[Serratus]

Hi all,
My custom 7-string is all finished now, pics here:

http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/[email protected]/album?.dir=/93f3&.src=ph

I built this guitar about 6 years ago, but there were things I wasn't happy about so I've just done some customising (can you customise a custom-built guitar??). I replaced the fingerboard with maple (was ebony), shaved quite a bit of bulk from the front and back of the body as it was very thick before (and heavy), stained it blue and re-lacquered, moved the pickups away from eachother a bit and moved some controls (and got rid of the synth LED and switch - never used them and they just cluttered up the front) and made a new mirror scratchplate.

Specs:
Mahogany body with 5A quilted maple front and white binding,
24 fret maple board on rock maple neck - neck profile is a little thinner than an RG7 and the fingerboard a bit wider,
2 Kent Armstrong custom made humbuckers,
Roland GK2-A synth pickup driver built-in,
Vol, Tone, Synth vol knobs,and 3-way switch. The vol is push-pull to coil tap the neck humbucker, the tone coil taps the bridge humbucker,
Fixed bridge (made by me and my father out of stainless back in the days when you couldn't buy 7 string bridges) strung thru the body,
Locking Schaller machinheads.

I've included a pic of how it used to look before the recent changes.
Any comments welcome as always (played it at a gig last week - blue stained quilting looks gorgeous under stage lights!)

Regards,
Rich

 

[bonehead189]

Nice! Check out this 7-String Swirled JEM I made. It's virtual but, but...not bad. Wish it was really mine.

 

[JTM45]

Hi all,
My custom 7-string is all finished now,

That's really nice Rich !

It's very different to most of the 7's you see around as well, which is great.

Did you make the body and neck from scratch?

That bridge is impressive for a home-made one too.
Nice work man!

 

[the.godfather]

Beautiful work as ever Rich! I liked that guitar to begin with, buts its even nicer now! You really should think about doing custom work for people in the UK. Impressive stuff.

 

[jim777]

Beautiful axe Rich, she looks fantastic!

 

[JTM45]

You really should think about doing custom work for people in the UK. Impressive stuff.

Good idea Gary!
There's not many good custom places over here and the few there are are ridiculously expensive.
Someone who could specialize in Ibanez inspired stuff would be great, especially custom reverse-headstock necks and the like.

 

[fettouhi]

That's one mean quilt .

Regards

André

 

[Flobanez]

Very Nice, Serratus.

 

[Chris From Singapore.]

Very nice guitar!

What do those switches do?

I noticed 3 knobs, 2 buttons and a switch at the lower horn, and of course the roland pickup

Great work!

 

[j.arledge]

wow, that is very nice .

i love the color, and the maple neck really sets it off.

 

[dreaming_neon_black]

Is the Roland pickup going from strings 1-6 or 2-7? I was't aware they made a 7 string version...

 

[Tsorovan]

They don't, and you can easily see on the photos that it covers strings 2-7, if the low B (tuning unknown, but you know what I mean) is to be considered #1.

 

[fettouhi]

They don't, and you can easily see on the photos that it covers strings 2-7, if the low B (tuning unknown, but you know what I mean) is to be considered #1.

Doesn't make it less cool .

Regards

André

 

[dreaming_neon_black]

They should definately consider producing one, it'd be cool to have a single 7 string that could do B, Bb, Drop A etc etc. Back on the subject, gorgeous guitar. Nice to see a 7 that isn't a pointy strat type thing, not that there's anything wrong with that hehe, as they say variety is the spice of life.

 

[Ozzdoc]

very nice, very nice...to bad that i don't like the feel of maple

 

[Distantshore]

To be so talented...
Nice Job!

 

[Tsorovan]

They should definately consider producing one, it'd be cool to have a single 7 string that could do B, Bb, Drop A etc etc.

I believe they would have to redesign the whole DIN13 interface, including those Roland-ready sound modules. IIRC, Conklin works around that problem by letting the low E and B share an output; you just can't track both strings at the same time. That's with RMC piezo-driven MIDI though.

 

[dreaming_neon_black]

Interesting, I didn't know that. Oh well the VG-88's been out for a while now, maybe someone else could come up with something similiar but designed for 6+ strings...it's good to dream

 

[Serratus]

Thanks for all the compliments everyone. Yes the synth pickup is only on the 'normal' six strings, not the low B. As you've been saying, Rolands whole synth units (not just the pickups, but the unit aswell) are completely geared to six strings, so I think it would take them some major redesigning to get them to work with seven.
And I keep thinking about going into business doing customising, etc, but I'm not sure yet if I'd want to go self-employed again. I love working on guitars, but it's everything else that goes with it that I'm not sure I want at the moment (money being up and down all the time, advertising, having to watch the time you spend on stuff to ensure that you make money, getting enough work, etc, etc). So we'll see - I've just finished University and am not sure what I want to do next, and going into business doing guitars is an option, so you never know!
cheers,
Rich

 

[markg5150]

Beautiful quilt top

I don't think I've ever seen a Tele shaped 7 string before. Great job

Given some of the guitars you've posted here recently, I think you'd do really well doing it for a living. Good luck