7-Strings Electric Guitars

7-Stringed Guitars

Seven string guitars have been in existence since the 1930ies. They were built as semi acoustic instruments that were used in jazz music. The first mass produced solid body e-guitar of that type was the 1990 signature model for Steve Vai.

Since then a lot of guitar players especially in metal and metal core genres have discovered seven string instruments and their tonal possibilities. Widely known seven string players are for instance John Petrucci (Dream Theater), Stephen Carpenter (Deftones), Erik Rutan (Morbid Angel), Wes Borland (Limp Bizkit) or Matthew Heafy (Trivium).

A seven string guitar usually has a standard B-E-A-D-g-b-e tuning and therefore provides a lot more bass frequencies than a six string guitar. They can be tuned even lower in order to correspond to more extreme music and playstyles.