In this third part on seven string guitars, I’ll write about their use in rock and metal music!
”There was a period about 10 years ago, when I was studying metaphysics and numerology, and I got very interested in the number 7. I’m not sure if that was the main impetus behind putting a seventh string on my guitar, but it definitely had some influence. I was also considering what I could do with the guitar to give it a different dimension without making it too inaccessible.”
-Steve Vai
His vision later materialized in his Universe model. After trying to add a high A string which would always break when trying to tune it, Vai decided to add a low B1 string to his Ibanez JEM guitar.
Vai acknowledges he was not the first to add a seven string to the guitar, but he argues that his idea came to him independently. He also said that “six is enough, and eight is enough too. Whatever you want. Four can be enough. One can be enough, if you’ve got the imagination for it.”
“I knew that some kid sitting in a basement somewhere was going to start making records and use that low seventh string to create a completely different evolution of metal music. I remember the day I heard this music on the radio and I said, they’re using a seven string. It was incredibly heavy, gorgeous, rich, melodic music. I pulled my car over and just listened. I found out it was Korn’s first record. Then the floodgates opened up and the seven-string defined a genre. People still use it today, but in many different ways. It’s changing, as things in music always will.” Which leads us to what we can call the first prominent leaders of the seven string guitar in metal: Brian ”Head” Welch and James “Munky” Shaffer. In fact, I have their signature K-7 guitar and I love it!
More recently, Tosin Abasi and Javier Reyes from Animals As Leaders, Fredrik Thordendal from Meshuggah, Misha Mansoor from Periphery and many other players have taken up 7 and 8 string guitars. In progressive and “djent” metal, extended range guitars are used for the characteristic sound of highly rhythmical riffs in the lower register. The word djent is even said to be an onomatopoeia of how guitars sound when you hit the lower strings.
My personal favorite 7 and 8 string guitar player in this kind of music is Tosin Abasi. His technical dexterity and use of rhythmically complex riffs reflect the legacy from Korn and other early proponents of these kind of guitars. Not only that, but also his use of acoustic and clean guitar ideas with the 7 and 8 string guitars reflect a much wider approach.
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