My new Carvin
I finally decided to pull the trigger and get the Carvin 7-string (DC727). Been thinking about it for years now.
Nothing fancy - active/passive electronics, coil splitters, name tag - those are about the only features. Maple neck, ebony fretboard, alder body.
Pardon the crappy pictures - it's either my phone or my web cam. The shadow of an alien that you see is the web cam.
Nothing fancy - active/passive electronics, coil splitters, name tag - those are about the only features. Maple neck, ebony fretboard, alder body.
Pardon the crappy pictures - it's either my phone or my web cam. The shadow of an alien that you see is the web cam.
Comments
Well, I specifically asked them to do those two things
JV
The 7th string is tuned to a B, 4th below the low E. So your power chord shapes are the same for the bottom 3 strings. There are some new chord shapes available, mainly your basic 5 shapes adjusted for the lack of the 3rd between G and B. Scale shapes continue to the B string as with any other strings 4th apart. You can rip through a 3-octave scale, with one position shift per octave, without making a jump on the top string - very cool.
For me, it took a while to get used to (I also have an Ibanez AX7221 from years back). I realized that I rely on the number of the string - meaning, 4th string is D, 3rd string is G, etc - to find where I am. That threw me off for a while when counting from the bottom string. At this point, having been doing it for years, I can switch off between 7-string and 6-string with no problem. It takes 2-3 months to get used to, if you play it all the time.
I don't know the kind of music you're into, but quite a few people use 7-string guitars. John Petrucci from Dream Theater, notably. Also, Steve Vai uses them quite a bit. Some of the newer heavier bands (a la Korn) use them for a heavier sound.
You could, theoretically, tune it to an A, and have an open power chord available. I prefer standard tuning.
Yeah, I thought so. I actually ordered a 7 string guitar about a year ago that was on clearance from MF. The order was cancelled as they ran out of guitars before my order was filled. So I almost had a 7 string guitar. Missed it by that \" \" much....
I can barley keep up playing, singing, queing backups vocals ,and oh yea dont forget to change rythm patterns on the drum machine...all I need is one more string to push me over the cliff. LOL!
I guess it takes talent to play one of them thar 7 strings...I'll have to work on that.
Congrats buddy!
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Yep, I loved the ebony fretboard on my Carvin. I had no idea how nice an ebony fretboard would be, until I got that thing.
Overall.... very cool!! 8)
As far as tones, extremely versatile. I recorded some samples when I first got it:
http://www.44lbs.net/ilia/DC727/Audio/
In each of these, I'm usually switching between split/humbucker, or phasing switch, eq controls, etc.
Pretty standard clean patch and distort patch (as labeled) on the GNX3000->PTP via USB (no micing, etc).
listened to the samples..sounds great! Congrats on your new acquisition !!!
It sounds real nice iliace. I was a bit surprised by the tone, I actually thought it would be a bit brighter with that hunk of maple thru the middle... but that could be the recording I suppose. Still, its a great sounding versatile guitar buddy, you'll have years of fun with that!!
Will this be your live guitar and what setup will you use with it?
For live, I generally run GNX3000 -> Eon, or two if the situation warrants. Very simple setup, and gets the job done. Sometimes I'll just run directly to the house PA. I also use VL-4 sometimes (obviously for vocalist and not myself), and a Vox wah pedal that I got recently. Monster/mogami cables, Dunlop Jazz III picks, Elixir strings (came installed on the guitar, but I think I might switch to these over Fender bullets that I've always used in the past). I think that's about it.
Thats a nice simple set up you use, probably the best way to use a GNX3000 too. I love my 3000 but it sounds dreadful with my Rivera KR7 so I think I'll get an RP500 for live work maybe. Its a sin to spoil a nice sounding amp
And yes, this wah has quite a unique tone. It's not something I can get with the GNX, at least not without a lot of tweaking. The reason I use it, though, is to free up the expression pedal, and not for the tone of the bud wah.
There are actually four switches. The one you don't see is the volume knob - it pushes in to enable active electronics, which is one of the options I added.
The three \"visible\" switches are coil splitters (one for neck and one for bridge pickup), which makes whichever pickup into a single-coil; and the third one is a phase inverter for when you're using the two pickups in the middle position - when it's in the inverted position, the sound is more hollow.
There is one tone control and one volume control (I believe there is an option of getting them separately for the two pickups). Since I got active electronics, instead the lower two knobs are bass and treble boost/cut control when active is engaged.
Inside, there is also a boost control for active, to give you up to +6db volume boost when active is engaged.
The other option (slightly more expensive model) is to have a middle single coil pickup - DC747, mine is DC727. Which would probably mean you can't get the coil splitter option - not sure.
Anyway, hope that helps! I've been playing this thing pretty much exclusively for over a year now, in many genres and different live/studio settings, and I absolutely love it - I feel like I'll never need another guitar again.