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Do bands that use 7 strings make more interesting music?
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22-11-2006 9:37am#1Ok, so the 7 String guitar died a death at the hands of Korn in the mid to late 90's, and there was definetly some backlash against them, seeing as a lot of bands in the Nu-Metal scene could just as easily play the same things by tuning down a regular guitar.
But lately, the 7 String seems to have been "Reclaimed" from the hands of such talentless trends, and is now firmly back in the hands of bands more aking to the original innovators like Steve Vai, Morbid Angel and Dream Theater, who actually make use of the extended range, rather than just using it just for lower tunings.
These days it seems like bands that really excite me are using 7 Strings:
Nevermore
Strapping Young Lad
Scar Symmetry
Meshuggah (Ok, they're using 8 strings now, but they used to play 7s)
To-Mera
Zero Hour
Mithras
Textures
To name but a few.
Anyway, maybe it's just the fact that I play 7 Strings, and I'm drawn more to such bands or they appeal to me more, but I really do think that some of the best bands these day seem to be those using 7's.
Thoughts?0
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In fairness, Korn were quite imaginative in their use of 7 string guitars, lots of low tuned riffing yes, but plenty of other interesting sounds too, same goes for the Borland fella from Limp Bizkit. In fact, one could argue they were more imaginative in what sounds can be extracted from a guitar than the bands on your list. Most of the bands here are technically proficient, yes, but groundbreaking, not so much. They can play and they let you know it but it's still fairly traditional stuff and the level of interest is hardly down to the guitar, more the imagination and skill of the player behind it. Most of these bands only seem to use the 7 strings while soloing, which is but a small part of the song and it's clear the bulk of the music is still confined to a fairly small traditional range of notes given the range available on their instruments.
There is still plenty of music at least as interesting as those bands who use 6 strings. It's the player who plays the instrument, not the other way around and, in truth, it doesn't matter what they play, it's what you hear coming out of the speakers that counts. I've yet to hear a Metal band really make proper use of extended range (not just in the down direction) 0 -
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Doctor J wrote:There is still plenty of music at least as interesting as those bands who use 6 strings.
Never said there wasn't. Gojira have really blown me away recently, and they don't use 7s.Doctor J wrote:It's the player who plays the instrument, not the other way around
It's hardly like I'm suggesting that merely using the instrument would make your music better, but rather the kind of player who would use a 7. Emphasis on 'The kind of player' there. 0 -
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I don't think using a 7 string guitar (or the urge to choose a 7 string guitar) is indicative of a more inventive or creative player, not at all. I haven't heard a band who play 7 strings reinvent the wheel. Most of what I've heard (in a Metal format) involves the same lower string chugging and riffing and the same soling in the high strings. The most inventive bands of the last 15 years I can think of were six bangers all the way. If there has been a revolution, it wasn't televised... it wasn't even on the radio
I'm not knocking 7 string guitars or their players, I just disagree that it's being put to use to make something new or more interesting than what's already out there. I mean, Django Reinhart did more with two fingers than 99.999% guitarists with fully functioning digits. A bigger canvas does not mean a better or more creative painting. Most 7 string players I've experienced just play their riffs a string lower and widdle over 7 strings, not 6. That's not a creative leap, not in my book.0 -
Doctor J wrote:I don't think using a 7 string guitar (or the urge to choose a 7 string guitar) is indicative of a more inventive or creative player, not at all. I haven't heard a band who play 7 strings reinvent the wheel. Most of what I've heard (in a Metal format) involves the same lower string chugging and riffing and the same soling in the high strings. The most inventive bands of the last 15 years I can think of were six bangers all the way. If there has been a revolution, it wasn't televised... it wasn't even on the radio
I'm not knocking 7 string guitars or their players, I just disagree that it's being put to use to make something new or more interesting than what's already out there. I mean, Django Reinhart did more with two fingers than 99.999% guitarists with fully functioning digits. A bigger canvas does not mean a better or more creative painting. Most 7 string players I've experienced just play their riffs a string lower and widdle over 7 strings, not 6. That's not a creative leap, not in my book.
I don't know where you're getting the idea that I've said that anyone has revolutionised anything here, all I'm saying is that it seems to be that I find bands who use 7s more interesting. Read as insteresting to me.0 -
Karl Hungus wrote:It's hardly like I'm suggesting that merely using the instrument would make your music better, but rather the kind of player who would use a 7. Emphasis on 'The kind of player' there.
I read from this that you think the output of the kind of player who chooses to play a 7 string is intrinsically more interesting, thinks outside the box, more willing to do something different, except for the large wave of nu-metallers who populairsed it, more so than the kind of player who plays a regular 6?
I disagree. I don't hear the outside the box thinking, the radically different music that you speak of. If it's interesting to you dude, that's grand but you asked for our thoughts on the subject, I'm just saying I don't hear any more creativity or anything more interesting coming from the 7 bangers than I do from the 6 and I don't believe being the kind of player who chooses a 7 string means someone's music will be any more interesting than someone who chooses a 6 string, like there's a door to a magic place in their psyche that's open hence they choose a 7 etc...
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Doctor J wrote:I read from this that you think the output of the kind of player who chooses to play a 7 string is intrinsically more interesting, thinks outside the box, more willing to do something different, except for the large wave of nu-metallers who populairsed it, more so than the kind of player who plays a regular 6?
I disagree. I don't hear the outside the box thinking, the radically different music that you speak of. If it's interesting to you dude, that's grand but you asked for our thoughts on the subject, I'm just saying I don't hear any more creativity or anything more interesting coming from the 7 bangers than I do from the 6 and I don't believe being the kind of player who chooses a 7 string means someone's music will be any more interesting than someone who chooses a 6 string, like there's a door to a magic place in their psyche that's open hence they choose a 7 etc...
Ah well, this thread was kinda me thinking out loud.
I took a look at all the CDs I've been listening to lately, and new albums I've got, and it all seemed to be bands using 7 Strings. I mean, Nevermore, Dream Theater, Liquid Tension Experiment, Meshuggah, James LaBrie, To-Mera, Strapping Young Lad, Fear Factory, Devin Townsend Band, Emperor, and so forth.
But you know, you say there's nothing particularly different about the music, but I'll actually go and disagree there, and say that there's quite a few bands there who've really created their own sound. I mean, who has done anything like Meshuggah? Or who exactly has ever done anything that's anywhere close to what Emperor have done on their last album? I genuinely can't think of anything.
Who exactly would you have said was doing anything new over the last 15 years so?0 -
The last real unique album in Metal for me was Cynic. There's very little that's happened since then where you ask "Where did that come from?". Musically, the innovative stuff isn't happening with guitar music at all, IMO. There's good new music, yes, but nothing that's really out there, to me anyway.
The real innovations are digital ones these days
Doesn't Petrucci spend more time on a 6 though? 0 -
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John wrote:To be honest, the last thing I think of when I think of a band (with very odd exception) is the instrument they use.
Actually, it was one of the last things I thought about. I didn't think to myself that Strapping Young Lad use 7s, therefor they must be good, it's a case of SYL are good, oh they're using 7s. The thought of the instruments came long after me listening to the bands, and recently noticing that a lot of the bands I've been listening to are using 7 strings got me thinking.
It's an afterthought about the music, not a precursor to it. Savvy?Alucard II wrote:actually, i would imagine Karl is saying that the majority of 7 stringers he has come across tend to make more interesting music, pretty straightforward, and i would have the following to say:
bar your nu-metal pish, who just want extra heaviness, the *majority* of 7 string guitarists tend to be involved in projects which are very technically skilled, or write very progressive music, etc.
the majority of guitarists have no need for 7 string guitars, eg. if you want heaviness, detune. whereas more skilled guitarists will use 7s more for range, the ability to play 7string runs, etc etc.
looking at artists who use the 7 string to its full extent, you come across guys like Steve Vai, John Petrucci, Jeff Loomis, etc, who are all very progressive, and very talented guitar players.
i wont say that bands/artists who use 7 strings automatically make more interesting music, that would be a complete misnomer, but certainly a lot of them do make more challenging, complex, and progressive music, which appeals to me quite a bit. i think the main reason behind this is not that the use of a 7 string brings out more complex writing, but rather that the guitarists who feel the need for a 7 string, or are compelled to look to them to further their writing, tend to be very talented, very intelligent guitar players.
Aye, spot on there.
I think it's me pondering if the type of player who would use a 7 is someone who's looking to retain a lot of the high end and chords that would be lost in simply downtuning. So while someone like Max Cavalera only strings his guitar with 4 strings, and that's fine for his needs, a player using a 7 string is showing a willingness to use the range available with that instrument.
Or maybe it's just that the genres where 7s are most prevailant is the Progressive Metal and Death Metal genres, being easily my favourites, so said instrument in more obvious in those styles of music.0 -
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