With the rise of hard rock and heavy metal,
many bands have the experience of pushing the guitar hard, heavy and deep. Lots
of sub-genres of metals actually rely much more on rhythmic intensity on the
lower end of the fret board, as opposed to the higher end pentatonic solos
popular in the 70s and 80s.
Players of this ilk will use a lot of guitar pedals, so a tube amp and a good distortion
effect pedal is a must, but even with this taken care of, some players didn’t
feel like the guitar was ‘chuggy’ enough. This is where everyone’s favourite
metal technique – drop D tuning – comes from. By tuning the low E down one
step, players had that little extra on the low end were able to create really
interesting rhythmic textures, working closely with the bass guitar and drums.
Some players were not even satisfied with
this, and thus the seven string guitar gained a lot of popularity on the metal
scene. Primarily produced by hard-hitting companies like Ibanez company and
Jackson company, the seven string guitar is a monster. The extra low B string
allows for five more notes on the bottom end, really giving the opportunity to
get down and dirty with distorted rhythm, and the wider neck is a challenge for
even the strongest of forearms.
Seven string guitars work very well with
distortion stomp boxes that are rich in paired harmonics. As the lower end of
the neck is very bass-y, best distortionpedals have to be rich and clear, to avoid the tone
turning into a single muddled bass note. They also lend themselves well to tube
amplifiers, as low crunching rhythms sound absolutely great with tube
distortion from a pre amp in the mix.
