BuddytheReow
Moderator
For the past, oh I'll say 6 months, I've been toying with the idea of another guitar and I've been torn between a 7 string or a baritone. Low tunings definitely have their place regardless of your favorite genre to play or listen to. For more versatility I decided to go with a 7 string. I had my hesitations about both: with 7 string you have to get used to a wider neck and baritones, a longer neck. Again, for more versatility and range I thought the 7 string would be the way to go.
Then the next question: what do I get? Budget was not as much of a concern as I thought. Of course, I didn't want to spend $250 on beginner's junk nor did I want to drop $4k. I figured the $1,000 range was pretty good, give or take. Sub $500 range, you're in beginner's territory with Ibanez and Jackson being the heavy hitters there. At the $500-800 range we're talking Schecters. I was really drawn to them since the one I have is really nice and plays well for the price. At the $1000 price point we're talking about mid-tier Ibanez, Schecter, Jackson, with some Music Man thrown in there. The next tier is $1200-1400 and was a little to much for me to handle. I mean, I won't know if I'll even like playing it, although I have messed around with them in a store once or twice years ago. Looking across multiple platforms (Sweetwater, Musician's Friend, Sam Ash, Reverb, etc.) yield similar, but not identical results.
Then I found this one on Musician's Friend. A Cort KX507ms in Star Dust Green. I chose this one simply because it's different, but not crazy different (think Strandberg headless). I was also hesitant on this one due to the multiscale fretboard. If you want to tune low, get a multiscale or at least a longer scale neck. The multiscale allows you to bend the higher strings without too much string tension. For $900, sold. But, here's the kicker. I put it in my cart and let it sit there. I told myself to sleep on it since it's a bigger purchase and not the cost of a Tayda run
. This was on my actual birthday and I do have an account with them. Anyways, I get a call and email from a sales rep saying they would like to give me a "special price" to get the sale and knocked about $150 off the price. Not sure if they were looking to close the sale or simply because it was my birthday, but I took it. 3 days later, it arrives at my door with free shipping.
With the unboxing, it's a matte finish and not a gloss. Not a huge deal for me since I won't be looking at the front of it when I play. The side/back view of it is where I will spend most of my time. It still looks pretty cool. I wish it had just a bit more teenage angst thrown in there.
I've only got about 3 hours with it so far and here's what I can say:
-For the multiscale frets, it took virtually no time to get up to speed on that.
-There is an extra string, so the wider neck definitely takes getting used to along with that extra string thrown in there. After the first hour of fooling around on the bottom string I'm trying to focus on normal playing of my repertoire to get used to a different way of playing.
-The pickups are Fishman Fluence, so they are SUPER hot, but come with passive/active and coil splitting capabilities.
-Honestly, this plays super well and I'm having a lot of fun playing it. Isn't that the point of a guitar?
BTW, I still have the "price tag" still on it just in case I want to return it, but more likely than not this is staying in my collection.
Let the chugging begin!
Then the next question: what do I get? Budget was not as much of a concern as I thought. Of course, I didn't want to spend $250 on beginner's junk nor did I want to drop $4k. I figured the $1,000 range was pretty good, give or take. Sub $500 range, you're in beginner's territory with Ibanez and Jackson being the heavy hitters there. At the $500-800 range we're talking Schecters. I was really drawn to them since the one I have is really nice and plays well for the price. At the $1000 price point we're talking about mid-tier Ibanez, Schecter, Jackson, with some Music Man thrown in there. The next tier is $1200-1400 and was a little to much for me to handle. I mean, I won't know if I'll even like playing it, although I have messed around with them in a store once or twice years ago. Looking across multiple platforms (Sweetwater, Musician's Friend, Sam Ash, Reverb, etc.) yield similar, but not identical results.
Then I found this one on Musician's Friend. A Cort KX507ms in Star Dust Green. I chose this one simply because it's different, but not crazy different (think Strandberg headless). I was also hesitant on this one due to the multiscale fretboard. If you want to tune low, get a multiscale or at least a longer scale neck. The multiscale allows you to bend the higher strings without too much string tension. For $900, sold. But, here's the kicker. I put it in my cart and let it sit there. I told myself to sleep on it since it's a bigger purchase and not the cost of a Tayda run
. This was on my actual birthday and I do have an account with them. Anyways, I get a call and email from a sales rep saying they would like to give me a "special price" to get the sale and knocked about $150 off the price. Not sure if they were looking to close the sale or simply because it was my birthday, but I took it. 3 days later, it arrives at my door with free shipping.With the unboxing, it's a matte finish and not a gloss. Not a huge deal for me since I won't be looking at the front of it when I play. The side/back view of it is where I will spend most of my time. It still looks pretty cool. I wish it had just a bit more teenage angst thrown in there.
I've only got about 3 hours with it so far and here's what I can say:
-For the multiscale frets, it took virtually no time to get up to speed on that.
-There is an extra string, so the wider neck definitely takes getting used to along with that extra string thrown in there. After the first hour of fooling around on the bottom string I'm trying to focus on normal playing of my repertoire to get used to a different way of playing.
-The pickups are Fishman Fluence, so they are SUPER hot, but come with passive/active and coil splitting capabilities.
-Honestly, this plays super well and I'm having a lot of fun playing it. Isn't that the point of a guitar?
BTW, I still have the "price tag" still on it just in case I want to return it, but more likely than not this is staying in my collection.
Let the chugging begin!
