[Drew]

Do I NEED a seven? No. I'm sure I could play a six for the rest of my life and be perfectly happy.

But what fn would that be?

The added low end is one of the perks of seven strings, true, but that's nothing you can't get by detuning. A seven allows you to jump between low riffing and standard-register soloing on the fly, which is a perk, but not essential- you can just write around that. And likewise, while the seven lets you go down an extra fourth in any position, you can compensate for that with position shifts. Same for riffing- if you're willing to jump around, I'm sure you could arrange anything on on a 7 for a 6 (well, almost). And after a year or so of playing 6's exclusively, I probably wouldn't miss it.

So why do I play a 7? Cause they're fuckin' cool and I don't WANT to have to jump around unless I want to. That and I like the wider neck. There's some downsides (jimi style chording is virtually impossible) so I doubt I'll ever sell my last 6 for a 7 (although it could happen, I suppose, I know better than to say never), frankly, I just LIKE playing 7's more than 6's.

The fact it's still seen as a fairly exotic instrument is pretty cool, too. Lots of people play guitar. Almost no one plays seven-string guitar. So, you'll be talking up some girl at a party and mention you're a seven-string guitarist, and she'll go "wow..."

Ok, ok, that's not the ONLY reason I play them, but it sure helps...

Actually, come to think of it, the reason I first bought my 7620 was the symmetry of it appealed to me- it always bothered me on some level that the guitar didn't have a "center" string.

-D

[Christopher]

I've actually had a six string (tuned standard), a six string (tuned B-B), and a seven string all at the same time before. The baritone was cool for some stuff, mostly if all I wanted to do was heavy riffs in the lower register.

My problem with it wasn't that I found soloing any different but I missed the high E string to get those shimmery chord voicings. I'm way influenced by bands like Dream Theater, Queensryche, & Fates Warning.

Almost every song I play or write has low tuned riffs AND complex clean arpeggios and chords using the high E has part of the tone. I could still do it with the baritone but it was a lot harder fingering those chords than necessary.

So for me, I sold all my other guitars except a lone six string Ibanez that I take on gigs for emergency string breakage use. I even tune that one in drop D just to justify it.

I found that I needed both the high E string and the lower tunings. It wasn't like I needed them at the same time but during the same song.

[stuh84]

Don't think I could go without my seven string now at all. I do a lot of stuff that involes all 7 strings (not just solo's, I do stuff where I have a chord over 5 strings, and a changing bassline on the bottom 2 strings). I am also a huge fan of droning notes while playing chords, so having the Low B droning while playing some chords with the rest of the 6 strings. I still play 6's, I have 5 other 6 strings (two acoustics, 3 electrics) but the fact is if I didn't have a 7 string, much of my repertoire would dissapear (you try doing a chord in 7th position while using your thumb on first fret for the bassline), or would have to be changed to compensate for different voicings, and im my opinion, worse voicings.

I also am in a band where the bassist sings, I'm getting an 8 string so as I can free him up to work the crowd more and do bass lines at the same time as playing guitar, it just makes more sense than have all of us trying to work the crowd up while being occupied elsewhere, have him work the crowd up and the rest of the band can help rather than it falling on the shoulders of all of us all at once. Fact is most people care more about the vocals than the rest of the band, so we need him to be more of a focal point of the band.

[Mind Riot]

Wow, a much more diverse set of replies than I expected! I was thinking I'd get about twenty responses all saying "Duh, this is sevenstring.org, of course we all NEED a seven."

One thing that was mentioned that I agree with is that now for me sevens are more comfortable to play than sixes. I'm a big guy, 6'4" and about 280 lbs and I have big hands. Sixes feel like little kids toys to me now, whereas that nice wide seven string neck just feels like home.

Another thing for me is that I like having the extra range to write whatever I want without sacrificing the ability to play anything else. With a detuned six your whole range is different and you have to write around that as someone said. But with a seven I can play anything that I could play on a six, plus more.

[Vince]

Originally Posted by Mind Riot

...that nice wide seven string neck just feels like home.

+1

When I first started playing music as a kid, I began on piano. It wasn't until I got a 7-string guitar, that the full range of guitar opened up to me like I was sitting at a piano again.

7-string electric guitars are the instrument that feels the most natural to me.

[Christopher]

Originally Posted by Mind Riot

Wow, a much more diverse set of replies than I expected! I was thinking I'd get about twenty responses all saying "Duh, this is sevenstring.org, of course we all NEED a seven."

One thing that was mentioned that I agree with is that now for me sevens are more comfortable to play than sixes. I'm a big guy, 6'4" and about 280 lbs and I have big hands. Sixes feel like little kids toys to me now, whereas that nice wide seven string neck just feels like home.

Another thing for me is that I like having the extra range to write whatever I want without sacrificing the ability to play anything else. With a detuned six your whole range is different and you have to write around that as someone said. But with a seven I can play anything that I could play on a six, plus more.

Yep, I've got that big & tall thing happening too! I'm 6'5" & around 270 lbs.

[WayneCustom7]

Originally Posted by deadringer

Yep, I've got that big & tall thing happening too! I'm 6'5" & around 270 lbs.

Man you guys would make a great tag team

[Drew]

6'0", currently about 165-170. You guys could kick my ass, but at least I wouldn't have to look up very much to talk trash before the fight...

-D

[Metal Ken]

i REQUIRE 7 strings. Actually i can get by fine on a 6, but i'll take a seven any day, just for the ease of use for extra changes, extra shapes, and extra notes. And the ability to play Carcass songs w/o downtuning.

[Elysian]

well, i typed up some stuff earlier, but for some reason i got a "cannot find page" when i posted... so i'll try again lol... i'm only 5'9" not a real big dude, but the 7's neck radius is perfect for my hands, i absolutely love it... but my 7 lacks some, even with the dimarzio blaze custom in the bridge... mines a RG7421 with a scallop from 12-24... it sounds good, but not low endy good, it actually lacks in low end, which is very odd considering the blaze custom only really lacks in mid's.... on the other hand, my alder bodied, neck thru, jackson RR5, with a duncan Seth Lover Bridge pup in the neck Position, and a Dimarzio X2N in the bridge position, has much more punch and much more low end,a nd i only tune it to D, but it actually sounds heavier than when i'm playing on the low B(sometimes A) on my 7... its a much beefier guitar, and i absolutely love playing it, not to mention its classy looks(cream with black pinstriping, and a bridge pup to match, as well as the neck pup being like the origional PAF with a nickel cover...) the rhoads is also the most perfectly balanced guitar i've ever played(with a strap standing up of course), and its very comfortable for me to play sitting down... on the RG7421 i had to reposition the strap button to basically where my armpit sits when i'm sitting down so that the 7 would sit at the right angle naturally while i was playing it standing... it really seems top heavy... in short i guess if my 7 had more low end(oh how i wish dimarzio made an X2N for a 7), and was balanced better, i'd probly play it more, but my RR5 has my attention for the time being...