He developed a guitar that had more frets than six-string. It allowed the guitar to venture to an extremely higher octave and helped it reached a wide range, expanding the scope of notes that a lot of musicians were able to play along with. This type of guitar has its roots in jazz, and the first regular-production model arrived at the end of the s. The first mass-produced 7-string guitar model arrived in the early s — the Ibanez UV7, a Steve Vai signature model.
Since then, it became popular, and a lot of musicians found them interesting and was able to produce beautiful music. Bands like Korn, Mushroomhead, Trivium, and Deftones utilized them to powerful effect. Regardless of their shape, size, fret numbers, guitars remain to be one of the most beloved and popular musical instrument in the world.
With such a rich historical background and their versatility, it is no wonder that they remained to serve and produce good music. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Steve Vai , in his infinite, sage-like wisdom, responded, "Six is enough, and eight is enough too.
Whatever you want. Four can be enough. And that's really what it came down to when whittling down our list of 15 of the best seven-string and eight-string players in guitarville right now: Who has the imagination to take that extra string or two and do something with them that couldn't be replicated simply by down-tuning or pitch-shifting? It would have been very easy for seven- or 8-string guitars to be sitting in a museum somewhere as novelty items—you know, Spinal Tap-esque relics of an age when guitarists went "one lower.
I had no idea that they were going to do what they did. Whether utilizing seven strings or eight, Deftones have packed some serious subsonics into their music over the years. Loomis' seven-string skills are put to great use on a monster track called "Jato Unit. Make it to the end and you can truly call yourself a seven-string guitarist.
When Tosin Abasi recorded what was essentially a solo album under the name Animals as Leaders, his goal was to expand the pallet of heavy, progressive music into something that was more compositionally challenging for him and more accessible to linsteners.
Tosin may be better known for rocking the eight-string these days, but "CAFO" from Animals as Leaders' eponymous debut is as fine an example of seven-string mastery as you'll come across in the modern metal-scape. If you're even slightly familiar with music driven by electric seven-string guitars, Sweden's Ola Englund needs no introduction. He's played a seven-stringer for years with the Haunted and—especially—Feared and has an ever-evolving line of signature models through Washburn plus his own line of axes.
And then there's his popular YouTube channel, which features his trademark gear demos, many of which have appeared on GuitarWorld. In a genre that's often put down for self-indulgence, instrumental-prog-rockers Scale The Summit have found that perfect niche between musicality and technical fireworks.
In other words, the band, which features seven-string guitarsts Chris Letchford and Travis Levrier, puts the focus squarely on the songs. That would push a lot of people away. Over time, the design of the seven-string guitar has expanded to include instruments with extended scale lengths and alternate tunings, which has made the decision process more confusing for newcomers as well as experienced guitarists shopping for their first seven- or eight-string guitar.
While the basic features on a standard six-string and seven- or 8-string guitar are essentially the same, many of these attributes on seven- and eight-string guitars require more careful consideration based on how one plans on playing the instrument such as riffs, solos, chords and rhythm or all of the above , the tuning one prefers to use standard, drop tuning or alternate tunings and other playing and performance details.
In some respects, the seven- and eight-string guitar are almost like entirely new instruments, but the differences between them and standard six-string guitars is not as vast as the gap between a six-string guitar and a bass.
Probably 99 Percent of all six-string solidbody electric guitars made today have scale lengths that fall somewhere between Eight-string guitars typically have scale lengths that are at least 27 inches, while a handful of examples like the Ibanez M80M Meshuggah signature measure almost For a guitarist who is used to playing a Gibson Les Paul with a A seven-string guitar with a However, instruments with longer scales offer certain sonic advantages, particularly for players who want to tune down the lowest string a whole step or the entire guitar a whole step or more.
On a shorter scale guitar, tuning down reduces string tension to a point where the lowest strings can feel too slinky and loose, which also makes those strings difficult to play in tune as even the slightest amount of excess pressure while fretting notes can bend the pitch. Some players use heavier string gauges to compensate, but intonation can become problematic for heavier gauge strings on shorter scale instruments and heavier gauge strings may not fit into the tuning pegs.
Fanned fret instruments provide the best of both worlds - shorter scale lengths for the treble strings and longer scale lengths for the bass strings.
Longer scale lengths require greater string tension when tuning to the same pitch as a shorter scale instrument, which allows players to use lighter string gauges that they are more comfortable with especially on the high E string instead of the heavier gauge strings required to maintain adequate tension on instruments with shorter scales. Conversely, longer scales allow players to use heavier strings at lower tensions, which can make heavy strings easier to play, especially when bending notes.
Several companies now offer seven-and eight-string guitars with fanned frets also known as multiple-scale fretboards , where the nut, bridge and frets are installed at varying angles instead of perpendicular to the strings.
Fanned scale lengths generally range from The rule of thumb for seven- and eight-string guitars is basically the same as it is for a six-string guitar: narrower nut widths are generally more comfortable for players with smaller hands while wider nut widths are better for players with bigger hands or who want more space in between each string to facilitate fretting notes more cleanly.
Depending on the nut width of a seven- or eight-string guitar, the addition of an extra string or two can result in strings that may feel too close to each other or a neck that feels uncomfortably wide and unwieldy. This is one instance where guitarists need to try out instruments before they buy to see how comfortable the neck width feels in their hands.
Some seven-string necks are as narrow as 42 or 43 millimeters certain ESP and Caparison models, for example , which is about the same nut width as a standard six-string Stratocaster, so with the addition of an extra string the strings are now much more closely spaced together. Players who prefer the same average string spacing as a six-string guitar should look for seven-string guitars with nut widths around 47 to 48mm.
Because the necks on most seven-and eight-string guitars are wider than those on six-string guitars, the shape of the neck profile and curvature of the radius can seem more exaggerated.
Generally, most seven-string and particularly eight-string guitars have thin and relatively flat profiles as even an average C-shaped profile can seem overly thick and unwieldy. The trade-off for the easier, faster playability of a flat, thin neck profile is that the tone may not be as full and rich or the neck may not always feel solid, so you have to determine your priorities here.
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