With ever-increasing popularity, the best 7-string guitars are now much more than just a novelty for guitar players. With guitarists building entire careers playing extended-range instruments, the 7-string guitar has rapidly become a staple in the heavier genres of music over the last 20 years or so.
On the face of it, a 7-string guitar is just a regular six-string electric guitar with an extra low string added. There are, however, a number of factors that make them quite different, with the main being the scale length. 7-string guitars typically have a longer scale length than a ‘normal’ guitar, which makes them really well adapted to drop tuning. Some even have multi-scale fretboards, which combine different scale lengths on the bass and treble sides to ensure excellent playability.
If you’re buying for the first time, then check out my how to choose section, which guides you through everything you need to know before making a purchase. I’ve also included an FAQs section based on my own 20 years of experience playing extended range instruments, and a glossary of key terms to get you up to speed on the lingo used throughout this guide.
Best overall
✅ Buy if you want versatility: Despite the metal looks, this is a 7-string that’s capable of a huge variety of tones thanks to the signature Mark Holcomb Seymour Duncan humbuckers.
❌ Avoid if you want a high output sound: These pickups will probably be a bit too low output for those who want that EMG or Fishman sound.
Overview
Despite PRS Guitars dipping its quilted-maple toe into the 7-string market circa 2013 with a super-sized SE Custom model, it was never going to be the company’s bread and butter. Every now and then, however, there comes along a guitar such as this, for a guitarist such as Mark Holcomb of Periphery, and then it makes perfect sense.
Build quality
We love this because of the refinement. Holcomb plays metal, and this signature guitar most capably supports this enterprise, and yet it is all curves and chamfering, with no sharp edges that call out ostentatiously to the black T-shirt dollar.
Playability
Admittedly, the PRS neck profile takes some getting used to, but it’s not as large as you’d expect considering the extra string. While it took me a few minutes to warm up to it, after that initial period, I found myself easily able to move around it like I would on a six-string.
Sounds
There is a wealth of tone to be had here, with Holcomb’s smart pairing of Seymour Duncan’s passive Scourge and Scarlet humbuckers in the neck and bridge positions offering heaps of grunt, and a coil-tap on hand for some single coil sparkle. Excellent build, awesome tones, flawless finish… Another fine PRS. They should do this sort of thing more often.
“If you’re in the market for a versatile 7-string that can handle lots of different tonal duties, I can’t think of many that do it better than the PRS SE Mark Holcomb SVN. From the stunning-looking finish to the ultra-comfortable neck, you can tell a lot of work has gone into designing this guitar to make it player-friendly, and it’s got a surprising amount of depth to it thanks to those signature Seymour Duncan pickups.”
Read more: PRS SE Mark Holcomb SVN review
Best budget
✅ Buy if you want a 7-string on a budget: With its low cost and awesome playability, this is a great option for those without loads to spend.
❌ Avoid if you’re not willing to set up your instrument: Being a lower-cost guitar, it means you’ll likely need to set it up to get it playing its absolute best.
Overview
This entry-level guitar might be a Spartan instrument, but as a gateway drug for the 7-string curious, the Jackson JS22-7 DKA Dinky HT is hard to beat. It may be cheap, but if you’re just wanting to experiment with extended range guitars or you’re a beginner who wants to go in at the deep end, it’s an excellent choice.
Build quality
Despite the low cost, it’s a seriously good-looking guitar with its all-stealth black looks, and a really nicely carved body. You’d be forgiven for thinking it costs a lot more than it actually does. It’s got a belly cut on the back for comfort, played seated or standing, and it even features small carves on the body near the neck to enhance upper fret access.
Playability
The scale length helps keep that 7th string taut, and a compound radius fretboard ensures you'll always have a comfortable playing experience. The jumbo frets make it great for playing heavier riffs and more technical licks, and it held its tuning incredibly well when I tested one. The neck profile is thin, which encourages faster playing and ensures that switching over from a six-string is relatively easy.
Sounds
The JS22-7 would make a great fixer-upper – the most obvious mod would be a pickup upgrade. That said, the stock Jackson humbuckers deal well with thick distortion and won’t make a meal of your riffs, particularly if you’re new to the instrument and genre. For those with more refined tastes, I found these were decent, but were a little muddy and lacking definition, particularly with the neck humbucker.
“If you want to take your first foray into a 7-string guitar without spending too much cash, then the Jackson JS22-7 DKA Dinky HT is an awesome option. The neck is joyous to play on, blazingly fast, and the compound radius fretboard is a subtle but amazing feature on a guitar at this end of the price spectrum. It looks, sounds, and plays great, which is about as much as you can ask for on a guitar that costs less than $200.”
Read more: Jackson JS22-7 DKA Dinky HT review
Best premium
✅ Buy if you want the best of the best: With unparalleled build quality and incredibly versatile tones, the John Petrucci Majest is the ultimate 7-string.
❌ Avoid if you’re on a budget: Needless to say, this is one for those with significant financial backing.
Overview
OK, the one percent need only apply here, but the Ernie Ball Music Man John Petrucci Majesty 7 is one hell of a guitar. If you want to spend on a 7-string that will last you a lifetime, this is the guitar you’ve been looking for.
Build quality
Unsurprisingly, given the price, this is an impeccable put-together instrument. Music Man instruments have a reputation for exceptional build quality, and this is no different. It’s got a three-piece mahogany neck with a through neck construction, which is flawlessly executed. It’s a relatively lightweight guitar, even with the additional string, associated hardware, and extra electronics, and it’s really nicely balanced on a strap or on your lap.
Playability
The neck feels super slim in the hand, and the rounded fretboard edges give it a really slinky feel. The 17-inch flat radius ebony ‘board is lovely and smooth, providing a great feeling platform for playing. The contoured neck heel means reaching the 24th fret is an absolute breeze, while the forearm contour for your picking hand is carved to help enhance the ability to play fast.
Sounds
The DiMarzio Rainmaker humbuckers coupled with its byzantine switching system offer a cornucopia of tones, metal and otherwise, while the built-in adjustable boost will help your solos cut through the mix. The Piezo on is like the guitar equivalent of having monogrammed slippers and a smoking jacket. It’s just classy. But it’s not just for show, and allows you to grab some on-the-fly acoustic guitar tones or augment your base tone with some extra plink.
It’s also got a built-in boost switch, which means you can increase the output by 20 dB, which is an incredible tool to have accessible by pushing a knob. The coil split is similarly activated by pressing down on the push-push knob, active only when the guitar is in the middle pickup position.
Best for low tuning
✅ Buy if you want to drop tune: The extended 27-inch scale makes this a great guitar for going down to drop G or lower.
❌ Avoid if you don’t fancy scalloped frets: Requiring a very light touch, the higher frets on this guitar are scalloped, which may put some players off.
Overview
With the popularity of drop tuning these days, if you want to get down to earth shatteringly low tones, then you’ll need a baritone 7-string. The ESP LTD SN-1007 HT is an excellent quality instrument that will let you get super low with your tunings, while remaining inherently stable under load.
Build quality
The ‘blasted’ Swamp Ash body is absolutely stunning in person, offering a three-dimensional look that’s quite unique amongst 7-string guitars. It’s really well put together overall, and the slight carve and the neck join make the upper fret access a little better. The fretwork is fantastic with no sharp edges, and the action comes set reasonably low from the factory, but you’ll be able to get it lower.
Playability
The scalloped frets are the star of the show here, with this happening from the 17th fret to the 24th. They definitely take some getting used to and require a very light touch, but they’re fantastic for licks with tapping in them or lightning-fast shred leads. The compound radius goes from 11.8"-15.7", flattening out as you get closer to the upper registers.
With the extended scale length, riffing on the low strings is an absolute joy, offering excellent stability when digging in with your picking hand thanks to the hard tail bridge and locking tuners combo. The thickness of the neck will take some adjustment if you’re coming from a regular six-string, but once you get used to it you’ll be flying over the fretboard.
Sounds
In the bridge position, the LTD SN-1007 has a ceramic Fishman Fluence humbucker, whereas an alnico Fishman features in the neck position, which gives you a nice mix of sounds to play with. The ceramic pickup is great for those more modern metal tones, whereas the alnico version gives you a bit more versatility with its lower output.
Best for shred
✅ Buy if you want something ergonomic: Despite its crazy design, this player-focused instrument is incredibly comfortable to play, great for shredders
❌ Avoid if you’re looking to drop tune: The standard 25.5” scale length means this isn’t an ideal candidate for extreme downtuning.
Overview
Designed in conjunction with Animals As Leaders legend Tosin Abasi, the Sterling by Music Man Kaizen 7 is a guitar that will turn heads no matter where you go. It’s not just about looks, though; the design serves a purpose, designed to give players a totally ergonomic playing platform from which to rip through lead licks and heavy riffs.
Build quality
As with most Sterling guitars I’ve come across, the build quality here is fantastic. It may be the ‘budget’ brand to Music Man guitars, but that doesn’t mean lesser quality. The fanned frets haven’t made their way over from the USA model, but you do get the Steinberger gearless tuners, and everything is very nicely fitted onto this model. The fretwork is fantastic, and the overall quality is well worth the entry price.
Playability
It sits really nicely in the lap due to that ergonomic body shape, with the long top horn making it balance well. Despite the chunkier dimensions of the 7-string neck, it feels very slinky indeed from the off, and no playing style feels out of reach here. While it could probably benefit from a larger scale length for drop tuning, for playing in B-standard, it works just fine.
Sounds
The pickups are nice and focused, taming the wild low end typically associated with extended range guitars and providing plenty of punchy mid range. They do a great job overall, though I’d consider them solid rather than spectacular. Metal tones go down really well, and although they’re lacking a little bit of sharpness, they work great for both clean and driven tones.
“It might not have the full complement of features that define the USA Kaizen, but this Sterling model takes the basic design ethos and morphs it into a very well-executed mid-range model. Scoring especially highly for its superb ergonomics, it ought to appeal to those seeking a highly playable seven-string.”
Read more: Sterling by Music Man Kaizen 7 review
Best for djent
✅ Buy if you want precision: With the Evertune bridge and long scale length, this guitar is ideal for metalcore and djent lovers.
❌ Avoid if you’re on a budget: As a premium signature model, it’s pretty expensive, so look away if you’re on a tight budget.
Overview
This is a really high-spec guitar that’s perfect for crushing metal tones. It’s the signature guitar of Northlane axeman, Josh Smith, who’s known for huge-sounding down-tuned riffs. It’s certainly not cheap, but you do get an awful lot for your money here, making this one of the best 7-string guitars currently on offer and one of the best Jackson guitars available today.
Build quality
The build quality of this guitar is overall pretty good, but I have heard some complaints from others that their wiring wasn’t quite right on their particular model, so worthwhile to double-check this when you get yours. The guitar is put together really nicely in terms of the hardware, though, and the neck is beautifully finished, feeling incredibly playable straight out of the box.
Playability
The 27” scale keeps everything super tight and means that you can go even lower than B, without it sounding too muddy. The Evertune bridge keeps your tuning and intonation absolutely on point, no matter how much you dig in with your pick or how hard you press down on the strings. It’s actually quite unnerving playing one of these bridges for the first time, you’ll never have sounded so in tune with one of these.
Sounds
Fitted with Josh’s own signature pickups – the Bare Knuckle Impulse set, consisting of a bridge humbucker and a single coil in the neck position, these have been finely tuned to excel at handling low tunings. They’re not super high-output active pickups, though, so bear that in mind if you’re going for a particularly extreme sound.
The bridge pickup is bright and focused, and the neck is smooth and clear – great for leads. Of course, these sound great through tons of gain, but they’re also very good at handling more subtle tones, like cleans and mid-gain sounds.
Also consider
How to choose
If you’re buying for the first time, there are a few extra considerations to make when purchasing a 7-string guitar versus buying a regular guitar. Luckily for you, I bought my first 7-string well over twenty years ago, and I’ve been playing them ever since, so let me guide you through everything you need to know before purchasing.
1. Scale length
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The dominant factor with any 7-string guitar is the scale length. The scale length affects the playability of extended-range instruments drastically, particularly if you’re looking to downtune your instrument. Regular guitars will be between 24.75-25.5”, whereas with a 7-string guitar, you’re typically looking at 26.5” and above.
This might not seem like much just looking at it, but it does make a big difference to the playability, so bear this in mind before buying. If you’re not interested in downtuning, then a 25.5” 7-string or higher will do just fine. If you’re the sort that wants to get down to drop F, then have a look at one of the 27-inch scale instruments in this guide.
A more modern development is the multiscale guitar, which features a longer scale length on the bass side of the guitar versus the treble side, and slanted (sometimes called fanned) frets. This means you get a longer scale length on the bass strings, but keep the slinkier feel of a shorter scale guitar on the treble side.
2. Neck profile
A seven-string guitar will have a wider neck profile than a normal guitar, which will take some getting used to. There’s no real way of getting around this, but if you’re worried about it, then taking a look at the nut width specification will help you decide whether or not it might be too large for your hand size. I will say, as someone who doesn’t exactly have spades for hands, once I got used to the wider 7-string neck, I don’t think having smaller hands held me back all that much, and you will find your hands adapt quite quickly.
3. Active vs passive pickups
A lot of 7-string guitars are geared towards heavy music, which means you’ll encounter more active pickups than you’d usually find on a normal electric guitar. Active pickups tend to have a higher output and more sustain, but at the cost of a more limited dynamic range. This means they can sound and feel quite different if you’re used to passive pickups.
It’s a case of personal preference deciding between the two, so if you can, it’s worth trying out a pair of active pickups if you’ve never used them before, to work out if they suit your style. If you decide you’re not a fan, however, most retailers offer decent return periods so you can just send the guitar back if you don’t gel with it.
FAQs
Is it hard to switch from a 6-string to a 7-string?
While I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s hard, there’s definitely an adjustment period moving from a six-string to a seven-string. One extra string might not sound like much, but if you’ve been playing a regular guitar for a while, it will take some time to get used to it. Personally, I didn’t need much training to get over the lower registers, but I did find myself getting lost sometimes when playing leads further up the fretboard, as it can be easy to mistake one string for another.
Will the neck feel too wide for my hands?
This depends on your dimensions. If you’ve got particularly small hands, then it may feel large moving to a 7-string guitar, particularly if it’s got a longer scale length. For most players, however, once that initial feeling of strangeness is gone, you shouldn’t find yourself hindered by the wider dimensions of the neck.
Can I still play 6-string songs on a 7-string?
Yes, the six strings of a seven-string guitar are still tuned the same as a regular guitar, so you can play all of your existing repertoire on one. It will require some adjustment to your technique, however, as you’ll need to mute the low 7th string in some instances, depending on what you’re playing.
What is scale length?
Scale length is the distance between the bridge and nut of the guitar, which determines the amount of space between the frets and the feel of the strings in different tunings. A longer scale length makes a guitar better suited to drop tuning, as you can maintain string stability when having the strings tuned very low, which is why you’ll find many of the guitars in this guide feature a scale length longer than the 24.75” or 25.5” you typically find on six-string electric guitars.
Do I need active or passive pickups?
This depends on what style you want to play. If you like the really extreme heavy stuff, the compressed sound of an active pickup can be more suitable, whereas for more versatility, a passive pickup is generally considered to be a bit better suited. It’s all swings and roundabouts, though, because ultimately it depends on your personal preference whether or not you want an active or passive pickup.
Will I need modifications to fit thicker strings?
Sometimes, yes. It can be the nut that needs adjustment to accommodate a thicker string, and I’ve had a few occasions where the hole on the tuning peg is too narrow for the gauge of string I need, so I’ve had to drill it out in order to get it to fit. Most modern guitars accommodate this, but it’s worth bearing in mind before you buy, particularly if you’re going for the drop tuning route.
Is a 7-string only for metal?
Not at all. 7-string guitars have been around for well over 200 years now, and were initially used by classical players, finding particular popularity in Russia. It’s only recently that they’ve become the go-to guitar for heavier styles, and while quite rare, some jazz players do use them due to the extended range offering unique chord shapes and a wider frequency response.
Key terms
- Active pickups: A type of pickup that uses an additional power source (typically a 9V battery), generating a much higher output.
- Baritone: A six-string guitar that features a longer scale length to make drop tuning easier.
- Chug: Chugging is when you palm mute a low string and play it hard, usually with lots of gain. It’s a commonly used technique in heavy styles of music.
- Coil tap (coil split): Typically used to refer to the ‘splitting’ of a humbucker into two individual coils for a lower output sound. Tapping and splitting are actually two different types of circuits.
- Djent: A type of music that has become synonymous with extended range and seven-string guitars, often featuring heavy, syncopated riffs and progressive song structures.
- Extended range: Any kind of guitar that features a longer-than-normal scale length.
- Evertune: A relatively new type of guitar bridge that provides perfect intonation and excellent tuning stability.
- Floppy: Usually referring to a guitar string that’s been tuned too low, resulting in a low tension that causes the string to flop.
- GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome): The unrelenting desire to buy more gear. Guitarists frequently joke about this being an affliction suffered by most.
- Mud: Muddiness is used to describe a guitar tone that's lacking in definition, usually because of a buildup in the low mids.
- Multiscale: An instrument that features a ‘fanned’ fretboard, giving you two different scale lengths for the bass and treble strings.
- Nut width: The width of the nut, often larger on guitars with 7-strings to accommodate the additional string.
- Passive pickups: The more traditional type of guitar pickup that doesn’t require any additional power.
- Pups: A colloquialism for referring to guitar pickups.
- Scale length: The distance between the nut and the bridge, typically longer on 7-string guitars.
How we test
Here at Guitar World, testing guitars has been our bread and butter for over 30 years now. We've had more guitars in our hands than we'd care to remember, which gives us an excellent oversight of the current landscape of guitar, as well as how it's evolving over the years.
When testing 7-string electric guitars, our methodology is very similar to that of any other guitar we'd test, but we may change the type of music we play on it, as typically seven strings are geared towards heavier music. Our first test is to look at the build quality of the instrument, which means carrying out a precise physical inspection of the guitar in question.
We'll look at the fretwork, neck joint, application of hardware, take off any control plates to check out the electronics, and look at the overall quality of it. As we look at so many different guitars from all different price brackets, we have an innate understanding of what to look for, free of any confirmation bias of a guitar, whether it's a budget or premium option.
Next, we'll conduct a playability test, which can consist of a variety of different styles, but with seven-string guitars will hinge on heavier riffing and fast playing. Of course, we'll try things like open chords too, but ultimately, we need to be mindful of what the use case for these guitars is.
We'll play our own riffs, as well as those from artists in the genre, keeping in mind the neck feel, the string spacing, and taking into account the setup of the guitar. We'll look at the action, intonation, and tuning stability in order to make our conclusion.
Finally, it's time for the fun part, the sounds! Here we'll play through an appropriate amp setup to get a gauge of how the pickup choice affects the guitar. We'll try clean, low gain, dirty, and high gain tones, noting the response during each. We'll also add effects like delay and reverb to see how it responds here.
All of this testing is carried out by writers with decades of experience playing guitar, and always with a mind to being as free from confirmation bias as possible. Becuase its's our job to do this, we're much more easily able to discern the differences between instruments thanks to our in-depth testing experience.
Read more on how we make recommendations and how we test gear and services here at Guitar World.
