Good guitar for low tunings

only thing I could think of that is better for low tunings (except clear sounding PUs and not too much distortion of course) is a longer scale length. wood and all that may help, but thats pretty much a matter of preferrence.
 
i have an ESP H-200 that seems to take well to being down-tuned...it has a wide, narrow neck and fairly long scale that lets me get away with tuning down to B with fairly light strings. the pickups also sound really good down-tuned, because they're pretty bright/punchy to start with - it seems as though pickups with darker tones turn to total mush when downtuned.
 
just get something with good distortion pickups and buy some heavy guage strings, perhaps 11-60
 
No offense but I think the 7 strings detuned sound sort like the low in plop of a turd falling in the toilet......or maybe only mmy toilet makes that plopping noise.
 
anything detuned can sound sloppy if you dont increase the gauge of your strings. Its all about keeping the clarity when you downtune. Loomis uses 80 gauge on down on his 7 string for albums and live he uses 65 or 70 i believe. As far as a good guitar for downtunning....and pretty much a good guitar for anything...CAPARISONS! Best fucking guitars ever made..hands down. Especially their HGS models. HGS = High Gauge String models made specificaly for low tunnings. They are a bit pricey but once you play one you will never want to play another guitar. Expect to pay around $1700-$2500 for one..but seriously..one of best guitars out there...ibanez's, jacksons, custom esps...etc...dont compare. Go caparison!
 
hmmm, the only thing the HGS makes easier for using high string gauges is intonation (the HGS are those models with the 3mm longer scale length, right?) but I didnt have a problem intonating heavy strings on a "normal" 25.5" scale 7-string. I'd guess that HGS-series is a cool thing, but you dont really need it.
I've heard only great things about Caparisons though, so if you have the money: try one!

I play a 7-string in standard tuning and I dont really feel any need for tuning lower. If I WOULD want to go lower I'd deffinitally get a guitar with a longer scale for clearer sound and easier intonation (also you get more tension, so you dont need HUGE string-gauges). the custom 7-string that I ordered a few weeks ago will be 26.5" scale, but I still intend to use it with standard tuning.
also: dont be afraid of playabillity-issues with longer scales. on a 27" scale, you can rougly say that its like adding another fret on the low end, so it doesnt make much difference at all (its pretty much like playing everything 1 fret lower) and you dont really need to go for huge scale-lengths if you dont want to tune ULTRA-low (and you can always get a bass for that)
 
dont Gibsons usually have 24" scales? or 24.5" or something? that is quite short when you compare it to most of the guitars on the market that nearly all have 25.5"
 
7 string "standard" is B not B# =) And it would just be called C anyways. 7 string guitars are great though. Especially if its the 7 string Caparison!
 
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