There is no doubt whatsoever that my PRS SE 277 baritone guitar has been one of the true surprises of my guitar collection. An experiment turned into my main guitar in GNH. The thing is that we are starting to look for gigs now (or at least were going to, before our drummer broke his hip while skiing!), and that means that I bring a backup guitar, period. I would have been perfectly happy to get a second PRS 277, one with humbuckers, except that the only strings that work with it are the D’Addario 14-68 baritone set, which are uncoated, and sound dull and lifeless after three hours of rehearsal. A second baritone would mean two guitars where I just chew through the strings.
Instead I decided to revisit the idea of a seven-string. I like the idea of being able to play chords exactly where my muscle memory expects to find them, all the while having that low B around for those dark, ugly riffs. Most seven-strings have humbuckers, many with coil-split options, and there seems to be a tendency towards flat necks with 24 frets. All of these are specs that I have been eager to add to my collection. Then there is the obvious benefit in that Elixir makes a few sets for extended-range guitars. There was still the issue with getting accustomed to that extra string, but I figured that it was time to get cracking, as extended-range guitars are a major terra incognita for me.
In the end, I had to compromise with my principles and get a signature guitar. I wanted a guitar that I could afford, with two humbuckers, 24 frets, a 26.5-inch scale and fretboard inlays. The only one that matched all those specs (fretboard inlays seem to have gone out of fashion) was the signature model for Mark Holcomb of Periphery. As luck would have it, Mr. Holcomb is a PRS guy just like I have increasingly become in the past few years, so it turned out nicely in the end. There is no way I would have bought the guitar if I hadn’t got a favorable impression of Mark or the band, but fortunately I did. In fact, it was quite a while since I felt quite this way about new music. Periphery – love that shit.
The Holcomb signature guitar is a fabulous instrument. In contrast to my baritone, which was made in Korea, this one was made at the Cor-Tek plant in Indonesia. The workmanship is second to none. I might feel some snagging from the fret ends, but those will wear down soon enough. Fit and finish is just superb, and just like on the upper-scale US instruments I used to dream about in the stores, you can feel if the guitar is out of tune, because the difference tones resonate through the neck. I love the off-black hardware, and the ebony fretboard is not all black, but has some dark brown streaks here and there, which look really neat.
I got the new 2023 model, with the updated pickups that are clearer and not as hot, and an absolutely stunning quilt maple top where they’ve added a bit of blue to the black/grey sunburst. They also appear to have done something to the neck profile. They actually had an older Holcomb at the store, in satin walnut, the neck of which made my left hand hurt within mere minutes. This one doesn’t, and it does feel slimmer, which is actually a kind of a paradox, as I tend to prefer chunkier necks – one of the main reasons why I’ve never been much of an Ibanez guy. I was a little wary of the 26.5-inch scale length. Everywhere I looked, it seemed to be a universal recommendation that you simply need that extra inch in order to get the low B humming properly. I thought that it was going to lead to an uncomfortably tight top E string, but I was pleasantly surprised. It is tighter, don’t get me wrong, especially when going from the SG to the SVN, but it works fine. To be quite honest, I actually feel considerably more at home on my long-scale PRS guitars than on my more traditional Gibsons and Fenders, now that I’ve had more stick time with the longer scales.
Seven-string playing turned out to be quite the opposite from what I feared it would be. That is: the stuff I thought would trip me up hasn’t, and I’ve hit on snags where I least expected them. I haven’t had the slightest problems with the extra string. I was annoyed that I couldn’t mute properly in the store, but already that same night, my muscle memory had made my left thumb go the extra distance. Classic thrash riffing on the low E just works, very likely because that kind of “next-string-over” thinking is already embedded into my consciousness after six years playing on the baritone. Speaking of which: suddenly having G-B-E top strings instead of F#-B also works fine. As long as you don’t count the fact that I seem to have managed to incorporate the F# string into quite a few chord voicings in our songs.
What I’ve stumbled on is the string spacing, just not in the way one would have imagined. I didn’t know this until I started reading up on seven-strings, but the neck is actually not one sixth wider, but slightly less than that, so the strings are a tiny bit closer together than on a regular guitar. This doesn’t affect chording or string bending in the least: I can play cleanly and accurately, without ever snagging adjacent strings. That is: provided I can find the darn things in the first place! This experience has given me a profound insight into how much stuff is really going on under the hood of muscle memory and hand/eye coordination. But it is surprisingly tricky to find the middle three strings, A, D and G, quickly and accurately, especially single notes and power chords. I have also noticed that fingerpicking is really confusing, so it’ll likely be some time before I can busk classical guitar pieces on the seven-string.
On the whole, I have to say that this has been smoother sailing than I ever dared to hope. I’m not there yet, but I actually didn’t anticipate getting this far after just a month with the guitar. After all, I’m working against 38 years of muscle memory. This is of course pure speculation, but I like thinking that I’ve developed some flexibility and adaptability by never sticking to just one make or model, but instead moving around between Fenders, Gibsons, acoustics etc. Speaking of which: I tried focusing on the new guitar as much as possible, but in the end I couldn’t resist picking up the Tele one night, then the SG the night after that. It was quite the revelation, because whereas I have always loved both guitars, the Tele has always been my hardest guitar to play, and I’ve sometimes had issues with the thick D neck of the SG. Not anymore. After a 26.5-inch seven-string guitar, both those necks feel like that on a ukulele.
I am most pleased with my purchase. Even coming as it did the day after we found out that our drummer was out for the summer, I have had great fun with the guitar, and when he comes back, I will be a lot more comfortable playing it. The best part is that I actually didn’t spend any money on the seven-string. It was all financed by getting rid of various musical gear that I just wasn’t using. But more about that later.
elevea 