Hey Mr White, you were comparing this with the universe 777.
How about sharing your views with us on your final decision.?? :-D
That's a very good question. Thanks for asking man...
The Universe was a nice guitar indeed. But somehow, the bling on the guitar sort of distracted the viewer from it's tones. The guitar is daunting. Being the Vai 7 string, a prestige and with blaze pickups, people EXPECTED this to sound great. Somehow, I sort of expected bells and whistles too. It comes with Blaze pups, and an Edge Pro bridge.
I was surprised at the lack of clarity of the neck pickup on clean. The bridge was nice though. But overall, I didn't feel that it was much better than the S7320, and much more expensive. Better made and better looking, yes. Better sounding? Not really. Plus, I was looking for a 22 fretter specifically.
The S7320 had 22 frets, and the ZR7 bridge. That bridge is fantastic. I just spend about 30 mins in all last night resetting the intonation because I'm using the guitar in A rather than B. I couldn't believe how easy it was to reset the intonation. I still have a dual action trem, but it's "locked" in the middle, so it shifts very slightly. Amazing japanese design.
For a Korean made Ibby, this piece I got was really well finished. It was actually a lot better than the display piece, which had some blemishes somewhere. The stock Axis pups aren't half bad lah... Can do with a bit of tweaking. But considering they're stock pups, and the neck tone is already more appealing than the UV, I'd say there's a lot to say about the S7320's character.
Actually, the real opponent of this purchase of the S7320 wasn't the UV. It was actually an EBMM JP7 with piezo. The ONLY reason I got this over the JP7 was the 22 frets. Other than that, if this was a 24 fretter, I'd have taken the JP7 in an instant...:mrgreen:
Plus, I have a feeling the take up rate of this 7 string is slower than most other models. So, I have a feeling Ibanez will eventually discontinue this model, which will turn this about 15 years later into one of those "RARE" pieces... Heh... Much more novelty than a K7, no?
P.S. The S has a smaller fretbaord radius than most other 7s...
