7 Slingers... Come on in!

S

ShredCow

New member
Hey guys,
I should be getting a lovely RG7621 soon. Hehe... excited about the 7 string. Not only for rhythm and the standard (albeit boring) power chords but for extended chord voicings...

I'll like to hear from axemen with 7 stringers who still have 6 strings, what kind of gear/setup/setting changes do you go thru when switching from 6 to 7s? How many of you stick to the same settings? Any effects in particular you find working well with the low B, esp distortion?

Also, any tips to share when approaching the 7?
 
I didn't go through any gear changes but I did have to adjust my eq a little in order for the low B to really sing. I used my 7 for the first time with my band last jam session, I ran it through my tonebone classic and got a great tone too. So IMHO there's not much adjustments that you have to make to your current setup in order to accomodate an extra string.

As for the guitar, I use an Ibanez universe, it takes a little getting used to but after a while switching between 6 and 7 is no problem at all. I totally neglected my 6 after using the 7 for some period.

As far as techniques go, if you're using a low B, just think of it as the notes on the 2nd string and you're set. You can get some pretty nice sounding power chords from the low B. As far as extending chord voicings, I have yet to try that. It's pretty much beyond me, I mostly use the faithful power chord.

It's a pretty interesting tonality if you have a 6 stringer in your band and duplicate the chords with the low B.

Very nice textures.
 
I see... I don't forsee my settings changing too since my setup is generally bright sounding. Prob would have to lay off the analogman DS1 as its, well, still a ds1 with the standard fuzzy-ness.

Ah, the Universe is a 7 I would like to own... the S7420 is the 7 string I really want to own. After a change of the lo trs to lo pro edge 7 that is.

I actually wanted to just grab the 7621 for rhythm work, since my S520EX can't chug very well and I want the Saber to be a lead machine, not both which would be a compromise in either direction. But come to think of it... if things go well with the fixed bridge 7, I might move on and flip to 7 totally! I think theres are lot I'm missing out by not jumping to the 7 string bandwagon.

Say, Souljah, are you on Jemsite? Chrisfromsingapore?
 
Yup that's me :)

I've been a faithful follower of jemsite since its founding. But forgot my old forum password. lol.

And yeah another thing, it's a big temptation to go overboard with gain on a 7 for that low B CHUGA CHUGA CHUGA tone. But try not to, it'll only screw up that whole definition and tone of your other strings as well.

It will most definately take some time getting used to both settings and playing wise, but stick with it.
 
Oh yeah... I need to ask this.

For those of you with the 25.5 inch scale for 7s, how do you find your low B? Is it floppy? What guage do you use?

Thing is, from my limited experience with 7s, I found the low B too floppy on the standard Ibanez guage (9 - 52s?) and generally unstable. Even with 10 - 60, I thought it was quite unwieldy in terms of tunning stability and so on. Baritone 7s like Jim Soloway's Swans or the RG2077XL seem the way to go to counter this issue.
 
SoulJah said:
And yeah another thing, it's a big temptation to go overboard with gain on a 7 for that low B CHUGA CHUGA CHUGA tone. But try not to, it'll only screw up that whole definition and tone of your other strings as well.
Click to expand...

I see! Advice taken man. :)

Nowadays I use less gain... so it shouldn't be too bad. Shall rely on hot pups to push the gain for my 7. If the stock dimarzios don't cut it, I'm thinking Evo7 with Air Norton 7. Or the Blaze Custom, Blaze neck combi, :)
 
I flucuate between a .054 and a .056, and yes I do agree that things can get floppy with a .052. I tried out the XL series and they sound awesome, a much bigger bottom end a crisp sort (not shrilly) of treble tones.

I believe I have blaze pickups in mine, at one point of time I was tempted to go to EMG707s or Bartolinis, but I got some capicitors wired in my tone pots and some other beyond my knowledge mods by Mark Stevens. That was about 7 years ago and she still sounds awesome.

Did I also mention that he did my incredible setup as well? ;)
 
Aye you did mention that. :)

Ooo.. this pots and caps thing, can cost a BOMB. Saw a boutique Les Paul electronics saddle (4 pots, 2 caps) go for like 300USD at an online shop. The caps are are big as your ring finger tip. 8)

Well, this axe will be my first 7, to play around and experiment with... if the floppiness is an issue, ugh, extented scale = longer stretches esp on lower frets. Not exactly great for rhythm playing.

Your Universe would have blazes in them... stock pups... Have you heard of ludgren (sp?) pups? Meshugga uses them. Passives but sound better than EMGs on gain and with the warmth/subtlities of passives.
 
The extended scale length didn't really take that much getting used to, actually I couldn't really tell the difference. :P

Yeah I've seen those pickups before but I'm not really looking for the meshuggah type tone. I love their music, especially the Holdsworth type tones and playing the lead guitarist does.

I'm a firm believer in keeping things simple, as long as you have an idea of how you want your sound to be like an experienced tech can get it done for you.

Basically what me and Mark did was took some time to listen to some recordings which featured the 7. And also how my guitar sounded like through my setup and personal settings. He then tweaked it from there.
 
Hey Shred,
Remember to tell us all about your new 7string when it comes and let us in on the whole experience!
 
i must be the most boring player here- my set-up's in tact (identical to my 6's set-up) even with the addition of my RG7620 way back in Y2K. personally, it's all about my amp sounding right with the 7, so why add anything else into the equation.

oh, what's my set-up like? guitar --> amp
 
NOOOOOOO!!!
Never. Eh, next time I go jam with your band, i gotta try out the EMGs more leh. It didn't impress me one bit... :(
 
Bring your pedalboard next time, and see how they sound through your set up. I can't wait for my 707s to arrive. Probably within a week or two.
 
Cool man. This Thurs would be cool?

I understnad EMGs if made for hi gain, don't talk about the dynamics or clean tone lah, but they gotta appeal to me in some way first. :)
 
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