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I keep thinking it would be good to try a 7 string to see if I like it. I've been pondering one of the Ibanez shredder style 7 strings with a fixed bridge, plenty of them for less than $200. I generally have a high opinion of cheap ibanez stuff.
But I've never touched one of these types of guitars. Is there something about the pickups that would make them totally unsuitable to playing jazzish stuff at home on them to get a feel for the 7 strings? Will they handle the low A tuning reasonably well?
Thanks!
Paul
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07-05-2017 02:18 PM
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I would think as long as you use the neck pickup, turn down the tone, use reasonably heavy strings, and set your amp for clean, it will sound fine.
Originally Posted by sully75
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They're certainly good enough to find out if 7-string works for you. I'd suggest adding Schecter to you list as well. They made a lot of decent 7-strings. I've seen a lot of people buy in at the high end for their first 7-string just to learn that they really don't like it or couldn't adapt. Then they find out just how hard it really is to sell a 7-string and how much of a hit you end up taking.
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If you can find one that the neck isn't paper thin on. I was going to go that route a few years ago and I couldn't find one with a neck I could tolerate. I played and early Steve Vai guitar and the neck was nice, but they are expensive guitars. I eventually bought the Ibanez inexpensive 7-string archtop nice guitar for the money, but returned it after a week discovers my hands are too small for what I wanted to do.
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The Schecters have much beefier necks.
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Yeah, I went the higher-end Eastman route the first time around (blond 900 series). Decided it wasn't for me, luckily it sold pretty quickly at about par. Originally Posted by Jim Soloway
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I have a DeArmond SG-style 7-string I would be willing to part with. I bought it just to see if I liked 7-string, and found that I really don't have that much use for it. It plays about as well as any guitar I've ever had my hands on. You can PM me if you're interested.
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I bought a a Schecter C-7 for my first 7 string. It was a very well made guitar and had a great jazz tone on the front pickup. I played it a lot for about two years before I decided to move on to a nice Archtop 7 string. It's a great way to try 7 string without spending a fortune. Originally Posted by Jim Soloway
Keith
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I owned a C7 as well and gigged with it for a while. A lot of guitar for the money. Originally Posted by floatingpickup
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Ibanez pickups on their shredder-style guitars tend to run pretty hot. Dialing back on the volume to get into jazz territory can tame the distortion, but also kill definition -- especially on their cheaper models where the pickups might have a little more mud to begin with.
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I have been thinking the same and just didn't know what to get. With the recommendations, I ordered a C7 and it will be here tomorrow. I am curious how the fret work will be but I have been practicing mine so if it needs work I can do it. I am wondering about the pickups though - any specifics? Hearing that it works well for jazz is good. Is it hit (given the type of guitar and all)? I will check it out but wondering if I should plan on swapping it eventually. I like putting nice pickups in cheap guitars and there are some good jazz pickups that are black too.
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Seems like there are a lot of different c-7 models? Did you get one of the cheap ones? Originally Posted by floatingpickup
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My guess would be to check out EMGs -- they have a pretty flat response, and they're not too difficult to find for a 7-str -- and while they can be very gainy, because they're active, rolling back the volume doesn't kill the treble so much, meaning your tone knob is still useful. Originally Posted by rio
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You might look at DiMarzio and Duncan as well. It depends on the size of the cavity in the guitar of course and how much you wanna mess with. I have bare knuckle stormy Monday pups in my tele-style 7 string. Pricey but worth every penny. I might never have bought an arch top if these pups had been available in 1997 (when I ordered and bought the solid body). Good luck!
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Mine was the very first version of the Diamond Series C-7 when Schecter introduced that line of 7 strings. It was made in Korea and I think it was about 1999.I recall that they sold for around $500 new. It was a very well made instrument. I think the body was ash or something with scraped off edges that looked like wood binding. It had a bolt-on maple neck with rosewood fb. It had two Duncan designed humbuckers. I changed the front p/u to a real US made Seymour Duncan jazz pickup. The guitar sounded excellent. I played a lot of gigs with that guitar. I really liked it a lot. I only sold it because I moved on to an Unger Archtop 7 string. I attached a picture of one just like mine (mine was red though). Originally Posted by sully75
Keith
Last edited by floatingpickup; 07-06-2017 at 11:09 PM.
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I'm very excited to try this thing tomorrow. Hopefully it will arrive before I have to leave for a gig so I can sign for it...
If it would be helpful to anyone I can record a demo playing some jazz on it after I set it up and get fret work done if it needs it. I havent decided whether to put flats or rounds on it because I have no idea what would suit it best without having played one but either way it is getting a set of .012 gauge TI strings.
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I found that many of the Ibanez models work just fine as jazz 7s. You may find that you need to experiment with 6th and 7th string gauges if you're going to play it like Van Eps; I found that a baritone guitar set had the right gauges for the two "bass" strings, and the remaining strings can be from a set that gives you the sound you like. Many of the Schecter models are rather long-scale, and may be difficult to play jazz chords on, but they are well-made. I'm going to look into getting a fanned-fret 7 from Strandberg or Keisel; I like the headless design, and the longer scale on the bass strings will probably give a bit more definition and better intonation. My main gigging guitar is a Godin Multiac nylon 7, a truly great guitar, very versatile, with RMC pickups and synth access; with some tweaking of the synth, you can sound like Pat Martino, Pat Metheny or Pat Thrall.
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I recently had the same thought and found a brand new Dean Vendetta 7 string for $100 online. The guitar has some of the things you'd expect with a $100 new electric guitar but in terms of getting intimate with a 7 string (especially on a guitar that's easy to play) I'm very happy with the purchase. I likely would not gig or record with the guitar but I feel the guitar is good enough for me to get a handle on how much I like the 7 and what I might use it for.
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That's the version I was referring to as well. Originally Posted by floatingpickup
Mine was the very first version of the Diamond Series C-7 when Schecter introduced that line of 7 strings. It was made in Korea and I think it was about 1999.I recall that they sold for around $500 new. It was a very well made instrument. I think the body was ash or something with scraped off edges that looked like wood binding. It had a bolt-on maple neck with rosewood fb. It had two Duncan designed humbuckers. I changed the front p/u to a real US made Seymour Duncan jazz pickup. The guitar sounded excellent. I played a lot of gigs with that guitar. I really liked it a lot. I only sold it because I moved on to an Unger Archtop 7 string. I attached a picture of one just like mine (mine was red though).
Keith
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This is for the Van Eps, low A tuning only ....
This is a trick you can do if you have an extra 6-string guitar and don't want to buy a 7-string just to run some tests. Tune a six string with the same intervals as the bottom 6 strings on a 7-string. You don't even have to tune it particularly low. Just tune it so the intervals are right. D-A-D-G-C-E gives you the equivalent of the bottom 6 strings tuned up by 5 semi-tones. You won't have the low end sonority but you'll get an idea of whether your head and your hands can adapt to the natural fifth between the bottom two strings and make use of the octave between the 5th and 7th strings. Use it to play chords, get accustomed to the A-E-A arrangement at the bottom of the guitar and see if you can get comfortable with that. It really is the key to play 7-string as a chordal instrument.
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I got the C7 today and am impressed so far. I'm going to post a thread with some impressions so that searching for it in the future (assuming that might be helpful) will be easier. I need to set it up with the new strings, lower the nut slots and make more room for a heavy 7th string as well. But first impressions are very good so far.
Speaking of which, does anyone have a gauge recommendation for the 7th string? Googling around I am seeing some different opinions. I have a .70 gauge string from a bass set of flats I could use and it would go with the TI set well since it is a TI flatwound. I am just wondering if that would be too heavy to go with a set of TI .012s.
Edit: I just got the strings on and ended up using a D string from a black tapewound set of bass strings. It is a .65 gauge I think so it feels light but it is really bassy. I am considering using a tapewound for the low e now too...
I am still curious for you guys who have done 7 string what you use for your 7th though. The low tension will be nice to learn on but eventually I will want something more balanced.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk ProLast edited by rio; 07-08-2017 at 12:48 AM.
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A trick I learned form the 7-string rock crowd ... Use whatever 6-string set you would normally use and buy singles for your 7-th string. The string of choice when I was playing 7-string was the GHS Nickel Compound. Because of it's unusual construction, it is able to maintain proper tension and pitch from a much lighter string than other strings. Try a .60, .62 and .64. You can get them from just strings.com. (Most jazz 7-string platers are using anything from a .70 to an .80 and sometimes even heavier). Originally Posted by rio
Equally important, stay away from flat wound or tape wound strings for the low A. You need a string that is much brighter for the note to project properly.
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Thanks for the recommendation. The tape wound sounds cool but it is too different sounding from the rest of the set and it is too floppy as well so I am having intonation problems. That GHS string sounds interesting.
The 7 string rabbit hole is deep. Another guitar came yesterday - Skip's semi hollow Tele style guitar - and I didn't even get a chance to really check it out because I was so entranced by the 7 string. It is such an amazing sound and being a bass player too, I am extremely happy to have so many low notes available to me. I hate to say it but after a while I might have to think about trading one of my nicer 6 strings for a good 7 string, although for now this guitar sounds amazing considering the price. I did have to do fret work though to get the action where I wanted it.
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I picked up a Chinese built 7 string semi-hollow Les Paul archtop copy for $200US (including shipping) to use as my "plane side" check-in flyer. After adding a set of TI Jazz Flat 12s, an 80 gauge low A and a setup, I was quite surprised at how well it played and sounded. Action was fine, no buzzing, pretty good hardware, stays in tune, etc. It was really just for travelling but I find I pick it up and play it like the other 7s. Pretty amazing to me. I'd think going with an inexpensive Ibanez would be a pretty good deal for trying to determine a desire to play a 7. Also, there are some pretty nice looking (not all pointy) models out there. Just my experience/opinion.
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Wow, cool. Do you have a link to the guitar? I am insterested what it looks like, what the scale length is and how big the lower bout is being a semi.
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