The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    Hi !

    I am interested in 7 string guitar because I like comping.
    I would like to buy a cheap model (Harley Benton, Jackson and Ibanez). I saw some of those. I think they are made for metal but since I have got a nice sound with a solid body with flatwounds they should sound acceptable.
    I wonder if those guitars can sound with a 7th string.
    All the reviews on the net are about metal, never about jazz.
    All my question is about that 7th string and the string gauge.
    I would like to know if someone has ever played them or kind of with flatwounds.
    Should I choose a fanfretted for AEADGBE tuning ? Or it is not necessary ?
    I want to put 11 or 12 gauge... Is it too much ?
    Too many questions...

    Thanks !

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    Quote Originally Posted by Lionelsax
    Hi !

    I am interested in 7 string guitar because I like comping.
    I would like to buy a cheap model (Harley Benton, Jackson and Ibanez). I saw some of those. I think they are made for metal but since I have got a nice sound with a solid body with flatwounds they should sound acceptable.
    I wonder if those guitars can sound with a 7th string.
    All the reviews on the net are about metal, never about jazz.
    All my question is about that 7th string and the string gauge.
    I would like to know if someone has ever played them or kind of with flatwounds.
    Should I choose a fanfretted for AEADGBE tuning ? Or it is not necessary ?
    I want to put 11 or 12 gauge... Is it too much ?
    Too many questions...

    Thanks !
    My first 7 string was a Schecter Diamond series C-7. I preferred this over the Ibanez models, because it looked a little less like a metal guitar. It was a very well made guitar with excellent electronics and very nice wood. It was a perfect way to get started playing 7 string, without a huge investment. I put a set of D’Addario Chrome flatwounds (11’s) on it and it sounded great. To tune the 7th string to A, I found that I needed a string gauge anywhere from .070 - .074. That was a D’Addario roundwound single. It looks like Schecter still sells a similar guitar. Guitars : C-7 Deluxe
    Keith

  4. #3

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    The gauge shouldn’t be any issue as long as it’s set up right. Fanned fret shouldn’t be necessary.

  5. #4

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    Quote Originally Posted by floatingpickup
    My first 7 string was a Schecter Diamond series C-7. I preferred this over the Ibanez models, because it looked a little less like a metal guitar. It was a very well made guitar with excellent electronics and very nice wood. It was a perfect way to get started playing 7 string, without a huge investment. I put a set of D’Addario Chrome flatwounds (11’s) on it and it sounded great. To tune the 7th string to A, I found that I needed a string gauge anywhere from .070 - .074. That was a D’Addario roundwound single. It looks like Schecter still sells a similar guitar. Guitars : C-7 Deluxe
    Keith
    Thanks very much, you said more than I expected.
    Quote Originally Posted by ThatRhythmMan
    The gauge shouldn’t be any issue as long as it’s set up right. Fanned fret shouldn’t be necessary.
    Thanks very much !!!

  6. #5

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    I have a cheap DeArmond 7-string SG copy, made in Indonesia, and it's one of the easiest-playing guitars I've ever played. It was only ~$200, and it does have some issues, such as the tailpiece being slightly off-center, but it plays so nicely. I never play it, though, just bought it to try 7 strings and soon discovered that 7 is one too many for me. I used a .080 for the low A, and it was a little floppy.

  7. #6

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    The Schecter Demon is great & sells for $250 or less at the usual big dealers, and the Jackson JS22-7 Dinky is another nice $200 (new) basic 7 you can gig with. For a step up (and away from the metal world), ESP EC-257 is a very nice inexpensive 7 string in the LP mold. My first 7 was the first 7 ESP in their LTD “value” line, and it’s so well made that it’s still beautiful and giggable almost 30 years later. I’ve seen several 257s for sale used for well under $400 and there are often B stock new ones on Reverb with asking / make offer prices of $450-475.

    Ibanez has several nice 7s in their catalog between $500 and $800, and I’ve seen a few that we’re selling new for even less. I play every hard tail 7 I see at every music store I visit, and even the cheapest Ibanez models have been decent or better. Fan fret 7s are very nice, but I haven’t found them necessary and I now have six that I play regularly. You’ll have to set up any of the inexpensive ones for real strings, since they all come ready for shredding metal with strings so fine you can cut yourself on them.

    I have Chrome lights over a 65 Chrome A7 on my ESP and over a 72 RW on my Epi LP7. The Epi is a very nice bargain 7 if you can find an original ‘90s one - they sell for peanuts on the web but are starting to climb because there’s now a “signature model” in production that’s north of a grand. My better 7s (archtops and a Raines Tele7) are strung with TIs over 72 or 80 A7s, although I just tried a set of John Pearse 80/20 RWs on my Eastman 810CE7 and love it as an acoustic. My flattop acoustic 7s use RW.

  8. #7

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    Unless you like the super thin Wizard necks that Ibanez 7-strings have, from personal experience, I'd recommend Schecter 7-strings. You can get the bottom of the line Demons for about $250, or spend an additional $200 and get an Omen Extreme 7, which has a mahogany body, quilted maple top, and coil splitting for the pickups. I had one in 2008-2009, and if it weren't for the fact that I'd like to get my hands on another Schecter Jazz 7 again (which is a relatively rare [only made in 2000] semi-hollow 7-string, that I unfortunately had to sell, due to being broke), I'd consider getting another one, or a Hellraiser 7. Oh yeah, and the pickups and hardware are decent on Schecters.
    Last edited by EllenGtrGrl; 10-26-2021 at 06:08 AM.

  9. #8

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    I began with an Ibanez AX7521 that was made in Japan at the Fujigen factory. Really nice guitar with a nice neck. I played it with half rounds and it had the tonal range so I could play serious jazz on it. You can find them on Ebay for less than $500. There was a Korean and Chinese version of this guitar, and I've worked with them all (I worked for Ibanez at some point so I had access to their lines) and if you can deal with the smaller (les paul-ish) body, you'll get a really good starter into the 7 string world.
    I tune to low B and play with a .012 top string. Though many jazz players tend towards a low A, I use a low B because it encourages an easier continuum of bass lines in the same spacing as the other lower strings on the instrument. In other words, the 7 string at the 8th fret plays much like the low G on the 6th string, with the benefit of access to high D or higher on the 1st. It fits the way I think and the Ibanez sounds great with it.

  10. #9

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    The little Ibanez AX model that looks like an SG is a great bargain; I took the pickups out and replaced them with a single EMG 7-string modeling the neck position. 25" scale, rather short, but the D'Addario .060s I use seem to have enough tension to work and make a good sound. Currently for sale for cheap; I have way too many 7-string guitars.

  11. #10

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    Quote Originally Posted by ronjazz
    The little Ibanez AX model that looks like an SG is a great bargain; I took the pickups out and replaced them with a single EMG 7-string modeling the neck position. 25" scale, rather short, but the D'Addario .060s I use seem to have enough tension to work and make a good sound. Currently for sale for cheap; I have way too many 7-string guitars.
    Yeah I put duncan 59's which they make for 7 in mine. VERY jazzy sound. Great way to dip your toes in the 7 string world.

  12. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jimmy blue note
    Yeah I put duncan 59's which they make for 7 in mine. VERY jazzy sound. Great way to dip your toes in the 7 string world.
    I put a Duncan SH-2 Jazz pickup in mine and it was a very nice pickup.
    Keith

  13. #12

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jimmy blue note
    Yeah I put duncan 59's which they make for 7 in mine. VERY jazzy sound. Great way to dip your toes in the 7 string world.
    I have Duncans in my ESP LTD 7 too. They’re just simple, classic humbuckers that can be mellow, fat, or fusion-y depending on pots and amp. I’ve never had a reason to change them.

  14. #13

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    Thanks for sharing your experience.
    I think I am going to buy a Harley Benton R-457 or a Jackson JS22-7.
    I don't know why I think guitars made for metal are jazzy.

  15. #14

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    On Friday I tried a 7 string guitar, I think it was an RGD7521 (Ibanez).
    The sound was good but the 7th string was very floppy, the action was too low.
    They say it was impossible to play jazz on such a guitar but I did it.
    The biggest difficulty was that 7th string, I bended all basses. With a simple bend on this one, I could reach a perfect fourth.
    They said it was a 60 gauge.
    They said too it was a Fender scale length but I think it was not.
    Just a volume control, that was another problem.
    Despite this problem, it's a very light guitar, a comfortable neck but the scale length disturbed me on the first frets.
    Very cool music store, very kind people but they said I was on the wrong way for a jazz guitar.
    The sound was better on B tuning, on A tuning all basses went anywhere.
    The guitar was too beautiful and well made to experiment something on it with jazz strings.
    I need something cheaper.

  16. #15

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    Quote Originally Posted by Lionelsax
    On Friday I tried a 7 string guitar, I think it was an RGD7521 (Ibanez).
    The sound was good but the 7th string was very floppy, the action was too low.
    They say it was impossible to play jazz on such a guitar but I did it.
    The biggest difficulty was that 7th string, I bended all basses. With a simple bend on this one, I could reach a perfect fourth.
    They said it was a 60 gauge.
    They said too it was a Fender scale length but I think it was not.
    Just a volume control, that was another problem.
    Despite this problem, it's a very light guitar, a comfortable neck but the scale length disturbed me on the first frets.
    Very cool music store, very kind people but they said I was on the wrong way for a jazz guitar.
    The sound was better on B tuning, on A tuning all basses went anywhere.
    The guitar was too beautiful and well made to experiment something on it with jazz strings.
    I need something cheaper.
    To use it for jazz, you'll have to do some work on any mid level (or lower) 7 and many top quality ones. As I said in my post earlier in this thread, "You’ll have to set up any of the inexpensive ones for real strings, since they all come ready for shredding metal with strings so fine you can cut yourself on them."

    No new 7 string solid body you find in a music store today will be set up for jazz - only the metalheads want them the way they're sold. They're all strung with human hair, and there's no way to just drop a heavier set on. They all need to be set up from scratch - the nut slots have to be opened up and adjusted, and the bridge saddles may also have to be widened. That model (which is a very nice guitar) does not have a "Fender" (i.e. 25 1/2") scale - it's actually an inch longer at 26.5". The extra inch is better for intonation, and you'd probably do fine with the 65 thou 7th in a 7 string Chrome set because they're a lot stiffer than standard RW strings. But the nut slots will have to be opened up for the gauges in the set, and the action will have to be reset with some combination of truss rod adjustment and nut / bridge saddle height to make the heavier strings playable. Once you do this, it will not be returnable unless you modify new parts and keep the originals intact.

    Heavy metal 7s are a compromise for jazz. The necks are narrower, and they're not set up for heavy strings at either end. To set them up well, you may even have to change the nut and the 7th tuner. Remember that you have to get the string through the hole in the tuner, and most 7s under $2k have standard tuners that will barely pass a 65 (or less). Many really good 7s come with a larger tuner for the 7th string. My Ibanez AF207 was made with a bigger 7th tuner that will take an 80 with no difficulty. Sperzel and some others make tuners with larger posts and holes for the same purpose - I have an 0.085 on one guitar and an 0.078 on another. You can buy a Sperzel like these for $13 directly from them.

  17. #16

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    Quote Originally Posted by nevershouldhavesoldit
    Once you do this, it will not be returnable unless you modify new parts and keep the originals intact.
    This is why I want a very cheap one. It will be mine and my own experiment. Maybe at Cash Converter I can find one. I will see.

  18. #17

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    Hi !

    I received it today, I changed the strings.
    Pyramid flatwound strings (11-48), the low A is a D'Addario 64 round wound, a little bit floppy but it works.
    You won't hear it a lot.



    It's the first tune I record.

    This is a thread with the right way to play it.
    7 String Guitar Harley Benton R-457 WH Progressive Series
    Last edited by Lionelsax; 12-21-2021 at 10:25 PM.