The 7-string guitar completely replaces the 6-string guitar ?

[NoodleFace]

Should also say I played in a band that had old songs in D Standard and new songs in A Standard so I just used a single 7. I had no issues playing both sets, but the other guitarist really struggled with it. So to each their own really

 

[Mechanos71]

i think it depends on just personal preference. I play a mix of 7 and 6 its really just how I am feeling on a given day. The neck of my warmoth 6 feels great in my hand but so does my JPX-7. I think have a general preference for a certain neck width so my blackwater 6 while crazy comfortable feels, and my suhr 7 feels large, but they are all great players and I feel comfortable swapping between them with no adjustments.
One thing you may notice that I feel like no one has mentioned here is that I feel 7s eq dark, like the lower end frequencies are always more accentuated. My guitar instructor ALWAYS complains/references about it when I bring a 7 over. The acoustic transducer engineer in me says its the mutual impedance of the that 7th string serving to color the overall timbre of the instrument. So that may be one reason certain players stick to 6's as opposed to 7's in certain applications, the guitar tone in their minds eye sounds like a 6 and not a 7.

 

[gunch]

I didn't think I liked the idea of having a 7 until I saw this sebastiside video

 

[Arnaldo]

i think it depends on just personal preference. I play a mix of 7 and 6 its really just how I am feeling on a given day. The neck of my warmoth 6 feels great in my hand but so does my JPX-7. I think have a general preference for a certain neck width so my blackwater 6 while crazy comfortable feels, and my suhr 7 feels large, but they are all great players and I feel comfortable swapping between them with no adjustments.
One thing you may notice that I feel like no one has mentioned here is that I feel 7s eq dark, like the lower end frequencies are always more accentuated. My guitar instructor ALWAYS complains/references about it when I bring a 7 over. The acoustic transducer engineer in me says its the mutual impedance of the that 7th string serving to color the overall timbre of the instrument. So that may be one reason certain players stick to 6's as opposed to 7's in certain applications, the guitar tone in their minds eye sounds like a 6 and not a 7.

I did notice that in general they are always darker and I really like that. It is perhaps one of my complaints that I had about the 6-string Suhrs, which sounded very bright and thin, although it can always be solved by compensating with effects and the amplifier.

I didn't think I liked the idea of having a 7 until I saw this sebastiside video

excellent player, the truth is that I am not as modern or as good as him,

 

[gh0styboi]

I mean, CAN a 7 replace a 6 completely? Sure. I don't see why not. So can an 8, if you want to get technical about it.

Do I think they're interchangeable, or that either a 7 or 8 string make a 6 string obsolete? No. Not for me, at least. For me personally, there's a difference in how I approach stuff on my 6 strings - even my baritones - than I use when I'm writing on my 7s or 8s. It's less of an issue for my mind when you're talking about doing covers or something like that instead of writing/composing.

 

[Wucan]

I have no problem jumping into a 7 straight from a 6. But it's just comfier to play a 6-string song on a 6-string guitar.

 

[Arnaldo]

I mean, CAN a 7 replace a 6 completely? Sure. I don't see why not. So can an 8, if you want to get technical about it.

Do I think they're interchangeable, or that either a 7 or 8 string make a 6 string obsolete? No. Not for me, at least. For me personally, there's a difference in how I approach stuff on my 6 strings - even my baritones - than I use when I'm writing on my 7s or 8s. It's less of an issue for my mind when you're talking about doing covers or something like that instead of writing/composing.

Thanks for the contribution, it certainly seems to be the general opinion, we could even say that they are almost different instruments, brothers or cousins, not as distant as an acoustic guitar but it is evident that with an acoustic guitar the mind thinks differently despite being six strings with a neck

 

[Arnaldo]

I have no problem jumping into a 7 straight from a 6. But it's just comfier to play a 6-string song on a 6-string guitar.

Thank you, I'm getting clearer about it every time, I'm going to finish reflecting since the guitar is not in stock yet, it will take one or two weeks to arrive at the store

 

[JSKrev]

I alternate between the two. The 7 works best for a lot of the extreme metal that I play. But I also play in an old school metal band where a 6 is more appropriate. It doesn't take much adjustment switching back and forth.

 

[Xaios]

Since I picked up my first 7 string in 2007, I've been basically 98% exclusive to playing 7s. If I'm trying to play something that would be played normally on a standard tuned 6 string, I'll just play it on the 7 instead. However, if I'm trying to play something that would normally be played on a detuned 6 string that gave chord voicings a different tonality, and if I couldn't accurately replicate that tonality on the 7 without detuning it as well, I'd instead opt to just play it on a detuned 6 instead.

 

[Dayn]

A 7-string completely replaces a 6-string. But an 8-string completely replaces a 7-string. But a 9-string... you get the point. As someone with a 10-string, I can say it only replaces a 9-string and a standard-tuned 8-string for my purposes.

It comes down to playability. I can play 6-string songs on my 10-string. But having four extraneous strings is a bit much. Likewise, I have only one 6-string guitar which is dedicated to drop C. I can tune one of my 8-strings for it, but having extra strings gets in the way.

I think both 7- and 8-strings are the perfect guitars. But I can see why someone would play a 6-string if they only play the six strings. Having gotten my dedicated drop C guitar, I can also say it's my least-played because it has six strings...

 

[kamello]

I mean, CAN a 7 replace a 6 completely? Sure. I don't see why not. So can an 8, if you want to get technical about it.

Do I think they're interchangeable, or that either a 7 or 8 string make a 6 string obsolete? No. Not for me, at least. For me personally, there's a difference in how I approach stuff on my 6 strings - even my baritones - than I use when I'm writing on my 7s or 8s. It's less of an issue for my mind when you're talking about doing covers or something like that instead of writing/composing.

dude, this so much.

There are riffs I've written that just wouldn't come out naturally on a 6 or a 7 (depending on the type of riff) so that's why I enjoy having both options

 

[7deadlysins666]

I used to play exclusively 7 string guitars years back. Then, I thought the same... why would I ever need a 6 string now? I ended up going back to 6 strings for a while and now just bought my first 7 in many years. I think it's fine to play whatever the song calls for, if you write. Sometimes I want to play in Drop C, or Open C, or Csus4 tuning or something and the 6 is more useful and gives a completely different vibe than the seven. It's all subjective though, depends more on what kind of music you play/write.

 

[Marked Man]

Same here with the 8 string. Wasn't really my thing, mostly because the 8th string was so bassy I had a lot of trouble getting it to sound good through traditional equipment- be it live or in a studio setting. Haven't found anything that just sounded great with it. 7 string tonally feels like a 6 with more guitar to it. 8 string tonally feels like a 7 with a bass guitar string to it, I guess. 8 is a bridge too far for me.

I briefly thought about grabbing an 8-string last year, had to me honest with myself---I would almost never play it after 6 months.

I don't even play 7s as much as I should, although I plan to fix that this year. After all, I bought 5-string basses just to keep up with them!

But my primary writing style is always based on the 6.

 

[Rachmaninoff]

So why are there guitarists who alternate between 6-string and 7-string guitars on tour, like Vai, Petrucci and more?

Because playing a 6 is easier than playing a 7.

And here is an evidence for this: back in 2003, Dream Theater started playing Instrumedley, which is a version of The Dance of Eternity (a 7-string song) mixed with hard parts of other songs. It's crazy hard stuff. And despite being a 7-string song, John Petrucci, chose to play this piece with a 6-string guitar, simply transposing the 7th notes one octave higher.

Why? Because a 6 is easier to play than a 7.

 

[Arnaldo]

Because playing a 6 is easier than playing a 7.

And here is an evidence for this: back in 2003, Dream Theater started playing Instrumedley, which is a version of The Dance of Eternity (a 7-string song) mixed with hard parts of other songs. It's crazy hard stuff. And despite being a 7-string song, John Petrucci, chose to play this piece with a 6-string guitar, simply transposing the 7th notes one octave higher.

Why? Because a 6 is easier to play than a 7.

Thank you for your contribution, I am sure what you say is true, it will always be easier to play with a 6-string guitar than with a 7-string, the question I had is, if you have a repertoire with songs written for 7 and 6 which is better, do the entire repertoire with the 7 string (no adaptation is necessary) or alternate 7 and 6 string guitars (adaptation is necessary) Obviously your example of Petrucci clarifies many things. I'll go further, if a song by chance didn't use the sixth string like many of the songs from the 80s, should we ask guitar makers to make 5-string guitars?

 

[Alberto7]

The simple answer is that a 6 string, to me, *feels* different from a 7 or 8 string. I play guitar not just for the music, but because it is physically relaxing, and sometimes I feel like dealing with 6s and sometimes 7s. I own more 6s than 7s, so I end up playing 6s most of the time, bu transitioning to a 7 is quite effortless.

I also play a lot of covers by different artists that use different tunings and different number of strings, and I hate changing tunings on the same guitar.

For a lot of years (mainly while I was a university student and didn't have the resources to pay for gear) I just owned a single 7 string. I did have a 6 string, but I don't really enjoy playing it; it just has a lot of sentimental value.

 

[InfernalVortex]

There are some things that I feel just dont translate well to a 7 string unless you modulate them down. Some people have no issue with it at all, but one example I can think of is playing anything in drop-D through Drop-B. You can do double drop I guess, but I play too many 6 string songs in standard tunings and I like my 7's to have standard intervals for the E and lower strings.

I doubt anyone here cares much about playing it, but as a fun example, Tool's Jambi to me would be super awkward on a 7 without playing with pitch shifters or doing double drop. It's a skill issue I could learn to work around, but some things just feel natural to me on different guitars and Im going to keep playing those on the appropriate instrument.

 

[sneerim]

It's a feel thing for me. I love my 7s and I can play most 6-string things on one of my 7s, but it usually just feels more natural to play things written for 6-string on a 6-string. For example, I love playing thrashy stuff on Gibson-scale guitars, that's what got me into playing guitar, and playing that stuff on a Majesty 7 or a multiscale just doesn't feel right.

As far as the why does X artist play six strings a big part of that is they have contracts with guitar companies to use their gear. Six strings are way more popular than sevens, they sell better. I would bet an artist who is able to parade every rendition of his sig models in front of a crowd is going to more effectively market his name and the guitar brand.

I don't necessarily buy this. A brand nowadays isn't going to sign up a guy who plays 7 as a main instrument and give him a 6-string sig to pimp on stage. These days they'd just make a 7-string sig. Even Jeff Loomis's 6-string was justified by him playing in Arch Enemy. As for guys like Vai and Petrucci, they're primarily 6-string players who play 7s when the compositions call for it. If anything, their signature 7s (and 8s in Petrucci's case) are the icing on the endorsement cake: I'd be willing to bet that the revenue split from their signature 7s outweighs how much they actually use their 7s versus their 6s.

That reminds me of something, though... when nu-metal was the rage and Ibanez was trying to get a 7-string into the hands of every baggy-jeans-wearing, low-tuned player out there, getting Wes Borland in their camp was a coup. He was a 6-string guy but they signed him specifically to endorse 7-strings, so he tuned them like a 6 with a doubled high string (IIRC C# standard with two high C#s) and as soon as he left Ibanez you never saw him with a 7 again.

 

[SalsaWood]

Yea, who knows really. Typically when I see a lot of asinine embellishments regarding gear it's very easy to attribute it to marketing, though. I think it can go both ways between a seven and a six, you're under contract for the purpose of selling all the guitars you can at the end of the day.