Advice for new guitar

[Ahonen]

Okay, but which do you guys think is best? 6 string tuned down or 7 strings with an additional low B string?
I haven't tried a 7 string guitar yet but will do when I have the chance.

 

[Mack Addy]

I play both 6 and 7 string guitars. If you choose to ignore everything else in this post, at least pay attention to the following sentence: Try both out and see which one you would prefer to use.

Since you haven't played 7 string guitars yet, I will warn you that it WILL feel weird at first. You will try to play Master of Puppets on it only to realize you are playing it on extra low strings and it just somehow does not sound "right". You might even forget how the rest of the strings are tuned. But give it a shot. First, try playing your regular six string stuff on it while ignoring the low B completely. This will at least help you get used to the extra girth of the neck while refamiliarizing yourself with the rest of the strings.

If you prefer to have the extended lower range while not sacrificing your higher notes for any leads you may be playing, a 7 string guitar is amazing for that. If you don't really give a crap, play both for a while and decide which neck style feels more natural and stick with that.

 

[waif]

One thing to keep in mind is that if you're playing in a band with two guitarists, you'll both have to have the same number of strings, and for the style you want to play almost everyone uses six strings. That said, you should definitely give sevens a go.

 

[Ahonen]

Well, I tried a seven string guitar today at the local music shop. It wasn't a great guitar but I just tried how it feels to play with 7 strings. I thought that it was going to be harder than it was. I think it was kinda comfortable to play with. So I'm considering buying a 7 string guitar. At least if I find one which isn't too expensive

 

[Edddy]

I've just got an Ibanez Xiphos XPT700XH (27 frets!), about 3 months ago, looks brutal as anything, and is amazing to play, although costs a fair bit, I got it for $1750 AUD so USD thats probably around..... $1300-$1400?

Has a floyd, so downtuning you'd want to keep it it one tuning for the whole time, or change the tuning very little. I don't think you can get a 27 fret without a floyd, but I'm not sure.

My thoughts on a floyd, although I'm pretty new to it: Good: Sound really cool if you know how to use them, it's good fun, they look cool, they keep your guitar in tune, which is really helpful, but on the bad side: If you break a string gigging, or live or something, your pretty much screwed, and would need a second guitar handy, changing strings isn't as bad as its made out to be, but it's still not the easiest thing in the world to do, tuning down takes about an hour of fiddling with spring tension.

You can get Ibanez Xiphos 24 fret guitars without floyds,(XP300FX), the earliest/first xiphos, and they're metallic / shiny haha. I'd recommend these, still have the same brutal look. Just has 3 less frets, and are a little cheaper than the XPT700XH (27 fret). They come with or without a floyd.

And on 7-strings, never tryed, but I think you'd have to adjust to having an extra string, I'm not too fond of the idea myself.