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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Because most bands simply don’t want to play in B standard so there’s no point in even having the string there
It’s only really benefit is to heavy music and they do use it quite frequently, but the genres that benefit from it are niche as you have to be decently proficient at the instrument to still need the high strings as well
They got 8 strings now. If I thought there was a snowball’s chance in hell I could ever learn an Animals as Leaders song I’d have an 8 string. The true freak show is the fender Bass VI. Wait until you see one of those things.
I am an owner of a Schecter 007 Elite — 7 String guitar. The B string, if you understand the standard tuning of a guitar: **E** A D G B **E**, you really only need 5 strings for standard tuning as the E repeats, as does the B. With that out of the way, all it does is allow you access to a effectively what would be a ‘bass’ gauged string at around a 70.
For reference the 2nd lightest string on a bass is about a 65, so its about as heavy as that.
I find it interesting to transpose some music onto the B string to get a deeper tone, or make it easier to play, so it gives you some flexibility there, but as other have pointed out… it mostly just fits metal style music because deeper tones complement well with metal.
Aside from that, in a band setting you generally leave those notes for your bass player, but if you just tool around it definitely gives you more versatility, which is why I enjoy it.
Note: 7 string guitar necks are much wider, and also in general the strings are closer together so overall they are harder to play, but not so much as I’d discourage anyone from switching. It does take your wrist a bit to adapt and makes doing ‘bar’ chords much harder due to the extra force required to push down the strings.
The 7th string has some downsides:
* the fretboard is simply wider, making some grips more difficult and the guitar in total heavier.
* adding a string can mess up your frame of reference.
* you have to be more careful when strumming the low E. You suddenly have to avoid a string which you never had to think about before.
The downsides aren’t that big, but most guitar players don’t use the low string anyway so there is no reason to deal with the downsides.
I know several metalcore bands who even play on drop A tuning on 6 strings because they realize that the opposite is also true, they don’t need the high string.
PS: If you look at metalcore/deathcore 7 or 8 strings are a lot more prevalent compared to mainstream music.
Most instruction is for 6 strings. Same with parts and accessories. You can add range by alternative tuning or getting a baritone or bass VI guitar.
More strings usually means a wider neck which can be more cumbersome to play once you get past a certain point. If the music someone plays doesn’t make use of the extra string then why burden themselves with the wider neck?
>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.
No expert here but I have had a couple of 7-strings and I do enjoy them.
I think for the most part the low B is just too low for most genres of music, you might be competing with the bass guitar/other low-end instruments. It’s even common on a standard-tuned 6-string to play stripped down chord voicings without even touching the 5th and 6th strings as opposed to full barre chords, and that’s to allow the guitar to sit in the mix better.
Jazz is pretty much open for a musician to do whatever they want so having the extended range of a 7+ string guitar could be useful but you still don’t see that very much.
For the rock/punk/players who take after Kurt Cobain, having to think about not hitting the low B when you’re strumming away is not ideal. I don’t play any of those genres, but still when I play thrash metal I go for my 6 string so I don’t have to confine the movement of my picking hand as much since I’m galloping away on the low E string so much of the time.
Lots of guitarists like to keep their thumbs up over the neck especially when playing the open position chords because it feels natural but with a 7-string, particularly an Ibanez with a Wizard neck profile, doing so is really uncomfortable.
Even in heavier/metal contexts you’ll commonly see people **not** recommending a 7 string if a player is not going to use all of the range offered. I don’t fully agree with that argument, but the overall sentiment is that you don’t *need* a 7 string to play in a low tuning, and that much is true. A properly set up 6-string or a baritone will do just as well or better in some contexts.
7s are kind of passe now anyway now that Meshuggah has gone and dominated the progressive metal scene; ever since the early 2010s every other metal band is out there playing 8 strings. 7-strings had their moment of fame in the 90s with Steve Vai and bands like Korn.
7-strings do have the advantage of being able to play massive chord voicings especially if you drop-tune to AEADGBE and there’s space in the mix for those low notes to not get lost in the mud. Overall though, I think they’re just kind of out of style now that 8 and 9 strings are mainstream. I still think 7-strings are cool as hell and I’ll always have one in my collection. I imagine most players who play 7-strings think so as well, and they’re likelier to recommend 7-strings to other guitarists hence why you’re seeing them recommended so often.
I’m sure some of it is just guitarists being set in their ways as well, there’s lots of tradition and superstition influencing the opinions you’ll see out there in the guitar community.
You don’t want to clutter a given frequency range would be my best guess. For example, in the Brazilian genre Choro the 7-string guitar is widely used to play both the bass line and the main melody. The “exchange” for it is that it doesn’t use the bass or similar instruments, because they’d be disputing the same frequency range without that much of a timbre difference. Choro arrangements for 6-string guitars, on the other hand, tend to include a double bass, bass guitar or tuba
In heavier styles of metal, the 7-string guitar ends up being desirable because either the guitar has so much distortion it doesn’t clash with the bass guitar at similar frequencies, or the “muddied” sound is actually desired
And since so much modern music is written as to be “comfortable” to play in a six-string guitar, you more often than not have to transpose the song, unless you’re only playing power chords, in which case the 7th string might actually help a few times
There’s also the minor factor that the higher strings can resonate with the lower strings’ harmonics and create unwanted “fuzz”
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