Guitar Gallery Of The Day: Strictly7
Sure, Strictly7 don’t strictly make 7-string guitars – they also do 6, 8 and 9-string models – but whatever the string count, their guitars are incredible. Various production models are available with passive DiMarzio and Bare Knuckle or active Seymour Duncan and EMG pickups. Check out their custom gallery here, but make sure you check out their production models too – including their Ola Englund signature model (read Ola’s blog here).
Jaden Rose Guitars at NAMM 2012
Just stumbled across this video on YouTube of the fine folks from England’s Jaden Rose Guitars capering at the NAMM Show (including some great shreddage by Tosin Abasi of Animals As Leaders). These guys make incredible guitars that are especially shred and djent-friendly. Six-strings, seven-strings, eight-strings, fixed bridge, Floyd Rose, extended scale, multi-scale, exotic woods, DiMarzio pickups, ridiculously comfortable necks… want!
REVIEW: Taylor Baritone-8
Cue Twilight Zone music.
You enter a room. On a guitar stand in the corner is this new offering from Taylor. It’s an extremely attractive, maybe even a little alluring, but otherwise regular acoustic guitar. As you get closer to it you notice that it’s a little bigger than you’re expecting. You realise that’s because it has a 27″ scale length. Interesting. Must be a baritone. Or maybe you’re shinking. You look a little closer and see that appointments include a Grand Symphony body, Indian Rosewood back and sides and Sitka Spruce top. Inlays are an elegant set of abalone diamonds, nicely complemented by abalone inserts in the bridge pins. Something looks a little odd about those pins, but it’s not until you reach out with a trembling hand, pick it up and bring it close to inspect the headstock that you realise, good lord, this thing has eight tuning pegs, yet the neck is only wide enough for six. Maybe you’ve crossed into a parallel universe. Maybe it’s a trick of the light. Or maybe you’ve just entered… the 8-string Baritone Zone.
NAMM 2012: Ibanez M8M Meshuggah 8-string
You’ve asked for it for years, and I even spoke with Meshuggah about it over a year ago, and Ibanez has finally done it: a Meshuggah signature 8-string, the M8M. And boy have they done it right. These guitars are built by Sugi, the fast-becoming-legendary shop behind the ultra-premium Fireman, the Joe Satriani ‘Black Dog’ edition and the 20th Anniversary Universe which came out a few years ago. List price on this puppy? $7,999.99 USD, but who knows? If this goes well, perhaps we could see a lower-priced version produced at a different factory with more affordable specs. Check out the pics at the end of the post. Phwoar.
The M8M features an alder body with five-piece maple-bubinga neck with through-neck construction, and a 29.4″ scale length. Ibanez’s Mike Taft tells me these guitars are absolutely top of the line, and they could have opted to make them bolt-ons instead but if you’re going to do it, you might as well go all the way, hence the through-neck construction. They also feature a Lundgren M8 humbucker, a very expensive, non-production pickup. Again, this is one of the reasons the price is so high, but if you want to play what Meshuggah play, this is the pickup! The Schaller Security Locks are a nice touch too.
NAMM 2012: Jackson Custom Shop 7 and 8 strings
Thought the Charvel 7-strings were cool? Well you were right. But check out these gorgeous Jackson Custom Shop 7-strings by Pablo Santana:
Huh? Close-ups? Sure.
Ah, but we all know that just as seven strings are better than six, eight are better than seven. So I give you this prototype, with EMG pickups and a killer natural finish.
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