6 or 7

[aj_foes]

get the 7. you'll get used to it pretty easy. my point is, you should try new things. i've never played one, but, yeah...7s man!!! lol!

[Flobanez]

Definately a 7620, good choice for a first 7-string. I still have mine after 8 years when I bought it new, never went back to 6 after that.

[jdshredhead]

i read that the 7620 is almost the same as a 1570 but with different aesthetics

[jdshredhead]

oh and price of course too

[chris101]

Originally Posted by Polaris20

That's a pretty silly statement, seeing as how playing 6 for a long time then switching to 7 requires adapting, whereas starting out on a 7 requires no adapting, because you're learning the instrument from scratch.

I've known a couple kids that started out during the nu metal phase strictly on 7's, and grown into more capable 7 string music (either jazz or progressive rock) and can't play a 6 because it feels awkward and weird.

Hold your fire! It's far from a silly statement in the real world. A very good friend of mine is a tutor and runs a guitar shop that has sold loads of 7 string guitars over the past few years, the number of people who bought the 7 string as their 1st guitar and then tried to bring it back and exchange for a 6 was staggering. As a result they no longer stock the 7's now, special order only. Every single one of his pupils who started with a 7 ended up buying a 6 string after a month or so as it becase apparent that the 7 string is not so easy to play and was hampering their progress considerably. (All the books are written for 6 strings!) Of course there is always the exception to this, everyone knows a gifted guy somewhere who could play a 8 string at the age of 10 or whatever but I'm talking about the avergae guy on the street who wants to learn to play.

[Chud]

I started learning on a 7-string and it slightly stunted by growth IMO. I play 6-strings mainly now but whenever i do switch to a 7-string it's easy peasy lemon squeezey!

I'm not amazinly fond of the sound of my 7-string though. Sounds terrible and made me want to quit guitar when i played it recently. Methinks i'll be changing the pickups! :lol

[Hobophobic]

Originally Posted by chrisstevenson

Every single one of his pupils who started with a 7 ended up buying a 6 string after a month or so as it becase apparent that the 7 string is not so easy to play and was hampering their progress considerably. (All the books are written for 6 strings!)

That makes no sense to me at all. If you start out learning on a 7-string it's not going to hamper your progress any more than a 6-string would. The only important physical difference is the number of strings and width of the neck. It's the same notes in the same places in the usual tuning with the low B mirroring the high B. Yes, there are some changes to the way some things look compared to the pictures in books for 6-strings but, if they are his pupils, he should be able to work them through those little hurdles. I suspect that, if they're wanting to trade their 7 for a 6 after a month or so, it's probably because teacher is harping it into their heads that things would be much easier if they did. That would be a teacher factor*, not a learning difficulty factor.

*Notice how I politely refrained from using the term "lazy teacher"... even though that's really what I was thinking.

[Polaris20]

Originally Posted by chrisstevenson

Hold your fire! It's far from a silly statement in the real world. A very good friend of mine is a tutor and runs a guitar shop that has sold loads of 7 string guitars over the past few years, the number of people who bought the 7 string as their 1st guitar and then tried to bring it back and exchange for a 6 was staggering. As a result they no longer stock the 7's now, special order only. Every single one of his pupils who started with a 7 ended up buying a 6 string after a month or so as it becase apparent that the 7 string is not so easy to play and was hampering their progress considerably. (All the books are written for 6 strings!) Of course there is always the exception to this, everyone knows a gifted guy somewhere who could play a 8 string at the age of 10 or whatever but I'm talking about the avergae guy on the street who wants to learn to play.

So you're making the assumption based upon this one guy that the human capacity for guitar playing and learning ability has a breaking point of 6 strings; everything after that becomes harder? Why 6 then? Why didn't we go to 5? Surely that would be easier, right?

I think there's a lack of ability in teaching, not ability to learn. I do not buy the idea about all the books being for a 6 string as a reason for not being able to teach it as well. Who teaches, the book or the teacher?

[chris101]

Calm down man! The book is meerly an example, as another, take a simple chord, fingered over the traditional 6 strings & starting from E on the down-sweep. Want it to ring clean and true... so that means you dont want to hit the low B and muddy the whole thing up, but new guy finds it hard when sweeping across the strings to not accidently hit that big fat B.

Chud has a point though, once familier with the 7 it makes the 6 feel so damn easy!

[jim777]

I personally don't think it's wise to start learning the guitar on a 7 string. It's not even as if "the overwhelming majority" of 'how to' books are aimed at 6 strings, it's more like "all but two" are aimed at 6 strings.
Learning a musical instrument takes commitment, practice, and time that could be spent having fun immediately, rather than 'paying dues' for something that may or may not pay off down the road. For most of the people in here, it's not a big deal. You guys are guitar players, and some of you are even musicians! Only teasing there But some people aren't driven by this blind desire to master the guitar no matter what; some come to the guitar nonchalantly, and need to see some improvement early in order to keep their interest.
I think if you are looking to start out on guitar, you should start out on a 6. Take advantage of all the videos, tutorials, and whatnot that's out there for the 6. I don't see the upside of purposely putting an extra string in your way until you've got a few chops under your belt and your confidence starts growing. There is plenty of time down the road to look at all of the different tools that are available to guitar players (like classicals, acoustics, archtops, and 7's).
Guitars are tools for making making music, one is not inherently better than another; there is simply the case of what's best for a given job. The music should always be the main consideration when choosing the tool. In my opinion, the 6 is best for the beginner. YMMV

jim

[Drew]

Originally Posted by chrisstevenson

Hold your fire! It's far from a silly statement in the real world. A very good friend of mine is a tutor and runs a guitar shop that has sold loads of 7 string guitars over the past few years, the number of people who bought the 7 string as their 1st guitar and then tried to bring it back and exchange for a 6 was staggering. As a result they no longer stock the 7's now, special order only. Every single one of his pupils who started with a 7 ended up buying a 6 string after a month or so as it becase apparent that the 7 string is not so easy to play and was hampering their progress considerably. (All the books are written for 6 strings!) Of course there is always the exception to this, everyone knows a gifted guy somewhere who could play a 8 string at the age of 10 or whatever but I'm talking about the avergae guy on the street who wants to learn to play.

And how many of them started ut because of KoRn, and then quit when the backlash against 7's kicked in and they were no longer trendy?

Chud, I wrote a very long rebuttal to your "7 strings held me back" comment in his other thread, and I don't feel like typing it up again, so I'll summarize - if you find all you ever do when you pick up a 7 is play low chugging riffs, that's your own fault, not the fault of the guitar. You can play the same stuff on a 6, just chugging in E and not B. The difference is, you choose not to.

Jim, while yours is probably the most rational comment here, the reason I'd be inclined to disagree is that the top 6 strings of a 7 are still tuned like a 6, and you can pick up a seven, ignure the low B, and still apply everything in those books. Also, once someone points out how power chords work, you can begin to bring that 7th string in pretty quickly. Sure, few books do this, but if you're taking lessons, it takes a pretty lazy teacher not to help a student make that connection.

[red5]

Originally Posted by Hobophobic

That makes no sense to me at all. If you start out learning on a 7-string it's not going to hamper your progress any more than a 6-string would.

I got 6th strings because I wouldn't use the 7th very much. If I knew I was going to learn on a 7, then I would have wanted to have learned on a 7 (not that they were around when I started playing). The way I see it is that you're going to have to get used to that low B string somehow, so you might as well do it right off the bat. Sometimes you have to make these decisions even though you may not really know what you want yet or think you do and it may change in the future.

[jim777]

Originally Posted by Drew

Sure, few books do this, but if you're taking lessons, it takes a pretty lazy teacher not to help a student make that connection.

Dude, lessons aren't Metal! If you've got a teacher, then I agree: there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to start with a 7, or anything else in the musical universe. No one buys a flugelhorn and picks it up out of books. It's just been my experience that most guitarists start out on their own, and most people (not just musicians) tend to quit things that turn out to be difficult to master with no real hope of anything other than personal reward. Think of all the people you know who had piano lessons as kids but don't play anymore. I've had 100 or so students in my 30+ years on the guitar, and I've always told them "you can be good on the guitar in 3 months, but it may take your whole life to be great". It's just the nature of the beast. If you have the drive, that musician's soul, the number of strings shouldn't make a difference. It really depends on the student and the availability of a teacher, but iffy student and no teacher equals 6 string to me.

[Drew]

I'm rather un-metal myself.

I guess I agree to you there, that it's not that 7's are harder than 6's, just there's less readily available material out there. So it comes down to two things - is your ultimate goal to play a seven string, and are you willing to seek out instruction/instructional material a bit more aggressively?

If you can answer yes to both, then a 7 makes sense. If not, then it's more debatable.

I really need to get on writing some beginner-level lessons for sevenstring.org, don't I?

[jim777]

Despite thinking a 6 might be easier for most potental guitarists to start on, I'm very pro-7 myself (as you know). It's only one more string, but it does change what you can do in so many ways. It may not be for everybody, but it certainly offers potential to every guitarist out there.
When I was much younger, every beginning guitar player sort of knew after a few months if they were going to be more of a "lead" guitarist, or a "rhythm" guitarist Every band had two guitarists, and keyboard players were few and far between (because Hammond B-3's were mountains of money and hard as hell to transport) Maybe it's still that way for guitarists, I don't really know. I think if you would see yourself as more of the "lead" type player, then there is a great potential upside to getting a 7. There's a lot more there than just the one string.

jim