Why buy a 7?

[jori1995]

Hi
I was wondering which styles you actually play with a 7 string, cause I don't really play any progressive metal or heavier metal stuff (I'm planning on doing so though when I have a 7)
Also, my problem is: should I buy a cheaper (400 euros) 7 string (schecter omen extreme 7) or a more advanced schecter hellraiser 6 string?
I don't really have any experience with active pickups, and I don't think I really need that extra power that it gives, because it also does limit the genres you play. But damn, that hellraiser sounds bad ass!
I also liked the omen 7, but the building quality, looks and sound are just a bit less.

So I'm actually quite desperate quz I don't know what I want: pro 6 string or first 7 string of which I'm not sure using the low B.

 

[Deathbringer769]

Schecter Hellraiser... 7 string? Why is that not an option?

 

[JPMike]

One simple answer, every style available.

But if you don't really need it, I'd say buy a pro 6er.

 

[Jessy]

There's no reason you have to tune down and chug. You can get up to Ab with a D'Addario .007 at 25.5", for example, which I do. I wouldn't recommend a Schecter. They made my first seven string (A7, the first mass-produced non-Ibanez 7), and I had their C-7 Blackjack. Their neck joints don't provide good access, so you'll need to have big Jeff Loomis hands to get around it. Go for an Agile.

 

[27duuude]

There's no reason you have to tune down and chug. You can get up to Ab with a D'Addario .007 at 25.5", for example, which I do. I wouldn't recommend a Schecter. They made my first seven string (A7, the first mass-produced non-Ibanez 7), and I had their C-7 Blackjack. Their neck joints don't provide good access, so you'll need to have big Jeff Loomis hands to get around it. Go for an Agile.

I'd recommend agile also if you were in the U.S. or Canada. My first 7 was an agile and even though it has cheap parts its fine quality. The reason I went to 7 was so I could play drop tunings and also play standard on the same guitar. The low B has no effect on how you play 6 string songs unless you're a sloppy player. If I were you I'd get either a pro 6 or a pro 7 if you want a stater guitar get a starter guitar. Don't get the omen unless you're unsure how you'll be able to get used to a wider neck.

 

[nickgray]

The extra string plus extra five notes make a huge difference, I would go as far as saying six string guitars are deficient. Seven strings are just... better, simple as that.

I was wondering which styles you actually play with a 7 string, cause I don't really play any progressive metal or heavier metal stuff

Russian guitar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Surprisingly, seven string guitars aren't really about rock or metal. Even two hundred years ago people thought adding an extra string is a great idea.

 

[ElRay]

Heck, you don't even have to extend your range. Go dense and tune in Major 3rds from E-to-E:

• Ralph Patt - The Major 3rd Tuning
• M3 Guitar -- Play any style of music on an electric or acoustic guitar tuned in major thirds

Ray

 

[squid-boy]

I can only answer this question with another question because the answer is in question and implied by everything around you:

Why NOT buy a 7?

 

[Shaunheiser]

It just provides a wider range of tonality, I'll raise your "why?" with a "why not?" it opens up a whole new world of creativity.

 

[USMarine75]

From 1998 Guitar Player magazine interview with Steve Vai:


"Ever since the guitar evolved into it's present form two centuries ago, it has had six strings. Not five, not eight - six. Six is a nice, round number, just right for many of the symmetrical quirks of the guitar, such as the instrument's three bass/three trebel string arrangement and three-tuners-per-side headstock. The symmetry is further emphasized by the fact that. On a standard six-string, the guitars two outside strings are usually tuned to the same pitch (two octaves apart), acting as musical bookends.
So, everyone's happy, right? Apparently not. For almost as long as the guitar has been in existance, adventurous players have been endeavouring to extend the range of the instrument by tweaking it's tuning - often slacking the low E down to D or C, and sometimes even as low as B or A. Extended tunings offer player new possibilities, such as lower bass lines, wider-voiced chords, and farther-reaching melodic leaps.
"That still wasn't enough to float everybody's boat. So someone - lots of folks, actually - had the bright idea to add another string to the seemingly perfect guitar. But why? What is gained by adding a seventh string? Is anything lost? And why do most player who add a seventh string augment the traditional 6-string scheme by adding an extra low string and not a high string? To get the lowdown, so to speak, we questioned three very different 7-string players - rock god Steve Vai, Brian "head" welch of the band Korn, and jazz guitarist Howard ALden - on just what makes seven strings better than six.
STEVE VAI.
"There was a period of about 10 years ago," says Steve Vai, "when i was studying metaphysics and numerology, and i got very interested in the number 7. I'm not sure if that was the main impetus behind putting a seventh string on my guitar, but it definately had some influence. I was considering what I could do with the guitar to give it a different dimension without making it too inaccessible." Vai's epiphany was to develop a 7-string guitar based on the JEM guitar he helped design for Ibanez. Vai went ot Ibanez with his 7-string concept, and they embraced it immediately.
Whether Vai's muse was mystical pragmatic, it's no stretch of the imaginationto say that he was responsible for putting the 7-string guitar on the map - at least in the rock realm. "I wasn't the first guy," he demures. "in the Jazz world, there was George Van Eps and Lenny Breau, and Uli John Roth had a seven string before me. But i didn't know about their guitars when i got the idea for mine."
Vai's original concept was that the additional string could be either a high string or a low string. But he never found a gauge that would work for a high string. "Every time i tried to tune a string up to high A," he says, "the string would break. Ultimately, I settled on using a low seventh string." Vai favours a typical 7-string tuning, extending the standard guitar tuning down one more fourth to the low B. (that's B, E, A, D, G, B, E, low to high.) Vai uses a .052 for his low B, and strings the rest of the guitar either .009 - .042 or .010 - .046, depending on how much he's playing. "When I'm in the studio producing, recording, and doing all sorts of different things, i use .009's to show my fingers some mercy. When I'm gigging a lot, I'll use the .010's. Vai got his first 7-string, a prototype, while he was working with Whitesnake, and played that guitar on most of Whitesnake's 1989 album Slip of the Tounge. He suggested a few subtle changes - the original neck was a little too chunky, for example - and the prototype was soon honed into the Ibanez Universe 7-string.
Although Vai's transition to seven string was fairly easy - after all, he's a monster player who happens to have unusually long fingers - he maintains that anyone can figure out an additional string. "It feels very natural," he says. "It doesn't feel like you're playing a regular guitar with an extra string. It feels like a Seven String Guitar. After a few hours of playing the 7-string, your fingers develop a mind of their own around it. It's not as complex as you might think.
"And there's a lot more to work with when you have that seventh string. You can do things that simply cannot do on a conventional guitar. If you're a jazz player, for example, you can play walking bass lines, chord structures, and melodies all in one pop. It's great for a jazz duo, where you're backing up a sax player or singer. If you're into classical music, you can play counterpoint on a seven string that;s impossible on a standard guitar. And it's the perfect guitar for a heavy rock band, because you've got all that low end. Crank that baby up, and when you hit the low notes, it'll make the hair on the back of your neck stand on end.
Of course, all that low end can make recording the 7-string a little tricky. "It's best to try to get a tight sound," Vai advises. "The best way to do that is to place the mics as close as possible to the amp. but it's not a simple as taking a big amplifier, turning it up really loud, and putting up a bunch of mics. You've got to be particularly careful with phase cancelation if you use a lot of different mics. If any of the mics are out of phase at all, the first thing you'll lose is the bottom end, which defeats the whole purpose of playing 7-string in the first place. "Once you've got the 7-string on tape, and you're at the mixing stage, you've got to remember to be generous to the bass player. To make a full spectrum of frequencies work, you have to delegate certain bandwiths to certain instruments. If you put too much emphasis on the bottom end of the guitar, you're going to have low end mush going through your whole track, because the bass and guitar frequencies will be smashing together. We're not talking about brain surgery here, but it does require a little extra care and handling. Otherwise the guitar may sound like some kind of testosterone-fueled demon, while the bass sounds like a little anemic yellow jacket trying to find it's hive. That might seem like a fun idea, but it may kill the song. And that bass player's not going to be too excited about working with you again." In the past couple of years, Vai has gone back to the 6-string as his main axe, but says that he'll be playing more 7-string in the near future. "There was a period in the early 90's that I very rarely played the 6-string, but a few years ago, while i was putting a new record together, I started listening to some demos of the music i had written before I got the 7-string. Working around that music, i gradually evolved back into playing 6-string. I've continued to use the 7-string for some things, however, and on my next record I'll probably use it more or less exclusively."

 

[littledoc]

So I'm actually quite desperate quz I don't know what I want: pro 6 string or first 7 string of which I'm not sure using the low B.

There are plenty of reasons to buy a 7-string, but I'm gonna say that for your limited budget, you'd probably be happier with a higher quality 6-string than a lesser 7-string. I was just at Guitar Center the other day and played some LTDs for the first time, and I was highly impressed with the quality and playability for the price – and they're right around your budget.

 

[Insanity]

Umn.. No compromise?.

 

[Evil7]

seven string guitars have more notes in one hand position and you can create music in lower tunings.

 

[Eric Christian]

Mainly I play 7 & 8 string guitars because my hands are large and the big wide necks just feel more comfortable for me. I grew up playing classical guitars so wide necks just work better for me. The extra range is nice as well.

 

[ST3MOCON]

Why buy a 7?....sevenstring.org

Done!

 

[Floppystrings]

If you don't know why people buy 7 strings, just buy a 6 string.

Do you want lower notes? Yes or no...it isn't that hard to think about...

 

[Dayn]

Active pickups certainly don't limit what genres you can play at all. My EMG808s are perfectly versatile. I jumped from a six to an eight with no idea of what I'd play besides jamming along to Meshuggah.

After nearly two years, I found the answer to what I'd play with the two lower strings: everything. There's nothing I haven't enjoyed playing on an extended-range guitar. Just ask yourself, is there anything you want to play with the extended range? You said you already want to play some progressive metal and stuff like that. I'd say take the plunge. (But I don't see why you shouldn't get a good quality one?)

 

[GSingleton]

I actually prefer the size of my seven over my 6. I love how the neck feels in my bigger hands and it gives me more space for chords. Also, the chords are fuller imo. I just like it better, but the six is better for various things.

your choice.

 

[StratoJazz]

You can play pretty much any style with a 7 string, it's still a 6 string guitar in some respect.

I recommend getting a cheap one of ebay at first. If you decide you like it, get a better factory production model or if your really rich, then get a custom made 7.

 

[jori1995]

There's no reason you have to tune down and chug. You can get up to Ab with a D'Addario .007 at 25.5", for example, which I do. I wouldn't recommend a Schecter. They made my first seven string (A7, the first mass-produced non-Ibanez 7), and I had their C-7 Blackjack. Their neck joints don't provide good access, so you'll need to have big Jeff Loomis hands to get around it. Go for an Agile.

problem is that you can only order Agiles online and I want to have tried a guitar at least 2 times before I buy.