Who plays the 7 string guitar ?

[tbeltrans]

Well, I was thinking about the 7 string guitar like guitar + bass for comping or solo guitar not like a shredding machine.

This is what Robert Conti's approach to the 7 (and 8) string guitar is. He told me that if I really want to play chord melody, the 7th string really makes the guitar a complete solo instrument.

My two 7 string guitars (Jimmy Foster archtop and Emerald acoustic) have wider string spacing than others I have tried. The wide neck doesn't bother me and I prefer wider spacing since I play fingerstyle rather than plectrum. I am not going to do the thumb over fretting and you do adjust your approach a bit to accommodate.

The way I approached getting used to 7 string involved a couple of things:

1. Every day I do a note finding exercise that is in Ted Greene's "Chord Chemistry" - pick a note at random and find it along each string, going up and then back down. Since I already do this with a 6 string, adding the 7th string was no big deal.
2. Something I read somewhere, ignore the 7th string for the first week or two so you get used to everything being "off" by one string and then slowly start adding the 7th string.
3. I tune the 7th string to an octave below the 'A' 5th string, so I start putting notes that I play on the 5th string down to the 7 string. This works best with chords whose lowest played note (doesn't have to be the root) is on that 5th string.

The coolest thing about a 7 string guitar is that it has a similar effect on people as showing up with a car with a stick shift instead of an automatic..."what am I supposed to do with this?". Unfortunately, I don't have a car with a stick anymore, but I do have my 7 string guitars.

Tony

[Lionelsax]

This is what Robert Conti's approach to the 7 (and 8) string guitar is. He told me that if I really want to play chord melody, the 7th string really makes the guitar a complete solo instrument.

My two 7 string guitars (Jimmy Foster archtop and Emerald acoustic) have wider string spacing than others I have tried. The wide neck doesn't bother me and I prefer wider spacing since I play fingerstyle rather than plectrum. I am not going to do the thumb over fretting and you do adjust your approach a bit to accommodate.

The way I approached getting used to 7 string involved a couple of things:

1. Every day I do a note finding exercise that is in Ted Greene's "Chord Chemistry" - pick a note at random and find it along each string, going up and then back down. Since I already do this with a 6 string, adding the 7th string was no big deal.
2. Something I read somewhere, ignore the 7th string for the first week or two so you get used to everything being "off" by one string and then slowly start adding the 7th string.
3. I tune the 7th string to an octave below the 'A' 5th string, so I start putting notes that I play on the 5th string down to the 7 string. This works best with chords whose lowest played note (doesn't have to be the root) is on that 5th string.

The coolest thing about a 7 string guitar is that it has a similar effect on people as showing up with a car with a stick shift instead of an automatic..."what am I supposed to do with this?". Unfortunately, I don't have a car with a stick anymore, but I do have my 7 string guitars.

Tony

Like this ?

[tbeltrans]

Like this ?

Yeah! Like that.

[MartinLau]

I play 7 string too. Got my first some time around 2002/2003 and played 6- and 7 string about equally for a few years. Then strictly 6 string for many years until a couple of years ago.

For duo and trio gigs, without a bassist, I had tried using baritone guitars a bit, but never bonded with them and always disliked having to transpose everything back and forth depending on the band lineup. Then realized, that a 7 string would solve the situation: 6 strings in standard tuning and the 7th for whenever the extended range was needed. So I ordered a guitar from Nikolai Schorr in Berlin. It was finished in February this year and I love it! It has been easy to get back on the 7 string and it fit the music that I play just as I hoped.

Only problem was, that the Schorr is akinda expensive and more delicate instrument and I realized, that it would be great to have a 7 string solid body that I wouldn't feel too precious about bringing to any sort of gig. Enter Guttlin Guitars.

This 7 string Stratotone that Karel at Guttlin built has been my main live guitar for almost 6 months now (Karels build time is SUPER quick).

Here are a few live clips:

[Lionelsax]

Great !