Help me make/convert to a 7 string Spacing and such

[Kitchen Guitars]

I want to take a new Yamaha F335 (inexpencive, good tone, good tuners) Take off the Nut and the bridge. Route down the head and relaminate it then drill for 7 strings. I want to put a G either between the D & G or between the E & A (standard tuning). I have been playing E G Db G B E and enjoying the heck out of it. I want to use an A string for the G in that octive.
Has anyone tried this. Is it math or art to get the string spacing?

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by Yamaha Junkie

Has anyone tried this. Is it math or art to get the string spacing?

A bit of both.

There are two things I would suggest you do to make this conversion a bit simpler. First, unless you have a lot of experience in filling and redrilling tuner holes, that work is more exacting than you might guess. What I suggest instead of adapting the peghead for seven guitar tuners is that you get one planetary banjo peg, and simply drill for it in the middle of the peghead.

The other recommendation will help keep octave string breakage to a minimum, and that is to put the octave string underneath the one it's paired with, in Rickenbacker fashion, rather than on top as it normally is on 12 strings.

Most players have a more forceful downstroke than upstroke, and that octave G is fragile. Putting it underneath in the course makes the lower-tuned string of the pair catch more of the initial energy, so you'll break fewer octaves if you arrange it that way.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller

[Michael T]

I thought of a 7 string after I got my 12er, here are some different designs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-string_guitar

You've likely already seen the Martin 7 string:

http://www.elderly.com/new_instruments/items/D7RM.htm

[Kitchen Guitars]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

A bit of both.

There are two things I would suggest you do to make this conversion a bit simpler. First, unless you have a lot of experience in filling and redrilling tuner holes, that work is more exacting than you might guess. What I suggest instead of adapting the peghead for seven guitar tuners is that you get one planetary banjo peg, and simply drill for it in the middle of the peghead.

The other recommendation will help keep octave string breakage to a minimum, and that is to put the octave string underneath the one it's paired with, in Rickenbacker fashion, rather than on top as it normally is on 12 strings.

Most players have a more forceful downstroke than upstroke, and that octave G is fragile. Putting it underneath in the course makes the lower-tuned string of the pair catch more of the initial energy, so you'll break fewer octaves if you arrange it that way.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller

Like everything in Luthiery, I feel like Grasshopper with the Master. I always get questions from my answers What you said made sense. I'm a plucker so the layout being weird might work for me. I am checking out a Martin 7 string next week.
BTW I suggested the Banjo Key Idea for a 7th string to Tim McKnight when I bought the Highlander OMD. His face looked like Jim Carrey in Me Myself and Irine

[Kitchen Guitars]

Originally Posted by Michael T

I thought of a 7 string after I got my 12er, here are some different designs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-string_guitar

You've likely already seen the Martin 7 string:

http://www.elderly.com/new_instruments/items/D7RM.htm

Thanks, I will read through the material. I am checking out one of those Martins next week.

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by Yamaha Junkie

BTW I suggested the Banjo Key Idea for a 7th string to Tim McKnight when I bought the Highlander OMD. His face looked like Jim Carrey in Me Myself and Irine

****! Too bad you didn't have your camera with you!

Well, I can understand Tim's lack of enthusiasm from both an aesthetic and a practical standpoint: aesthetically, having a single banjo planetary gear jutting out backwards from the guitar peghead could look like an ingrown unicorn horn. And the gear ratio on those planetary pegs typically is much lower than on guitar tuners: most are 4 to 1, rather than the 12 to 1 ratio that's the lowest on most guitar gears.

But in terms of cost-effectiveness, it's by far the easiest (and thus least expensive) way to go about this conversion.

And it works well enough.


whm