ShortScale.org

StevePirates wrote:You'll have to let us know how tuning it works out. A standard scale 7 string would have the tuning you want. A baritone 7 string tuned all the way up standard might have some intonation problems, I'd think.

I hope not. My thought is that it's a 27", so that's like only like a bit longer than 25.5". I'm going to be using very thin strings, with the high string a mere .008

NickS wrote:Sounds interesting, I particularly like that the neck is small enough to wrap your thumb over the top with small hands. Do you have trouble doing that with a Jackson or Gibson?

Jackson, I've only played a few times since my friend has one (Soloist, I believe), and I don't remember having any problems getting a thumb down on the E. Gibson, it depends. On an SG, I have no problems getting one string at least, but on some Gibson LPs, I just can't do it. On others, I'm fine. I can't mute two or three strings on Gibson or Jackson, though. I can on a Mustang but I've never needed to.

The big question is not whether I can get a thumb down for muting, but always whether I could play a Hendrix barre chord with a thumb. On a Mustang, the answer's yes but I think that has more to do with the radius than the width.

I'd say using standard baritone strings, plus another for the high E, you should be just fine. Baritones tend to be tuned to A or B, so you'd be mostly tuning to standard baritone (BEADF#B), drop A, with an extra string. You're really only changing the tuning of two strings and adding one.

honeyiscool wrote: but I think that has more to do with the radius than the width.

Radius has a bit to do with it, but I found for myself it was the profile or how "thick" the neck is. I've always preferred shorterscale guitars but then one day I got an original RG550 (from 1989) off ebay, an impulse buy as I'd always wanted one when I was a teenager when they first come out and as I could now afford one, got lucky and won it.

Never really expected to play it as I knew they had wide flat fretboards. Turns out I was in for a shock as it's about the easiest neck to play I've come across. Those original Wizard necks are paper thin so it's dead easy to get your hand around for chords and you can bend strings for days on there. I've tried more modern Ibanez with I think the Wizard 2 neck and its totally different, no where near as good or playable.


Very nice guitar you have there.

Well thickness has something to do with it, but not always. I think my Hello Kitty Strat neck is actually my favorite neck I have. It's slightly thicker than most of my other necks, but it has narrow width and the shape is amazing for me. It provides meat at the perfect places for my hands and doesn't dig in anywhere like a really thin neck sometimes digs into my thumb when I have it wrapped around.

Needless to say, every hand is different and in general, a narrow, thin neck will be easy to wrap your hands around, but the right neck shape can make it even easier, even if it's a bit thicker.

Your hand has to go around the neck, ergo circumference is the killer stat. Radius and width are both factors that impact that variable.

But I'm just saying that there are two types of necks that are comfortable for me. One is a thin neck that absolutely provides no thickness at all so there is space under the neck in my grip.

The other is a thicker neck whose contours hug my hand as I wrap my hand around it, but without hindering my hand at all. All other things being equal, I prefer the thicker neck, but it's really unlikely for a thicker neck to actually do what I described. Usually it does hurt my ability to get my hand around.

Welcome the neckThuru Club.


my axe.






Hand-made monster.


btw one recommendation , aways finish play use a Yellow Flag and remove all sweat from bridge and nut and keep screws of floyd rose bridge aways whit oil.
not the oil you use to fry meat can be a light non-corrosive oil such Sae 90 or Singer i don´t like WD-40 i find corrosive,
screws of floyd rose love get rusty and once its get , its hard to do maintenance.


neck at mine is a Copy of Wizzard 2 Profile its very , very thin C shape it´s close a 24" C shape comfort.

That looks awesome!

Anyway, today I got some strings. I made myself a set of strings by mix and matching .008-.010-.013-.021-.028-.038-.056 for a super light set of strings. I have it set up for standard E with a low A and holy crap, this is the best tuning ever.

My problem with drop tuning has always been that I couldn't play a major chord easily once I changed the interval of the bottom two strings to a fifth. There's no such problem with 7 strings, because you can play major and minor barre chords easily now, using the standard A string shapes.

Holy crap, this is fun.

StevePirates wrote:Your hand has to go around the neck, ergo circumference is the killer stat. Radius and width are both factors that impact that variable.

Not for me. Width is the most important for me because of my stumpy fingers - the thickness can be reaaaly thick like my Guyatone. As long as the width is still small with that thickness I'm in heaven.

I always like watching my vids to see what my cat was up to when I was demoing.

[youtube][/youtube]

This is with the standard + low A tuning. It's perfect now. I think this might ruin 6-string guitars a bit for me.

Sounds nice n' thick

honeyiscool wrote:I always like watching my vids to see what my cat was up to when I was demoing.

You're lucky to still have that other camera

I have to say that is a great price. Despite all the superstratness I like it's looks. not sure if I'd want a floyd or hardtail. Hows the tuning stability with the floyd?

Ankhanu wrote:You're lucky to still have that other camera

There isn't a camera on it. I'd never leave a camera on a tripod with a cat around.

Dave wrote:I have to say that is a great price. Despite all the superstratness I like it's looks. not sure if I'd want a floyd or hardtail. Hows the tuning stability with the floyd?

I do, too, other than the pointy headstock, it's very pleasant on the eyes.

Floyd stability is amazing, it never goes out of tune unless you get truly stupid with the whammy, which is actually harder than it sounds because a Floyd just kind of makes you want to do dumb stuff with it. It's just that restringing is a bitch and you're stuck with the tuning you have, although I think that's pretty much what I wanted with a 7-string, to have one tuning work for almost everything.

honeyiscool wrote:This is with the standard + low A tuning. It's perfect now. I think this might ruin 6-string guitars a bit for me.

Spoke too soon. Am playing Mustang now and still love it.

Once the strings are stretched properly it shouldnt go out of tune. It's a new guitar so the string clamps on the nut shouldnt be worn and cause slippage.
Change one string at a time and get practicing those windmills

rps-10 wrote:Once the strings are stretched properly it shouldnt go out of tune. It's a new guitar so the string clamps on the nut shouldnt be worn and cause slippage.
Change one string at a time and get practicing those windmills

Windmilling on a guitar with a whammy bar sounds like a bad idea.

honeyiscool wrote:Windmilling on a guitar with a whammy bar sounds like a bad idea.

Tell that to the 80s!