7 String Guitars and Theory

[Noah Berends]

Hey all, I’ve been curious to pick some brains on this for a while now.
A couple months ago, I bought my first 7 string guitar. I was unsure whether or not I would like it, but I got an amazing deal and so I thought “what’s to lose?”. So I bought it, and I’ve absolutely loved it. I would almost go so far as to say at the current point in time that I prefer the 7 string format to the 6 string, for reasons such as neck size and extended scales and notes.
7 strings have a lot of flak, mainly for being only good for the “duhjent gawds” who want to go as low as possible. However, I find myself taking an approach much more similar to Steve Vai and John Petrucci, where the seventh string serves as simply a source of more notes, similar to adding more notes to the lower end of your piano. So I’m wondering, does anybody else here use 7 strings in a similar way? And if so, what’s the best way to approach finding out how chords and scales can be augmented/added to by utilizing these extra notes? I’m sorry if this sounds a bit wack and confusing, but I’m trying to put out some feelers for how I can best utilize this tool. I know Syn has an 8 string sitting around, so I’m curious how he’s approached from that format as well.

 

[Noah Berends]

To further add, I’ve been using Jason Richardson as a compass for how I would like to find myself using the 7 string in the end. Here’s a video to watch that may help to explain how I’d like to approach the format.

 

[Christopher Lonski]

That’s how it SHOULD be used! A lot of times we, as musicians, put ourselves in boxes and limit our creativity. We hear 7 strings used commonly on djent stuff, so we just assume that that is what you’re supposed to use them for. People dont realize this, but 7 strings were originally used for classical over 200 years ago! They wanted more range to rival the range of a piano. They were also popular with jazz players so they could play walking basslines and chord melodies.