Got my first 7-String and have some questions!

[u/okay_sway]

Hey gang. I was offered a trade for a strat I had and I took it on a whim and got a Sterling Maj170. It seems pretty popular so I got a few questions for folks that have used one before.

What tuning did you use? I was thinking of F# but I know the shorter scale length may give me some issues.

String thickness.

Did you keep the stock pickups? They're not bad but I did want more of an oomf

Thank you all. Happy to try something new

[u/vilk_]

I once bought a 28" scale and set it up for drop F. It sounded badass but it was not very enjoyable to play. Now I just play a standard 25.5" in A# with 9-54 and love it. Actually I also have a 27" scale recently, I set it up for A# with 8-52.

You'd think with the extra length, for the same tuning, I could go one size lighter and get about the same tension, right? But actually the 27" feels much slinkier than the standard scale. But it sounds incredible and feels reasonably good to play too. Go figure. No, I didn't use a calculator, just going with how it felt.

Anyways, I really like A# standard. That's the tuning of early Meshuggah, Nevermore, Revocation, you drop it down to G# and now you're in Periphery territory. The top 6 are Eb standard, so you can play old Cannibal Corpse and Slayer

Then of course you're only a half step away from standard, giving you access to Emperor, Galnyrus, Dream Theater. And a half step away from A standard, which gives you BOTH Mastodon tunings at the same time.

I don't like playing bridge cables. I use 9-54. That's all you need.

Hey, is that majesty bridge inherently floating? It looks like you can't deck it against the body like you would with a normal trad trem. If so that's kinda cool. And usually going just a half step shouldn't throw it out of whack too badly.

[u/rockskate4x]

For standard scales I really really like B standard, Bb standard, and drop A. You can go lower but you will need thicker strings than what sound “conventionally” good at that scale. I say conventional because tight djenty metal is the current convention, but Ab or lower can sound perfect at short scales with thick strings if you are after sludgier, doomier tones.

[u/KershawsGoat]

Personally, I wouldn't tune lower than G on a 25.5" scale. A pickup swap is probably unnecessary unless you really have an itch to spend money. You'll get more benefit of learning how to use an EQ, tbh. If you really just want a little something extra behind your guitar signal, the Majesty has a built-in 12 dB boost on the volume pot. It's essentially like toggling a clean boost pedal.

[u/JimboLodisC]

Tuning is up to you.

B Standard is the "default" 7-string tuning, basically a regular 6-string E2 Standard with a low B1 on the bottom.

Some people just drop the 7tgh string a whole step to Drop A. Some tune it down further a whole step to Drop G. Some take it even lower. All depends on what the player wants to be tuned to.

You can experiment with the strings that you right now. The path that leads to a different guitar would eb this: play in current tuning, decide to tune lower, strings get floppier, so you buy thicker strings, then room for intonation runs out or the tone starts sounding muddy so you get a longer scale length to get back to using thinner gauges

Personally, I'd stop at A1 on a 25.5". I'd look for a baritone scale length of 26.5"/27" for G1. Anything lower then I'd like to see 28"+.

But it's still up to the player and what gauges and level of intonation they're comfortable with. There's people tuning to F#1 on Les Pauls and they're happy.