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Seven-string Planning, Opinions Wanted!


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Hey, this is my first post here, been a longtime lurker.

My previous guitar-building experience was my so-called eBay guitar, which I built from a prefinished NOS Kramer body, Jackson neck, EMG pickups, and GFS locking trem all netted for a song via ebay.

For my second project, I'm looking at something a little more involved. My father is a fairly skilled woodworker and I've built tables and the like, but he doesn't know much about guitars themselves and while I know quite a bit about building and repairing six-strings, I'm a little unsure of where to start because I'd like to build a seven-string guitar.

I'm looking at a harder-edged Explorer-style body, fairly similar to the old ESP ones before they became all dagger-ish. Construction would probably be neck-through or set, with a quartersawn maple neck (or laminates, depending on local availability) and chambered mahogany or maple wings/body, with a top of some to-be-determined attractive wood, probably maple or walnut depending on which strikes my fancy and is readily available.

I've done some research, and I'm interested in people's opinions on the following:

-Scale length: do I go for a Schecter-style 26.5" scale length for extra low-B tension, or is a 25.5" scale generally okay for seven-strings, even if I'm looking at dropping the low B to an A? The extra string tension on other strings won't bother me much (I play 11s and 12s normally) and adjusting to the new scale length shouldn't be too bad either. However, this would require building my own neck, since buying a seven-string neck with 22 frets would be ridiculously expensive at this scale length. I can get a pre-slotted fretboard fairly easily, but no neck... and I'm frankly worried about stability issues with a homemade neck... are they very touchy to make?

-Neck-heaviness: Seven-strings can be notoriously neck-heavy even with extended-horn Superstrat designs. The Explorer design has no upper horn... am I looking at a recipe for guaranteed headstock dive? If so, at least the back point will provide an elbow rest for keeping the neck at a good angle...

-Body Carving: I have a Jackson SLSMG Soloist, which is a very light and comfortable guitar to play, tapering from about 1 3/4" at the middle to around 3/4" at the edges. Would this sort of a carve be dangerous structurally on an Explorer-style body, with the extended points?

-Pickups: I am looking for a versatile seven-string that can do things other than just metal. I'd prefer pickups that clean up nicely in addition to being able to do crunch/metal with some decent definition... the SD JB-7 and Jazz-7 pairing looks very tempting, does anyone have experiences with these?

-Hardware: TOM or flat-mount bridge? How hard is it to make a neck-through guitar with a neck angle? Are there any structural issues related to these?

Thanks for your help, I'm really starting to get into this whole planning thing, and am interested in seeing what others would recommend based on their own experiences.

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I do highly recommend higher than a 25.5" scale for that low B-string, having played with a few people that used that scale for B / Bb / A tuning, it sounds quite assy and could definitely use more tension. I can't say where exactly you'd benefit on up, but 26.5" - 27.5" would be a good range to shoot for. I will know from personal experience on 27.25" and 27.5" as I have two guitars planned at that scale. I'm not much help other than that, I'm a bassist, not a guitar player!

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27.5" scale seems to be quite popular. Howver if you can get the fingerboard at the scale you want then go for it. A little more tension might come in handy for that B-string as was already mentioned.

You need to just take you time with the neck, since it's about the most important component. Be sure to clamp well and evenly. Level the fingerboard before fretting.

If you want a lighter neck, use lighter wood.

If you want the strings higher off the body then a TOM would do. However, if you like lower strings you could recess the TOM or use a top mount bridge. You shouldn't have any structural issues.

-Doug

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Welcome to the forums!

I can't recommend highly enough Melvyn Hiscock's book "Make Your Own Electric Guitar"!

In it, one of the guitars he makes is an 8-string bass which is a neck-through, and he goes over the necessary info regarding its neck angle etc.

Also it could be worth having a look at this guys site:

http://users.pandora.be/marnix.ghesquiere/

He made a 7-string at 27" scale, and goes into some of the calculations regarding scale length and string tension.

Regarding neck length etc, bear in mind that if you plan on using a longer scale neck you might well end up having to make your own truss rod too! Although, I believe there is a certain amount of "flexibility" (no pun intended!) about the exact length needed.

Hope this helps!

DJ

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Welcome to the forums!

I can't recommend highly enough Melvyn Hiscock's book "Make Your Own Electric Guitar"!

In it, one of the guitars he makes is an 8-string bass which is a neck-through, and he goes over the necessary info regarding its neck angle etc.

Also it could be worth having a look at this guys site:

http://users.pandora.be/marnix.ghesquiere/

He made a 7-string at 27" scale, and goes into some of the calculations regarding scale length and string tension.

Regarding neck length etc, bear in mind that if you plan on using a longer scale neck you might well end up having to make your own truss rod too! Although, I believe there is a certain amount of "flexibility" (no pun intended!) about the exact length needed.

Hope this helps!

DJ

Thanks... I've had Mr. Hiscock's book for a while actually and have read through it several times. I've done quite a bit of research myself, I was just curious as to what others thought about these design questions.

Also, that's a good point regarding truss rods. For a 26.5/27.5" scale 22-fret guitar, the "active" neck length would be around 20". Stew-Mac's Spoke Nut Hot Rod comes in 18" and 24" lengths... would the 18" work even though it wouldn't extend the full length of the neck?

Or, would I be better off with a "Hot Rod" design that didn't extend all the way into the body and adjusted at the peghead?

I suppose if all else failed, a traditional truss rod could be cut to length, threaded, and set up for peghead adjusting.

If it matters, I'm planning on using carbon fiber rods to reinforce the neck, as extra stability is always appreciated.

Thanks everyone for your ideas!

Edited by TemjinStrife
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I would install the 18" truss rod with the adjustment nut accessible at the neck heel; you can usually figure out how to get at it with either a removeable plug, through the neck picukup rout, or underneath the pickguard. This way the rod is positioned within the neck under te frets that will need it most (i.e. NOT the first 2).

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