FEATURE: Wait, they made a 7-string of that?!?

This week’s announcement of a 7-string Gibson Explorer (CLICK HERE to buy it from Guitar Center)has got me thinking – wouldn’t it be great if 7-string versions of some of our other favourites were made? Well it turns out that even if there’s no official off-the-shelf version, chances are you can probably find a 7-string version of whatever you’re after. And if you can’t, you can always commission one from a custom builder. But check out these 7s you probably didn’t know existed.

Fender 7-String Stratocaster Maestro Alex Gregory Prototype

This one is lurking at Gbase.com and is for sale. The desciption notes: “This was released as the first 7-string rock-and-roll solidbody electric and was designed to accomodate a high "A" string to facilitate the upper register notes, unlike the previous 7-string guitars which featured an added low "B" for walking bass lines. This is the prototype for the the Maestro Alex Gregory signature model and includes extra tortoise pickguard (signed by the artist), copies of the original blueprints, patents and documentation of the history of the model.”
CLICK HERE to see Fender prototypes on eBay.

Agile T-7
In many ways a 7-string Telecaster makes perfect sense. Put aside for a moment the tendency to think of the 7-string as a metal or shred axe, and think about how awesome those low twangy notes would sound on a Telecaster set up for a filthy-but-clean Junior Brown tone. Features of the Agile T-7 include: Swamp Ash Body, 1 Pieces maple bolt on neck with "C" profile, Maple fretboard with 15” radius, 25.5" scale and black dots and 22 Jumbo frets, Grover chrome tuners with 18-1 ratio, Agile passive single coil pickups, Graphite Nut, and Satin Polyurethane Finish.
CLICK HERE to see Agile guitars on eBay.

Epiphone 7-string Les Paul

I came so close to buying one of these when they first came out. It seemed a local store just couldn’t shift ‘em and had bumped one down by 50% to drive a little interest. Alas, at the time I still couldn’t afford it (curse you, former job that sucked and paid very little!). These Korean-made beauties combine the darkness of the Les Paul tone with the ‘I’m gonna kill you’ vibe of a chuggy low B string for the ultimate in Guitars That Can Stun Large Animals Two Towns Over.
CLICK HERE to see Epiphone 7-string Les Pauls on eBay.

Epiphone 7-string Flying V

(sorry for the teensy photo! Very hard to find pics of this one for some reason).
Wait, what’s this? A 7-string Flying V? Awesome. This is an Epiphone but hopefully Gibson will make some of these to go with the Explorers some day. If you can find one of these at your local second hand guitar emporium or auction site, grab it, soup it up with some EMGs or DiMarzio D-Activators and you, sir, have yourself an unstoppable metal machine.
CLICK HERE to see Epiphone 7-string Flying Vs on eBay.

Ibanez RGA

As of right now, there is no official, off-she-shelf Ibanez RGA 7-string. Hopefully that’ll change some time soon, because I think demand is definitely there. Ibanez was a pioneer in the mass-produced solidbody 7-string field with their Universe and RG7 models, and a production version of a guitar like the pictured custom for Megadeth’s Chris Broderick (the actual colour is greener than it appears in this very un-green pic) would be huge.
CLICK HERE to see Ibanez 7-strings on eBay.