Hey guys, this is my first post. ive been scannin the boards lookin at scales and sweeps for awhile now, decided to join tonight. anyways, i had a question. ( i don't know if this would go in the gear talk or guitar talk, so ill put it here) I bought a 7 string guitar. its a good guitar in my eyes. anyway, when i start to pound on it when i play songs, the strings flop like all hell. its tuned to Bb. is their anyway i can reduce this string floppage?? would playing less harsh help. like, for example. i learned "unleashing the bloodthirsty" by cannibal corpse, and during the intro part with that low Bb chord, u can really hear the strings floppin when i pound it out. what can i do if anything?? thanks guys

Get thicker strings or adjust the intonation point at the bridge if you want stiffer strings.

well, intonation has nothing to do with "string floppage", so dont do anything to that. (unless its already out) just get thicker strings.

Raise the action with thicker strings and that should fix it.

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if its a cheap crappy 7 string that could be a problem, but thicker stings will help.

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ok, but how thick is thick strings for a 7 string? what gauge is thick enough??

Like I said, raising the action on it will reduce the "floppage". Because if its too low then it is going to flop around a lot. And thicker strings will be good too.

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10-13-17-26-36-46-56 would work fine for Bb tuning, if thats too thin, 11-14-18-28-38-48-58 would suffice for sure. your axe prolly came strung with 9-12-15-22-32-42-54, so that would be your problem.

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Bb? No wonder your strings are flopping like hell. Even the heaviest jazz strings when tuned that low are gonna flop around similar to a bass string. Heavier strings really make the guitar more difficult to play. Especially with bending, vibrato and things of that nature. One thing you could do is tune back up and play through a detuning effect like a whammy pedal for those times you wanna play really heavy.

Bb is nothing on a 7string dude... it's just standard down a half step
regular 7 string tuning s B E A D G b e.
but yeh, i think detuning a 7string is just silly, thats why some people buy baritones and 7 strings, because they don't want to tune down to get a heavy/low sound.
hell i get by great with .010's in standard tuning on a 6 string....

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He must be trying to play like korn

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hahaha, like korn. of course junior metalheads do

on a serious note (pun not intended) i cant really add anything new to the convo. just get thicker strings, raise the action a bit. go down to your local guitar store and see what they have to say on the subject
but i have also had this problem myself, when i write berzerker tabs i have to tune down to A and it sounds just awful.
i pity the dude who tabs corpsefucking art

Ummm no. I had a 6 string down to B with 13s and because I know how to set up a guitar, teh action was actually quite high and the strings had alot of tension. It played alot like an acoustic interms of action and such.

EDIT: Heavier strings will only strength your hands, make you a better player, and give you better tone.

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ive got a regular 6-string, a 7-string, and a bari, which i am selling, but yeah, the seven string makes it possibale to play low and standard tuned stuff on one guitar, not because people are lazy, i love my seven string, though i hardley use the low B, but its there incase i do want to, but i dont detune it either, it stays in standard.

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the low B on a 7 set of 9's is 52, I am using that and I hate it, the high strings are fine, its my a, e and b, they flop and slap at the frets a ton, and I refuse to raise my action.(personal preference) I am bumping up to a 9-11-16-26-36-46-56 for my 7

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No? No what? It's not harder to play, you say it plays like an acoustic and had higher action which I would consider, "harder to play" maybe we view the term "floppy" differently. It does strengthen your hands though, I will admit that.

To me floppy means fret buzz and saggy strings due to a lack of tension on the string, like what would happen if you tried to downtune a guitar set up in standard with 9s down to C without any adjustments.

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agreed. hell .009's sound floppy in anything lower than standard. and in some cases they'll sound floppy in standard .

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I used to use 9's for awhile. Then I started to get into lower tunings so I use thicker strings now.

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9's suck in general, 10's all the way baby, but yeah, a 9-56 should do ya fine, if ya like having the 9s for the 3 highest strings.

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