NAMM Jackson Custom Shop Pablo Santana 7-string for sale
Remember the killer Jackson Custom Shop B-7 7-string built by Pablo Santana which I wrote about here? Well it’s now for sale at The Music Zoo.
The guitar features a transparent purple quilted maple top, mahogany body, neck-through mahogany neck, ebony fretboard, 25.5″ scale length, inlays by Ron Thorn, EMG 707 humbuckers, Floyd Rose tremolo and black/gold hardware.
You can buy this killer one-of-a-kind axe at the Music Zoo’s eBay store here.
INTERVIEW: Buz McGrath on his new LTD Buz-7 signature model
Massachusetts modern metal monsters Unearth are currently here in Australia for the Soundwave festival, and guitarist Buz McGrath is rocking a pretty unique guitar for the shows. Buz was a longtime Ibanez endorser with some of the coolest Ibanez LA Custom Shop guitars in the biz, but although he still has a soft spot in his heart for that company, he recently decided it was time for a change. That led him and his unique custom ideas to find a new home with ESP, who recently introduced the LTD Buz-7 (click here to preorder it from Bmusic). Black bound maple fretboard, Snow White Sunburst finish, reverse headstock, neck-through-body construction, maple neck, alder body, 25.5″ scale, extra thin flat neck contour, 24 extra jumbo frets, EMG 707 active pickups, Grover tuners, Floyd Rose 1000 series bridge… it’s one of the sexiest 7-strings ESP or LTD has ever produced. I managed to grab some time with Buz to ask him what the deal was.
You were an Ibanez guy for a million years. What happened?
It was about a year ago that I felt like I couldn’t really do much with them. They were very good to me the whole time I was there. They made me some amazing custom guitars. Mike Taft, he was awesome. he would give me whatever I asked for. But I just felt like I needed a change. Part of my motivation was a signature model – not that that should be the be all and end all of a company, but that was part of it, and I saw that with ESP I would at least have a chance to get to that point. Whereas Ibanez has so many great players in much bigger bands than me who don’t even have that on the horizon. I thought that if Oli Herbert from All That Remains doesn’t get one then I don’t think they’re going to give me one. Or Chris Broderick [Megadeth], who ended up leaving for Jackson.
But I love Ibanez guitars. They were always good to me, but ESP made some goals of mine happen, and that’s rad. Not to mention I was always a fan of those guitars too, so it was always an easy choice.
Your Lucky Number: Seven Kickass 7-String Guitar Songs
Check out my latest for Guitar World, about the glory of 7-string guitar. This is my personal list of favourites – what are yours? Comments below or on the Guitar World post!
By the way, that pic is my newest 7-string, a killer Buddy Blaze prototype with DiMarzio Crunch Lab and LiquiFire pickups and a Floyd Rose bridge. You may have noticed me drooling over it at NAMM. Well it’s all mine and it’s incredible! Review coming soon, along with plenty of video. I’ve already written a buttload of songs with this guitar!
NAMM 2012: Parker Maxx Fly 7-string
Finally, the Parker 7-string that I always thought should exist, does exist. Parker unveiled this beauty at NAMM, and in person it looked like a pretty well-hewn axe. The particular natural tone and attack of the Parker Fly is something I’ve always thought would translate particularly well to seven strings. Of course, at RRP $5,999 USD it won’t be cheap…
It has a mahogany body reinforced with carbon fiber glass epoxy with a Parker 7 string bridge, a Seymour-Duncan Distortion SH6N pickup in the neck position and a Seymour-Duncan Distortion TB6 in the bridge position. Oh and there are Ghost piezo saddles with a MIDI preamp. Available in dusty black, galaxy grey, and metallic red, all in gloss finish.
NAMM 2012: More on the Charvel 7-strings – and another one!
Okay, so the other day I posted some pics of a pair of Charvel 7-strings at NAMM, and a lot of people want to know more about them. Here’s the score.
These two (and another one you can see above) are Charvel Custom Shop one-offs for the NAMM show. They’re not for sale. While I was checking them out, a Charvel fan tried very very hard to convince the Charvel guys to let him buy one but they wouldn’t bite. There are no current plans to make a production version of these, and if you would like to order one from the Custom Shop you are very welcome to do so, however the waiting list is currently at about two years.
So here are some more pics of the two I originally posted about:
Hi! I'm Peter Hodgson. I write for Gibson.com, Australian Guitar, Australian Musician, Mixdown Magazine (including my instructional column, 'Unleash Your Inner Rock God,' which has been running since 2007), guitarworld.com, Tone Deaf, Beat (including their weekly hard rock/metal column Crunch) and The Brag. And I'm Assistant Social Coordinator with Seymour Duncan.
I've been playing guitar since I was 8 years old, and I've been writing for magazines since I was 18. I've also worked as a guitar teacher (up to 50 students a week), a setup tech, a newspaper editor, and I've also dabbled in radio a little bit. I live in Melbourne, Australia, and my hobbies include drinking way too much coffee, and eating way too much Mexican food.
You can check out my guitar playing at Reverbnation or on YouTube, and feel free to email me at iheartguitarblog@gmail.com