Why isn’t 7-string guitar used more in practice

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A quick google seems to have many good things to say about 7 string, and the answer to “whether someone should buy a 7 string” is majority “yes”, without stating possible issues. And objectively it make sense: 7 string is just 6 string with addition of low B, so on songs that don’t use that string, just don’t pick/strum it. Yet, to my knowledge, artist that use majority of 7 string are few. Aside from a few metal bands, the only other new groups I can think of that utilize 7 string is Babymetal; much less so in Blues or Rock or Pop. Even Steve Vai seems to play less on 7-string nowadays. So why isn’t 7-string guitar used more in practice? Specifically, are there some issues on 7 string (especially those on 25.5 inch scale) that a 6 string is more benefical?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

>On songs that don’t use that string just don’t pick/strum it.

Do you play guitar? Because while this certainly *is* doable, it’s not as easy as you make it sound.

But really the question is why bother? There are a lot of different stringed instruments with lots of variation in number of strings. Six evolved as the standard for guitar because it combines decent range and chord options with physical playability.

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