Help me choose a 7strings?

[rispsira]

Hi all,

Its seems as my love for amps and rack gear has been greater than guitars hahahaha

At least until now, finally i am gassing for guitars..

All i have now is an ernie ball 7 strings but i would like to purchase another guitar.

I thought since that guitar has passive pickups maybe i should buy one with actives?

So i checked out the schecter C7 FR and it seems pretty cool. Did a bit of research on this forum and it seemed that some of you preffered that to the Loomis sig mostly because of the effect the different woods have.

Please note that when i say check out im talking about the net. I cant try most of the guitars in my country so that's why i would appreciate your opinions please!!

The other guitar that seems nice is the Ibanez RGD 2127Z. But this one has passives..

I dont know what would you do?? do you have any recommendations?

Should i go the actives way to have the option at least for recording? are there other 7 string guitars you like?

One last thing: i would rather not have a flying V or weird shapes with too much blood drawn on them hahaha and the neck pickup is important to me (some dont have it)

Of course the sound matters the most, then the playability and of course its ability to stay in tune! (being a FR that i am looking for)
One last thing i could go custom but this is a project that will have to wait cause there are quite a few things i would ask for and it would be expensive and have lots of other things to buy currently! Will go that route for sure in the futur just not now.

 

[Robert W]

If you're in the US, might I suggest,

http://www.rondomusic.com/7string.html

Personally, I'd stick w/ passives simply because I think they sound better and there's such a wide variety of replacement pups on the market.

As for the Agiles, you can get them w/ passives or actives. You can also get one w/ a 25", a 27" or 30" scale.

Having previously owned a Schecter Hellraiser I can say the following 1) EMG 707s are pretty crappy sounding and 2) the 26.5 scale really isn't long enough if you plan to play in anything lower than B.

 

[Dylan S]

If you're in the US, might I suggest,

http://www.rondomusic.com/7string.html

Personally, I'd stick w/ passives simply because I think they sound better and there's such a wide variety of replacement pups on the market.

As for the Agiles, you can get them w/ passives or actives. You can also get one w/ a 25", a 27" or 30" scale.

Having previously owned a Schecter Hellraiser I can say the following 1) EMG 707s are pretty crappy sounding and 2) the 26.5 scale really isn't long enough if you plan to play in anything lower than B.

I know this is all personal opinion, but are you serious?

707's sounding crappy?
26.5 not long enough to tune lower than B?

The QC of Agile still leaves something to be desired...

I've got 2 Schecters and that scale length is EASILY long enough to tune a whole step down or even more. You can always get heavier strings than a .56 as your low string as well...currently I'm using a .68 in Bb and it sounds enormous.

707's are great pickups but you can always swap them out easily for 81-7's, which are fantastic too. I've got one Schecter with 707's and one with an 81-7 and a 60-7 and they are both fantastic.

The active pickups are generally a really good choice for a 7 string as well because they maintain their tightness in lower tunings. If you think they sound bad, maybe it is something to do with the amp or your technique? Some of what would be considered the BEST heavy metal tones of all time ewre recorded on EMGs.

Schecter make some very quality instruments and compared to other makers, you get a lot more guitar for your money.

The size of the necks is usually the only thing that may give some people grief. I would recommend a Schecter to anybody - not just beginners but anyone looking for a quality instrument.

/end Schecter rant. Man I love those guitars.

 

[Keregioz]

Schecter.

707's are fine.

 

[lekteri]

Go for the 8's.

 

[rispsira]

Hi Robert,
Unfortunatelly i dont live in the US which is why i mentionned i cant try most of the guitars you might recommend but my order will be from the US shipped here.

Thanks!

Lekteri you mean 8 strings guitars? i cant play 6 strings guitars anymore since i got used to 7s not because 6 strings arent good theyre awesome of course but just because i feel more at home with 7s. However 8 is too low for me! In fact im not sure what my 7 string guitar will be tuned to. So far i have been going a whole step down to A.

But now im starting to feel that if i raise it a little it might sound tighter..

So finally i decided that the only way i will know is record riffs in A, Bb and B(standard E) and compare the 3 sonically.. And i should do that as soon as possible because we still havent began tracking our album!

So you guys are liking the quality of the shcecters? how does the wood feel? does it resonate well? Do they stay in tune? Also just out of curiosity are they made in the US or Korea? I dont really care as long as they sound good but i have heard people arguing about it haha.

 

[Keregioz]

I have a schecter C7 blackjack with emg707s installed and I honestly have no complains about this guitar. It resonates and stays in tune very good.
I was in your shoes a while back, I also had to choose a guitar without being able to play it first and I'm so glad I chose a schecter. Although, being lefthanded, I didn't really have many choices back then anyway.
I recently got a carvin 7string which was pricier, US made, with custom features and they are considered by most to be excellent quality instruments. It's an awesome guitar indeed, still, the schecter at half price stands up surprisingly good against it.

 

[Robert W]

No, not joking. I found the EMG 707s to be some of the worst sounding pups I've ever used. Flat, sterile and overly compressed sounding, they sounded lifeless in my Hellraiser. and as bad as the rhythm tones were w/ them, the leads were even worse. If you really have your heart set on actives, then try some SDs, and avoid the 707s like the plague.

As for the 26.5 scale on the Schecters (which they strangely use on their 8s as well), it couldn't handle A standard at all. Not to mention it had fret buzz that no amount of truss rod adjustments could relieve.

As for Agiles, I have an 828 Intrepid, which I paid $80 less than the Hellraiser for, and it is one of the best guitars I've ever owned. Intonation was almost dead on from the factory. String height was near optimal as well. Stock pups were so good I decided not to replace them w/ a BKP like I planned, saving me a further $120. Only wish I had gotten one w/ a 30" scale, but the 28.6" still sounds great.

If you really want a 7 string, you might want to look at some Ibbys too.

 

[xFkx]

I have a 7-string hellraiser in standard A, 26.5 fits me fine, no fret buzz. Than again I use 0.74 gauge

Oh, and yeah.. the 707's are kinda lifeless and sterile, but they generate a sound that fits the instrument and fits the genre it's usually used for and it's pretty evil in it's own way.


uhm, once again: hellraiser with 707's through podfarm, excuse the shitty riffs:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1322550/sreszuga.mp3

love the slight grind/bite.

 

[Josh Burgess]

come on, don't listen to garbage like that. we've all heard awesome sounding guitar tones that were recorded with 707s.

Jeff Loomis? Nevermore? Aaron's band 7 Horns 7 Eyes? The 707 is not a bad pickup by any means... and there are countless 6 string players (like James Murphy for example) who sound great using the 85, which is pretty similar to the 707.

I just bought an 81-7 to try in the bridge and 707tw to try in the neck, and I might end up liking them more... but I can't say the 707 is even close to bad sounding...

 

[Sickan]

LTD SC-607B with a Lundgren M7 in the bridge and a Seymour Duncan Jazz SH-2 in the middle with a coil-split, just bought it and it's the best guitar I've played!

 

[Robert W]

I just bought an 81-7 to try in the bridge and 707tw to try in the neck, and I might end up liking them more... but I can't say the 707 is even close to bad sounding...

I can.

As actives go, the SDs sounded better than the EMGs when I heard them A/B'd. They seemed to sound a little more like passives, in that they had less of that spongy, flat sound that the EMGs have.

Personally, I think the OP would be better off going w/ passives for a 7.

 

[cyril_v]

707's are very nice in the neck position, but I honestly would never use them again the bridge position. I know a lot of bands use them, and some have decent/great tones, but it's just not the sound I'd like at all in the bridge... it has that weird kinda single-coil tone to it that I just couldn't stand. I actually prefer the 81-7/81-7x/Blackouts (Neck or Bridge) in the bridge position as opposed to the 707.

 

[Keregioz]

No point arguing about emgs. We all know who use them and what kind of tone they get from them, so if you like that kind of tone go for emgs if not go for passives.

Since you already got a guitar with passives, though, I suggest going with EMGs for your new one. That's what I did, I kept the carvin with passives since I already had the schecter with EMGs.

 

[Robert W]

No point arguing about emgs. We all know who use them and what kind of tone they get from them, so if you like that kind of tone go for emgs if not go for passives.

Since you already got a guitar with passives, though, I suggest going with EMGs for your new one. That's what I did, I kept the carvin with passives since I already had the schecter with EMGs.

Slightly OT, but were the pu routes in the Carvin standard sized? I ask because I remember reading that Carvin was using slightly undersized pups once.

 

[Keregioz]

Slightly OT, but were the pu routes in the Carvin standard sized? I ask because I remember reading that Carvin was using slightly undersized pups once.

No, there where not. I replaced the stock pick ups with a dimarzio and a SD (both passives) and I had to do some routing for the pickups to fit.

 

[drdan]

I love Rondo and Schecter. I have a Schecter with a larger scale length with Duncans in it and I think it sounds amazing. Totally my sound. I would suggest getting the larger scale length if you can.

 

[rispsira]

I have a 7-string hellraiser in standard A, 26.5 fits me fine, no fret buzz. Than again I use 0.74 gauge

Oh, and yeah.. the 707's are kinda lifeless and sterile, but they generate a sound that fits the instrument and fits the genre it's usually used for and it's pretty evil in it's own way.


uhm, once again: hellraiser with 707's through podfarm, excuse the shitty riffs:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1322550/sreszuga.mp3

love the slight grind/bite.

Thanks for the clips man! nice!

 

[rispsira]

I love Rondo and Schecter. I have a Schecter with a larger scale length with Duncans in it and I think it sounds amazing. Totally my sound. I would suggest getting the larger scale length if you can.

May i ask you what model youre talking about? thanks!

 

[rispsira]

Mmm.. So far my reasoning (though i am really GAS'ING for the ibanez RGD 2127Z after a long time away from ibanez) is to get some actives since i already have a guitar with passives. I actually LOVE passives and have NO experience whatsoever with actives except from records i have heard. But i thought that would give me some options when recording

So its not really about EMGs because i can still put other actives if i choose so right? (though to be honest the tones i have heard with 707s so far arent bad at all.. they seem cleaner then blackouts?)

Anyway i think i just repeated my first post.. So here are some additional questions:

Out of all the schecter 7 strings is this the right one to choose? I mean i have only heard about the Jeff Loomis vs standard hellraiser and a lot of you preffered the latter (still do?) but what about the other 7s they have?


Just to tell you the truth the reason for thinking about an active was toying with the idea of blending different amps with both active and passives on the record. Im just curious. But i wanted to know if some of you would think it would be better to put my money elsewhere haha!

Thanks!