[Leon]

bands have been doing it essentially forever. think of a guitar player versus a piano/organ player. the piano has a MUCH larger range than the guitar. or, the standard 4 string bass with a 6 string guitar. or, having a singer with no range at all

i think the biggest thing you're probably worried about is the B/E thing. if he wants to play something in E, you may want it to be in B. well, just approach your guitar as you would any other instrument. 7 string guitars aren't B B B B B B B B machines, they're just pussy magnets

[7 Dying Trees]

I play in a band where the other guitarist has a 6 in drop D. I hate drop tuning, so I just have my entire guitar downtuned ADGCFAD

[Toshiro]

There's always the inverted power chord option(with you playing the implied root on the 7) if you want that lower sound for a couple of riffs.

[Murder Soul]

As long as he plays leads he should be fine.

[konstantine3]

good luck in finding a groove!

[cow 7 sig]

my cow7 is tuned A E A D G B E my other guitarist plays a 6 tuned the same way minus the high e.works for us,but he is getting a 7 and we will tune lower.

[Shawn]

I used to be in a cover band with a 6-string guitarist and we did alot of covers in drop D as well as C and B tunings. I just altered everything on my 7. Everything I did in B, he did on a 6er tuned down. As far as him playing in standard E, well, I played in E on my 7 and used the lower notes here and there to add some low end. It sounded great.

[ZeroSignal]

Well we both play lead and rhythm because we both love lead players.

Also I don't do the whole BBBBBBBB... pedal tone thing because I've learned from Trivium, Malmsteen and Children Of Bodom that you can play a pedaltone lick/riff anywhere on the fretboard. I'm more interested in if we decide to have a Freak On A Leash style breakdown for one reason or another that he wouldn't be able to keep up in the heavyness stakes...

I was thinking of some crazy harmony stuff:
Bass play's the root, I play the third and he play's the fifth (or whatever, depending on the chord and the inversion)

[mgood]

Seven-string and six-string playing together? Sure, why not? Different voicings, different inversions of the same chord can make for a bigger, richer texture. And when one is playing a lead over the other's rhythm part, I don't see that it would matter at all.

There are bands which have guitars and keyboards playing together. **gasp**
They certainly aproach chords in different ways. So two guitars, each having a different number of strings, shouldn't be that big of a deal.

Originally Posted by Leon

bands have been doing it essentially forever. think of a guitar player versus a piano/organ player. the piano has a MUCH larger range than the guitar. or, the standard 4 string bass with a 6 string guitar.

Leon beat me to my answer. (What I get for posting before I read the whole thread.)
And going along with what he said about 4-string bass with 6-string guitar, I've played a lot of "rhythm guitar" on bass. When I first started playing, it was usually just me and a guitarist jamming together. Of course he wanted to solo. Bass playing one note at a time along with guitar playing one note at a time with nothing else going on sounded boring to me (especially since neither of us were very good). So I spent a lot of time strumming root & fifth double-stops (power chords) while he soloed over that.

[TheMasterplan]

Originally Posted by ZeroSignal

Hey.

I'm forming a band with a guy who has a epiphone les paul and a fender strat. His style is primarily bluesy classic rockish (jimmy page and rory gallagher are his heroes), the total opposite style of mine, but that's cool because we're setting up an experimental type band.

But he uses E standard tuning. What I want to know is if anyone else here is in a band with a 6 stringer and how do you make it work? Or should I force him to buy a 7 or use drop-B?

Any help or tips would be appreciated!

You should check out some Spawn Of Possession tabs. Thy have one seven string guitarist and one six string guitarist and they find ways to compliment one another and just work with each other musically, it may give you some ideas/inspiration. I might be facing the same dilemma soon, so godspeed.