www.highperformanceguitar.com

[WolfV11]

currently in the carvin factory there is a 7 string guitar being built... All white, black hardware, floyd rose, 2 humbuckers, ebony fingerboard with abalone signature inlays, stainless steel frets and the mantra OM AH HUM on the truss rod cover. upon its completion it shall arive at my door step...oh and a legacy amp is coming too...
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Check out all 7 tracks from my debut album Earth Light on myspace right now!!!!!
www.myspace.com/ericjacksonguitar

[WhyteChocolate]

Very cool man! I've been debating back and forth on going with Carvin for my next 7 string... I love my DC-127, so I'm sure the 7 string version is rockin', but I have a few potential issues:

First, the scale is pretty damn short for a 7; 25.5". I don't know how well the low B will hold up with that.

Second, I'm really starting to dislike original Floyds and copies of originals. Lo profile is where it's at for me...

So, report back when you get it and let me know about that stuff; I'd appreciate it! For me, it'll either be the same Carvin axe or an Ibanez RG1527.

Also, I got a Carvin amp a while back as well; SX300, just to have something loud which wasn't as much of a bitch to haul as my Marshall. I think it's great for a solid state amp, with a very tube-like tone.
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[WhyteChocolate]

Apparently the RG1527 also has a 25.5" scale... my Agile is 27". Hmmm...
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[WolfV11]

I have an SX300 as well! fun amp! It is probably the most tube sounding Solid state out there, and the built in effects are neat!
as far as 25.5 for a low B, my Ibanez has it and its fine, its more a matter of what guage string your going to use. Ive used quite a few guages for the low B, at one point i was using a 0.70! Currently I am not sure if i am using a 56 or 59, but it sounds just fine. Once you balance out what guage string and how your attacking the low B with the pick you can find a suitable sound.


I was going to originally go with either an Ibanez 1527, or the 8 string.

An 8 string might be neat to mess with in the future, but I feel that there is still more for me to explore on a 7 first and if i find a need for an 8 in the future, then I will pursue it. I only got into 7's about 2 years ago and it was done because I was gravitating more towards lower tunings but hated compromising higher end and familiar note and chord placement. If i find the same thing occurng in the future then i shall look towards that low F#. Ive played the Ibanez 8 and the ESP 8 a handful of times and they were "fun" but not necessarily useful for what I am doing.

My problem with the 1527 (and the same for the 8 string to) was that it runs somewhere between 11-1200 and for that your getting crappy Ibanez stock pickups, a bolt on neck, and basswood. I own two ibanez and do not care for basswood all to much, its light and that is comfortable but I feel that basswood is not worth that much money. It does seem to satisfy Petrucci however. This carvin is running at about 1191 + shipping (which is about 12 something) and for that its a hard rock maple neck through, alder body sides, more paint options (the 1527 only comes in blue and white, the blue is only a rosewood fingerboard, and the white is only maple. Also the white comes with a black headstock which in my opinion looks cheap.) With carvin I was able to have a matching headstock and an abalone logo. On top of that I had a choice of fingerboard woods. I was gonna go with birdseye maple but their new signature inlays are only available on rosewood and ebony. (they have a good reason for this, it has to do with the density of maple versus mother of pearl and abalone, it makes tooling very difficult and costly for intricate or large inlays) While I forgot to tell the guy on the phone that I wanted the active electronics, I knwo carvin pickups are solid. They make top notch audio equipment and their pickups are no exception. I have 3 AP11 carvin pickups in a strat of mine and they blow away any single coil ive ever heard! I expect these to be no exception (there is some criticism of carvin 7 string pickups but I think this issue resides more in the heads of people. For some, if it doesnt say Dimarzio, Seymour Duncan, EMG, or whatever magically expensive pickup (bare knucle, lundgren, etc.) it wont sound good to them. Fortunately I am secure enough in my playing and technique and my ability to adjust tone knobs (GASP!) to make desireable tones that work for MY playing and I dont care about sounding just like X guitarist) with Ibanez however, their stock pickups are very lacking, it took quite a lot of equing to get decent tone on my fretless 7321 for my album. And even on my 7621 and those are dimarzios. As far as the bridge is concerned, this is the only thing that Ibanez has over Carvin. Ibanez bridges are bar none, awesome,.......except for Original Floyd Roses IMHO. Carvin only offers a Liscensed Floyd on their 7's and while it may be a bummer, i can always replace it in the future with an OFR if i really hate it. From what I've read however, people are more then satisfied with it. Once again, I am confident enough in myself also as a guitar tech to make anything work the way I want it.

The Legacy is here next week and I'll get to jam on it during the weekend most likely. The legacy wasnt my original decision, originally I wanted a Mesa. However I learned that Mesas dont have reverb (WTF?) so then I though Marshall, however they are stupidly fucking over priced. The decision came down to the Legacy, it has reverb, and I already have a Carvin amp (and my father has an old preamp from them as well) so I know the quality and trust them a great deal. The V3 was a thought but once again, no reverb. WTF? The X-100B seemed interesting, but my father actually has an original X100B combo amp, awesome amp but not exactly what I need. I needed something with a bit more balls and something more Prog friendly, the Legacy seemed like a logical choice, not just because its the signature amp of my all time favorite guitarist.....but that did have a little something to do with it lol!
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Check out all 7 tracks from my debut album Earth Light on myspace right now!!!!!
www.myspace.com/ericjacksonguitar

[WhyteChocolate]

My deal with the bridge is that I find even original floyds too bulky for my tastes. Useable, but not optimal. I don't own any low profile bridges, but every time I play a guitar that has one I realize I'm missing out.

I'm not a fan of Mesas myself. I've played through a few different models live, Dual Rec and Stiletto, and they just get lost in the mix, whereas Marshalls cut through. Mesas sound great when you're playing alone, though.

I briefly thought about the Ibanez 8 as well, and tuning it BEADGBEB, but it's more money than I want to spend right now.

So, perhaps I will go with another Carvin afterall... will think about it.
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[Bimmerboy]