After a few days to soak in the RG1077, I must say I'm very impressed. It plays as good as it looks, and the increased scale is a complete non-issue as far as playability goes for me.
I A-B'ed the RG1077 and my RG7CT, and here are my very nonscientific and subjective observations:
-Although they are both said to have Wizard7 necks, the CT neck seems a little more Universe-like in feel, and the 1077 a little slimmer. Very surprisingly, this is the biggest difference in actual feel between the guitars.
-I have the action set up the same for both- low, but probably not quite as low as some of the people here.
-The 1077 is tuned to A and the CT to B. Both have 10-56s (I think)- the string tension is very similar. If anything, I think the CT with standard length and standard tuning might have a little more tension.
-Both guitars have Dimarzio 'new-7' pickups. Both will get new ones soon. I don't mind the new-7s as much as most and can get some killer sounds from them, but I would like to maximize the potential of both guitars. I'm thinking about going with Blazes or Tone Zone 7/
Air Norton 7 for the 1077 and either Blaze/Paf 7 or Tone Zone 7/ (Air Norton or Paf 7) for the CT. I'm still undecided but it will play out like this: One will have a Blaze in the bridge and one will have a Tone Zone 7, and both will have different
neck pickups as well.
-For me the 27' scale feels just like a 25.5'. I pick up one and play, switch and play, with almost zero adjustment. I noticed my palm sits a little less on the bridge on the 1077- I think the increased scale is part longer neck, part bridge set closer to the back of the guitar- which might explain why the neck length diff. isn't noticeable for me.
-I'd advise anyone even slightly interested to try one out. I was a little hesitant about the whole baritone thing, but I didn't find it to affect playability negatively at all. The added string tension works superbly since I wanted a 7 in A anyway, and didn't really want to bump up to bigger strings. I bet it would absolutely rip tuned to B as well, either with 9s or 10s. I think if you are interested in picking up a 7, you would be doing yourself a disservice not to check out the 1077, even if you don't think you need a 27' scale guitar.
