My BRAND NEW custom 7 string

[rikkbeatty]

Its gonna be here tomorrow!!!!

[Gresh]

Hey Rick, be sure to post a full review if you have time. I am especially interested in your take on the neck profile and the feel of it.

[rikkbeatty]

You bet. I cant wait to get it tomorrow. Bad thing is that I will have it at work so I will only be able to stare at it the entire day until I get home!! lol

I will post pics and a review of it once I am able to plug her in tomorrow.

[BrianH]

You old dog.. thought you had it already and posted a review of it!!! Guess I'll just have to wait it out

[MelonFarmer]

Cool! I bet it will be the best 7-string ever!!

I thought you had to sell gear, for a house?

[BrianH]

Give him a break, whats a new house without a new guitar?

[rikkbeatty]

Well Melon Farmer, I sold all the gear I needed to sell to get the bills paid so we could get ready to get into a house. BUT just for the record, this guitar was being made WAY before all of that happened. So whats your name Melon? I see you just joined the forum today

OK NOW FOR THE REVIEW

The guitar is officially named the RB7NWH model (Rikk Beatty 7 string Natural WorkHorse) and is available through EKG guitars for $1250.00 With that little plug in mind.........

I first have to say that just like anyone else that has a custom guitar made for them totally from scratch, you are a little nervous at first. You start to think: "Am I going to like it? What if my specifications requests on the neck or body come out to be too weird for me or what if the pickup combinations sound weird....." Well after pulling the RB7NWH out of the box and just looking at it I knew it was a quality piece of gear. You can just tell when great amounts of time and craftsmanship are put into something. From the matching alder veneer headstock, to the lower body strap button I can tell that the attention to detail was the most important thing on the luthier's mind.

The tuners are very sturdy heavy tuners and have nice even tension on all 7 machines. The graphite nut allows the strings to glide smoothly. If it were not for seeing the grain on the fret board you would think it was fake!! It is the most BEAUTIFUL deep, dark, black, rich looking ebony fret board I have ever had on a guitar. The action on the strings is superb. VERY low but no buzz. The body is smooth feeling from the very light sealant put on it to lightly protect it yet leaving the wood "open" for that awesome tone a JEM7BSB gets (without the blue stain on your hands!) :-)

The pickup combination is what I really love. An EVO in the bridge so the leads cut through that bass frequency of the low "B" string, a blaze in the single coil position, and a blaze in the neck position for those deep "bassy" clean tones. Equipped with a coil splitter to split the humbuckers and a high pass filter to keep that Blaze in the neck position sounded crisp... you just cant go wrong with this baby.

I have to say I wanted a "no frills workhorse" guitar but what I got in my opinion is a guitar that is beautiful enough to be put on the UV line of guitars and sell in mass production. The looks really are stunning. It looks even better in person than the photos that Eddie sent me.

Now I know you might think either I am saying all of this just because it is always cool to get a brand new guitar and everyone is always excited when they first get the guitar BUT Eddie (from www.ekgco.com guitars) asked me to be honest and brutal when giving an appraisal of the 7 string. I really tried to find something wrong with the guitar but...... it just was not possible. I feel very lucky to have in my hands the first guitar from this line that I know will sell many more. THANK YOU EDDIE!!!

Here are some pics of the guitar:

http://excaliberstudio.com/rb7nwh1.jpg

http://excaliberstudio.com/rb7nwh2.jpg

http://excaliberstudio.com/rb7nwh3.jpg

[darren wilson]

Very nice! Well thought out and beautifully executed. That is a very nice piece of ebony indeed! It's like a big, black runway.

I did see some flaws, though...

1. In the shot of the neck, the truss rod cover looks slightly out of alignment. It looks like there's a wee gap on the bass side. (Yeah, i'm nitpicking... could just be a flash artifact, too.)
2. The black pickguard covers half of the beautiful wood grain on the face of the body! That guitar would look so sweet without a pickguard. But hey, it's your guitar, and it is a workhorse, so i guess it doesn't matter too much what it looks like to me! (I've never liked pickguards... never will.)
3. It doesn't belong to me. That's the biggest flaw of all!

Congrats to both you and Eddie!

[joel]

hey rikk awesome guitar!! i just sent my specs in as well and am waiting on a price quote. i was just inches away from ordering from japan, and i feel so much happier taking this route. thanks for opening my eyes!!

this is my first posting, i just noticed the ekg banner above. geesh, i need to look around a bit!

[rikkbeatty]

Hey Darren,

I just looked and saw that tiny gap......GREAT EYES!!!! lol I like pickgaurds and so I figured a black one would look cool. I thought about a see through one but I thought it would look to cheesy on this guitar. I had the pickups front routed because I wanted the least amount of wood taken out of the guitar but I just still wanted that darn pickgaurd!! lol

The more I play on this guitar, the more I fall in love with it. EKG did an unreal job. I am VERY pleased!!!

[nuno]

great job Eddie!
yeah, too bad for the pickguard covering the beautiful wood grain... i never liked p-guards too...

anyway, congrats Rikk!

[darren wilson]

Originally Posted by rikkbeatty

I had the pickups front routed because I wanted the least amount of wood taken out of the guitar but I just still wanted that darn pickgaurd!!

The way Ibanez rear-routes its JEM and RG models with that tiny little control cavity, i would hazard a guess and say that rear-routing would take less wood away from the body than front routing. Oh, well... what's done is done.

[BrianH]

Originally Posted by darren wilson

The way Ibanez rear-routes its JEM and RG models with that tiny little control cavity, i would hazard a guess and say that rear-routing would take less wood away from the body than front routing. Oh, well... what's done is done.

I would guess to say what he meant was rear routed... anyhoo all is good, with an alder body you can't go wrong either way, in my experience with alder(it always sounds good). I think the main thing is either mounting to pickguard or to the body.

[dex]

If this thing plays half as well as it looks, you should have the sweetest guitar ever.
Understated cames to mind.

I love the lack of fret markers and the natural finish.

If this guitar had white scratch plate and white pickups or as it is now but with black hardware I would have been darker green with envy (I'm still green now ).
Awesome.

[gkelm]

Very nice!...I really like the clean natural look. JEMS are usually too much for me in terms of routs, colors, etc. Bet the neck feels great.
Greg