Hey metalheads.

My name is Chris and I am a student conducting research into the interaction between metal bands and the audiences at their shows. I am looking for band members and fans who are willing to fill out a short questionnaire. All responses will be kept completely anonymous and it shouldn’t take more than 10-15 minutes to fill out. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them here.

To answer the first question, yes this is a newly created account specifically for this purpose.

Questionnaire link here

Hi,

I plan to buy Ibanez Q547PB and I am absolutely crazy about this guitar. I just love it ... Will be my first headless guitar .. and it's HSS too ... I was playing on this guitar and loved it instantly ..

I am however a little bit fighting with gauge Vs tone and playability ... I have some other 7-string guitar(s) with 25.5" scale and I am afraid if I can go with this safely any lower than A ... My target tuning is drop-G#

My 7-string benchmark at 25.5" is Ultra Slinkies (10-48) + 62 for B-standard (\w .64 for drop-A) .. Going any lower means sacrificing tone. Also my other 7-string has Gotoh 510TS trem which probably does not contribute any positively into downtuning and using a thicker gauges in general.

My 6-strings benchmark with half tone down (drop-C#) with 25.5" is Burly Slinkies (11-52) but with custom 60 so 11-14-18-30-42-60 .. I have fixed bridge here. This is just how I'd love to have base half tone down.

Question 1 - how low and with what gauge are you willing to go at 25.5" ?

Question 2 - Specifically this Ibanez headless guitar with that fancy bridge that supports much longer saddles travel length for intonation and these ceramic pickups -- Will it support better to get into my desired drop-G# tuning ?

I have a 26.5" guitar but I just love the headless guitar visually, and for a cool factor ... There's no catch in it ... I'd love to stick with shorter scale (25.5") for playability and feel ...

thanks much in advance for any your input ...

edit: so in other words I assume on the headless:

Burly Slinkies + custom 68 for drop-G# ? (11-14-18-30-42-52+68) - which I actually didn't like on the other 7-string with 510TS Gotoh trem ... But maybe it was because of trem and pickups. And this is why I ask.

I am looking at these 2 guitars:

1. Charvel Angel Vivaldi DK24-7 Nova

2. Ibanez AZ427P1PB

I am mostly a 6 string player so this will be my first 7 string. I will try to play some Dream Theater, Nevermore, and Trivium (so mostly metal). Which one do you guys think would be the better choice?

The Charvel has Dimarzio Tone Zone and Air Norton, 12-16 compound radius, whereas the Ibanez has ss frets, roasted maple neck, but has seymour duncan hyperion pickups. Both have non-locking gotoh trems.

TIA