NUGD - 2013 SE Cu 24, 7 String

shimmilou

Established in 1963
Joined
Mar 15, 2018
Messages
2,649
So, on my way to a jam session, stopping at a guitar shop along the way, as I am want to do, saw this used guitar that had been there a little while, and that particular day it seemed interesting to me for some reason. I’ve never even touched a 7 string before this past weekend, and still not sure why I felt the need to get this. Maybe due in part to my passionate desire for PRS guitars, and this one seemed a very nice example that would be a great addition for me. :)

I didn't try it out, other than picking it up, feeling it, looking it over, strumming it a bit, and all seemed well, it was in great shape and felt wonderful. Talked to the salesman, we worked out a good deal, I bought it and took it straight to the jam session. Immediately upon arrival, I handed it to the lead guitar player, and asked if he could show me how to use this thing. After much oooohing and aaaaahing over it, he plugged in to his amp and we all watched in amazement while he just tore it up! I mean he played it like he had owned it for years, and this guitar sounds absolutely killer! Clean, driven, rhythm, lead, all sound fantastic. After several minutes of aural awesomeness, he put the 7 string down, we took a break, and then proceeded to jam as usual.

Afterwards, back at my place, I tried it out with an amp for the first time myself, and it is really fun to play, and a great new learning experience for me. The fit/feel/finish are all excellent, everything works perfectly, and there is little-to-no fret wear. It has mild swirl marks and a couple of small dings here and there, but overall in very good condition. Although it doesn't sound nearly as good in my hands, I am really digging the new sounds I can get with it compared to a 6 string. The middle switch position is especially nice for heavy gain stuff. I tried some different tunings, drop A, drop D, but they didn't sound as good as the standard tuning with low b. I guess I really need a longer scale length for the lower tuning, but I won't be there for a long time, so this will do nicely for my intro to 7 string land.

The pups don't look stock, they look like a SD Alpha and Omega set, but they don't have Seymour Duncan on them. Not sure what they are. Anyone else have any experience with these, guitar and/or pups?

Anyway, some pics, and the color is really dark, Royal Blue? It was hard to photograph and get the color right, but you can still see that it has some nice figuring on the veneer. The birds look like pearloid or something, not solid like my other SEs.

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Nice! I kind of did the same a little while back. I had thought sevens seemed interesting for a while, and one day I happened upon a stupid good deal that I couldn't pass up.

It was very weird to play at first, and then switching back and forth between it and my sixes was weird. But then I finally got the muscle memory programmed and it's not much of a problem anymore.

I agree that the low string is happiest at B. I use Drop A some because that's the jazz tradition and it opens up some very huge sounding chord shapes. I don't get the clarity out of it that I'd prefer, however.

Those pickups might be DiMarzio. You'd have to pull them and check to be sure.
 
That's awesome! If you want to learn some great starter 7-string songs, try a few by Ra.

Do You Call My Name
Rectifier
Sky
Every Little Thing

These got me well on the path. Ignore the online transcriptions, they are very wrong. Some accurate transcriptions are available on Ben Carroll's personal site.
 
Nice grab! How’s the neck width?

Thx! Surprisingly, I can still do thumb-over, closer to the nut, with a bit of extra effort. The neck is fairly comfortable when chording, but I have found that my thumb gets sore much quicker than with a 6 string, when I use it pressed against the back of the neck. I don’t know if that is poor technique on my part, or just due to the wider/thin neck.
 
Thx! Surprisingly, I can still do thumb-over, closer to the nut, with a bit of extra effort. The neck is fairly comfortable when chording, but I have found that my thumb gets sore much quicker than with a 6 string, when I use it pressed against the back of the neck. I don’t know if that is poor technique on my part, or just due to the wider/thin neck.

You may just be squeezing too hard, plus the wider neck does position your hand a little differently.
 
Yep, you called it, I was squeezing the heck out of the neck for no good reason. I guess, subconsciously I felt I had to grip tightly since it was a 7 string. :rolleyes: The guitar setup is terrific, and it has great, low action, so I tried using a much lighter touch, and I get the same sounds and no pain. :) Also trying to use my palm more than my thumb for bar chords.

This video was definitely helpful, very cool stuff that is easy to play. It helped me to see that I could relax my grip and get great sounds. Thanks elvis!
This is a cool way to start as well. Pedal tone on low B, notes on E, and you can play those as octaves, too.

 
Just be careful. If you strain a tendon, it gets bad fast.
I've had four surgeries on my hands, but I can still play. There are others on the forum who have had worse. All I care about is that I can still play well enough to be happy. I'll certainly never challenge Al Dimeola or John McLaughlin for speed.
 
FYI, jazz guys tune it to a low A....when a chord has a root on the 5th string the chord can then by rooted on the 7th string rather than the 5th. It makes for a very open sound.
 
That would be cool, but with this shorter scale (25”), tuning the low string to A leaves it too loose and floppy, doesn’t sound very good. Maybe one day I’ll try a SVN with the 26.5” scale, which should be better for tuning down. Maybe some bigger strings would help on this one, so I might try that soon and see. It will be a long time before I might be good enough to justify a SVN, but in the meantime I’m having fun with the B. :cool:
 
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