a standard tuned guitar) and not have it sound like whitesnake, but I love open string pedal riffs. The first month of playing guitar I had a cool little pedal riff on the D string, but I hate dropD (or the equivilent) and it didn't sound as cool on any other string. So a month into guitar I realized that I wanted something more expansive, but didn't know what a seven string was

The first bands that I knew of that were using seven strings were the standard numetal affair, adema/korn/orgy (I think), but I didn't want that sound so I never bothered with one. The first song that made me realize that 7s could be used for more than gut rumble was the mirror by dream theater. It was actually "puppies on acid" excerpt that they used for live shows. Woot! for petrucci!

 

[Nick]

Meshuggah

 

[metalmonster]

meshuggah first korn and deftones too

when i tried a 7 string (ibanez RG1527) for the first time at my local music store i knew the 7 string would be my weapon of mass destruction . didn't had the bucks and continued to play some 6 string ibanez i love too (japanese RG470 w/ SH8 invader pup) tuned down to B . but now i want more ...

so i'm about making my own custom 7 string by a luthier friend , 28" , baritone , tuned down to F# ... face-scorching guitar i think ... and moreover it would be able to have a nice clean sound ... uh i'm so exited ... he told me it was possible to build this guitar ...

the last thing i would lack in the future is some marshall rack (JMP-1 , or ADA MP-1 and 9100 , used , i think ) and some marshall 4x12 w/ greenbacks (also used , bass cone greenback would be perfect , but they are rare so standard greenback should be nice also) to give some smooth edge to my tone ... and i think i would have my perfect rig ... looks a lot like stephen carpenter's rig , but , hey , i like the same things that this guy : meshuggah , 7 strings and that british crunch marshall amps are famous for . what i lack now is some bucks for the amp lol

 

[ukfswmart]

For me, it was seeing an Ibanez ad in Total Guitar with Head and Munky wielding their custom RG7s. The looked pretty awesome, and once I heard Blind, and then more Korn, I just had to have one. I remember wanting an F-207 badly, but in the end I went with an RG420

Tuned to G# standard

 

[Miek]

The Misha and Kroahnbpozx

 

[Universe74]

Definitely Vai...played a white Universe back in 1991 and started saving right then and there. Didn't get one till 1999.

 

[furyinternal]

My close-minded lead guitarist. He thought they were too "nu-metal" (whatever that means). Probably a reference to the band KoRn, whom he absolutely hated. Seemed kinda dumb to base a judgment on something like that though, but at the time he was unwilling to bend and I didn't feel the need to push the issue.

Needless to say, I didn't acquire one right away, but I could never shake the idea of having one and eventually decided that 7 was the direction I wanted to head in. So, yah....

Dino C. and Jeff Loomis were the primary reason I got into them though. After I picked one up, I began to realize just how many people out there had them. Guess I finally found a reason to take the blinders off. When that happened, I felt just ignorant as the guy who insisted I don't get one.

Do we have a "jackass" icon?

 

[xXcondemnedXx]

the second guitar i ever saw in my life

EVER

was the rg7321 which i have now

 

[jwthompson21]

DINO, DINO, DINO! Obsolete was the first FF album I spun thanks to my friend Zephania (wherever he may be). At that time, I was 18, with two Jacksons and no sense whatsoever. I had a mental breakdown over tryin to tune to B and still have an intonated Guitar! I finally cracked and sold both of em, bought a $40 Squier, and modified the bridge to be able to intonate (somewhat).
It was '05 when I finally got a credit card, so I went straight to Sam Ash and Got the AX7221. I had never successfully written ANY music until I had a 7 stringer in my hands!

 

[soldierkahn]

Well, back in the day around 98 or 99, i never really listened to any bands who played 7s, until I ran into a band called "Flaw", and they changed my life forever. It wouldnt be until 2006 that i finally took the plunge to buy one. By then my influences were basically Trapt, Flaw, KoRn, but the main reason i picked up the 7 was Flaw.

I know i know, most you folks dont dig NuMetal, but hey, their my favs not yours, hahaha.

Lance from Flaw was my main reason i wanted to get a 1077XL, and when i got it, my hands found their best friend.

 

[Ror3h]

Meshuggah.

 

[ire_works]

cannbal corpse's album KILL teaching me people and crazy enough to tune down to Ab standard.

watching Rusty Cooley on those Guitars Suck videos pick-raping my ears.

but mostly it was my lust for that "Thud Thud , Whiddly Whiddly , Thud Thud , Whiddly Wah!" sound to come out of my amp.Hearing bands like The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza , Arsonists Get All The Girls , and Beneath The Massacre use sweeping in riffs made me want to add more technical playing into the brutality of my playing.


...



..and of course , more thud thud.

 

[Martin_777]

Steve Vai, Jeff Loomis, Dino Cazares, the guys from Meshuggah & Nocturnal Rites

and of course John Petrucci.

 

[itsallinmyh3ad]

KoRn

 

[Ravelle17]

John Petrucci, then Fredrik Thordenthal and Marten Hagstrom of (who else?) Meshuggah.

 

[Baum]

Petrucci (Awake) and Loomis (Dead Heart) made me crave a 7-string. And that while I was still not having a clue about using just 6 strings to their full potential.

 

[hellion]

MeshuggaH

I want another 7 SO bad.

 

[Svartmetall]

I had an 8-string electric made in 1990 by a local luthier in Wales, with intentions of playing Scriabin's piano music or something very like it on guitar. That never quite materialised, not least because the high A string kept breaking; I was stringing it B-A, like a 6-string with an extra string each side, but whatever gauge I used for the A never lasted more than about 2 days, it drove me crazy. I was getting into death metal at the time, though, especially Obituary and Carcass and other detuned bands; so the low B appealed to me. So I got the guy who made me the 8 to make me a 7-string, very much based on the Washburn MG series - I had an MG-74 at the time - and never looked back. From about 1992 onwards I've played 7-string more than 6-string ...I guess Steve Vai and Trey Azagthoth (Morbid Angel) were the first people who inspired me to learn other players' 7-string parts, 'Passion And Warfare' and 'Covenant' being the first albums where I remember transcribing 7-string guitar stuff.

 

[Blind Faith]

John Petrucci, and now still John but with addition of Jeff Loomis, Chris Broderick, Fredrik Thordendal, Steve Vai and Devin Townsend