High "A" String on a 7 String Guitar? We try EADGBEA... 

In the classical guitar field, there is a thing called "Brahms Guitar" which is an 8-string guitar with a high A and a low B string. It could greatly increase the reachability to play polyphonic music on a guitar.

D standard (or Drop C if you want to drop tune) with a high G would be easier to tune because it takes less tension and the .008 string uses the same pitch and string gauge as the octave G from a 12-string set. Similarly, All Shall Perish and Unearth tune their 7-strings to Drop B (one step above AEADGBE) and you could use a .009 for the high F# without problems with the tension breaking point.

Eye opening for new flexibility in upper positions, I think maybe going a whole step down and gauging for D- g would be a more viable option to try

A while back I tried doing this with a .007 on a Strandberg 8 string which is 26.5" on the treble side. Needless to say, it didn't go so well... :D I'm looking forward to the day when 9 string headless multiscale guitars with an extra high string is a thing.

Lenny Breau, tuned his 7 string with the high A

I could never get this to work on a Vai 7 string, high string kept breaking. It drove me nuts.

I’ve used this tuning for 19 years now. My guitar is a 25” scale. The person who should get credit for this tuning is Lenny Breau, where I got the inspiration from. I also use an 8 for the high A . But the rest of my set is 12-52(?). Whatever the Thomastik-Infeld Swing flatwounds set is. Do you guys make flatwounds? I’d be into checking out your strings if you do and can order a 7-string set from you. Yeah, 27” is not going to work! 😁

It would be pretty cool to have a multiscale 8 string that's 24-26.5 inches with a low A and a high A.

Tom Lippincott does something similar on 8 string, BEADGBEA. I play 9 string in BEBEADGBE, I've thought about a 10 string in the future for a high A

Tune down one step, DGCFBbdG, 0.08 for the last G,it works

One possible tuning for a 7-string is “all thirds”. E G# C E G# C E. Still the two-octave E-to-E range of a standard 6-string but with tighter and uniform intervals. I’ve heard of this being a thing some jazz guitarists use but have never tried it (I don’t have any instruments with more than 6 courses).

Amazing idea! I might get a 7 string and do this lowest D and highest G. Neat idea. Thanks!

Just got same guitar and wondered this question you answered. God bless you for answering this question.Thanks A6...

How about tune it a whole step down so that you’ll have DGCFADG? less tension for the highest string

Yeah, you don't put a high A on a 7-string so you can play chords... it's for shredding up in the stratosphere! I'm looking to do this very thing, but thankfully I haven't bought a 7-string yet... I appreciate your Jackson being a guinea pig for the rest of us. Thanks for this video.

If I were going to add a high A, I’d tune EADGCEA. Move that major 3rd up so it is still between the 2nd & 3rd strings. But if I ever do get a 7-string, I’ll be using major 3rds tuning (and asking your recommendations for gauges).

Unrelated question, what's your take on PRS soldering the ball claiming sustain/tone improvements? Not trying to start a slagging match, more is it something you've considered? Could it maybe but the manufacturing adds too much to be worth it? Or no opinion. (just ordered a few packs)

Just tuned mine E,A,D,G,B,E,G. it works.

I had an 8 string that I thought sounded "flubby", so I strung it as a 7string and ordered a 007 for the high string. Sounded badass.. violin status.. 👏👏👍

So far ive been fortunate enough to just snap a few e and a strings going up to fifths. Ive been trying to find the right string gauges for violin tuning on a 4 string jazz bass. looked up tunings corresponding to string tensions including violins themselves. bass side violin strings are alot thicker than I thought. also considering the bigger ball end sizes on double basses and cable ferrules for converting smaller ball ends on guitar strings.trying to find a3 and e4 medium tension strings on a 34 inch scale while keeping a violin gauge difference between the strings I choose.theres a generic brand that goes by 3m and zebra 1? Or i just might pick out a couple sets of 5 and 6 string packs.

I have the same guitar in the video, can I prevent strings bending just from fretting in lower tunes by getting thicker strings?

So when Fender first tried making 7 strings in the 70's or 80's tried this tuning with a .007 but yeah it kept breaking. I tune one of my 7's to renaissance tuning B-E-A-D-F#-b-e. Same idea, just tuned lower, and a lot of fun.

My 25.5 I tuned up to dropc and drop C# with 11s heavy bottom

Guys like Steph Carpenter and Wes Borland when they first got 7 strings, they tuned the 1st and 22nd strings in unison. So that's another option with a 7 string tuned in E Std. Just make that high 1st string another E. Steph did in in Drop Db, and Wes in C# Std though

I very much want to try this (as you said, with a shorter scale length), because I do a lot of fingerstyle chord-melody stuff with the melody set between a-below-middle-c and c-one-octave-above-middle-c. There are actually a lot of nice simple open fingerings: C - x/3/2/0/1/0/3 A - x/0/2/2/2/0/0 G - 3/x/0/0/0/3/2 D - x/x/0/2/3/2/0 and of course all the A-form barre chords (major, minor, dom7, m7) will have that nice high tonic over everything. And for jazz playing, there could be some interesting options opened up for tensions, etc. But I do wish you had tuned/inonated the guitar more precisely in this video. Even just having it Eb/Ab/Db/Gb/Bb/Eb/Ab would have been fine for demonstrating the concept, but because the guitar is not tuned/intonated well (in terms of each string being well-tuned to each other, and each fretted note being relatively well-intonated), all the chords sound like out-of-tune electric 12-string. It would also be good to spend some time working in the tuning before demoing what it can do.

It is a Standard Tuning for Descant Lute (7 Course)

I'm very interested in the concept. I'm a new comer I've only been playing for 3 years and play 6 strings. Does anybody have an advice about doing this right. Do you need something special like a nut designed for it. Would having a multiscale guitar 7 string help. Thanks for any help with this question.

I had a 9-string guitar for a little while that I wanted to be a standard 8-string (that sounds weird to say) with an extra high string. It was a longer scale guitar to help the low strings out and for the life of me, I couldn't get any combination of string brands/gauges/etc to reach a high A. I eventually settled on a high G, which as you discovered in this video, high A is not very useful for chord shapes, but the G was actually somewhat decent. That said, I rarely used the string and I ended up switching to just a normal 8-string and sold the guitar.

If I wanted an unusually high string on a 25.5" 7-string, I'd probably start with D standard with a high G (.008), and go my way up. If I had to guess, I think a high A would rapidly turn into a breakfest, especially for live players who just want to play their axe as usual. A high G♯ could realistically be a good idea though.

Well, I play finger style gospel, jazz and blues, and have been broadening out into 7 string, for a bit now. I use a 9, 12, 16, 24w, 32, 42, 52 set using Stringjoy Broadways, dig that pure nickel tone, tuned to C# standard with a high f# string on a 25.5” scale. Wanted to aim for a lower than standard tuning with a high end treble string rather than a regular standard setup with a low bass end addition. Mostly aiming for that because there a lot more interesting chords that way and the addition of more range for melody based riffs and solos. 😁

I have a custom multi scale 8 string that is 26.75" to 23.5" that I tune Low A to high A. It sounds fabulous! Do you guys make a custom 3 bass string 5 guitar string set?

I came up with this idea 7 years ago

I was sitting at work today randomly thinking about 5 string basses. All the basses I like are 4 stringers. If I wanted a custom shop 5 string it would have to be custom made and cost 2-4x what a normal high end custom shop bass would cost. So what if you just put the bead strings from a 5 string set on your bass? In theory it should work right? 5 strings are usually the same scale length.

Been meaning to try this on my gibson scale ibanez ax7

I'm guessing this was just plain steel? It might be worth trying with one of those slightly more exotic alloys that are advertised as being stronger, e.g. Daddario's NYXL.

I tune my 8 string similar to this, I get an extra low string as well as an extra high string. But I tune the whole thing down a step. That A is just too high. And to Scott's dismay, I use a .007 for my high G

Can You do big bendings?

I wonder why not as many people thought about this. If you could be mindful not bending that high A, it could make for some pretty cool shreddy solos. It would probably work best on a 24.75" scale, although I don't know of many 7-strings with that length. Maybe if you had a 24.75" guitar you used exclusively for tracking solos, ADGCEA (A standard, but starting on that A2 of E standard) or GCFBbDG would be pretty sick!

I wonder if a multiscale guitar would work well. An 8 string with a low B and high A would have so much usable range for classical guitarists

I would only dare try something like this on a fan-fret guitar -- probably custom built. I tried tuning my 26" scale length 7-string UP to Drop-B (B - F# - B - E - A - c# - f# ) and the high-f# string breaks after merely a couple good bends in seconds.

nothing wrong with cheap js227 i play one gonna mod it eventually but i play beadf#be so can do chord progession like 6 string and more fun in drop a with this tuning

"No - you should not do this yourself!" ha ha ha!!!

I have been trying a .9, .8 & .7 on a 30" (Schecter ) but it wont tune up to A. Can you help me with the gauge ?

I've gotten a 9 up to A440 on a 25 scale. 26 1`/2 to 27 it probably break. You probably need a 22 3/4 scale to be safe at A4

HELP!! I’m so close to getting this to work on a 25.5”scale guitar in half a step down with a high g# but it keeps breaking at the bridge. I’m using one of your guys’ .007 strings and it definitely doesn’t feel like it has too much tension, but the catch is the guitar has a Floyd rose. I thought I might’ve be wrenching it down too hard causing it to become compromised, so I tried just taking out the graphite block all together and tightening down onto the ball end itself. This has definitely worked the best so far but it ended up breaking at the end of the windings that attach it to the ball. What do you think I should do?

*cries in 27" guitar* lol. Though this video now has me wanting to ask: could/would Stringjoy add an "A tuned to" field for the tension calculator? That sounds interesting.

E standard for me is literally too high.it makes my strings way too tight.9's,10's as well.i tune down to A for my E string.and then follow on down the line in normal tuning so my little E string would be completely tuned in a way that it would work perfectly.and I'd use a 8 guage for my little E which is now an A.

Flip it. Low to high. A-e-b-g-d-a-e

Shame they don't make 3/4 size 7-strings. Then again a multi scale would probably be a more sensible solution. Pretty sure Rusty Cooley has a few of those.

i believe this is how micheal angelo batio set up his 7 string. he's credited as one of the first ones to do a seven string, but going a note higher than lower

What would the possibilities of G4DAEBGD2 be?

I keep two guitars in new standard tuning, so I understand the struggle with trying to find strings that can manage the high top end. One is a 7 string and has a low F#. The tuning for new standard is C G D A E G. There is a reason Robert Fripp opted for the minor 3rd on the 1 string rather than another 5th. It is virtually impossible to get a standard scale length guitar, much less an extended length guitar, up to B. The only way people manage straight fifths is to drop the 6 string all the way to Bb. I can get the 1st string as high as A, but it requires a 7. I've never managed it with an 8, although many people do. A seven is just easier and I've never had it break. A 7 seems to be the sweet spot. 8 has too much tension and is easy to break taking it that high. Anything less than 7 is too weak to hold up to the tension and will snap. The other option is to downtune and have a G on the top. G is quite easily doable and would sound awesome tuned D to G on a 7.

Please do this again. Use 8 string, remove the 2nd string and tune them down to proper tension.

I wanted to see if anyone had this idea!

Adam Smale uses this tuning.

I have a much cheaper 7 string Jay Turser electric. It actually has a very nice neck. I went high A with a 7. It worked quite well, survived traveling around in a kenworth for a few weeks in a softcase. Until my nephew got playing with the tuning machibes and broke both the hi a and e. Lol. I'm not a great guitarist so I didn't get to play around with it much. I recently went the opposite and put heavys on it for a low b. But my a string must have several hundred pounds of tension on it haha. My options were limited and I had to by a pack of slinkys for an 8 string. I decided to go 13-74 😂 I am a sucker for punishment Going to tune down a step. Lol

Robert Fripp designed his New Standard Tuning with a high G string because of breakage issues. A is looking for trouble, even on a shorter scale. That's what Steve Vai originally wished for when he first asked for a 7th string but he let that go too.

I believe the "cheap" 7 strings come standard with '25.5, though I've recently purchased a schecter 7 with a '26.0 scale. Just a little more goes a long way

Yes, that guitar is 26.5". 25.5" is about as long as you can go with a high A4, based on material yield strength. I'd recommend even shorter. There are special strings that increase your odds of success with longer scale lengths, but those come with their own complications. I've been doing 8 string with high A4 for about 20 years. It opens up some new things for sure.

Fun video idea: Get a short-scale guitar, like an Ibanez Mikro or something similar in that 20-21" range, and see how high you can tune it with the lightest strings you make. I've thought about doing this for my band to record some really really silly solos. I think with 7s, you could probably get a guitar that length B to B at least and still be pretty playable.

Check out Lenny Breau playing a 7 string with a high A, he is beyond amazing: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dRNI9-YKytY.html

Next time do an 8 string tuning eadgbead

Iirc this setup is used in jazz from time to time. It's not really my genre, and my memory on it is only passing - will have to revisit the subject.

I have that 7 and I don't even like the high E at 26.5 lol

😂 this is fun

I've used a .007 at 27" for A. The only weak point was the tuner. I played it gingerly for about 30m, then accidentally tuned it up. I then used a .008 at 27" for G for a few weeks before I got bored. One day I really want to get a guitar to have a high G on top to have a minor third between the G and high E, because the opportunity to phrase chords is interesting.

Tune down a whole step and it should be fine

Probably only makes sense for chord melody playing. If you're just playing bar chords and blues box noodling, it's a waste.

Why not tune the guitar down

Nashville tune dat bish...-=;-)

Drop tune whole step D, G......, G.

Bro. Your A is out of tune when you first play it. I sure hope you catch that or this is going to be embarassing

🤣🤣🤣

Kind of a pointless video. I feel like some research and fiddling should have happened between the intro and the actual playing.

You shouldn't use less than a 10 if you don't want it to break. 8's are going to break every time.