Ernie Ball Music Man John Petrucci 7 String - Review

Type Of Gear: Electric Guitars

Brand Name: Ernie Ball

Model: Ernie Ball John Petrucci 7 String

Price: 1300 (used with case)

Review - Please try to include as many details as you can: This was my first purchase of a 7 string guitar and I'd never really played one before.  The first thing I did was change the strings from the Ernie Ball 10s, to Ernie Ball 9s.  I stuck with the Ernie Balls even though I use D'addarios because I initially felt since it was an Ernie Ball guitar they would feel better.  I quickly realized that for whatever reason, the pick I was using (Dunlop Jazz 3) was "sticking" while I was picking.  I'm not sure what the deal was but I changed back over to the D'addarios and this problem was gone.

Other then the initial setup problems, I felt the guitar played great.  Large frets and a rosewood fretboard make for some good shredding.  It takes some getting used with the wider neck and bigger frets, but it'll happen eventually.

The Piezio setup also enables you to go back and forth from clean to crunch very quickly.

Rating: 8

Additional Comments/Final Verdict: I think this is a great guitar, but I'm going to also try to check out one of the higher end Ibanez's to see how they compare. I've read other reviews and this guitar seems to compare favorably to other Ibanez 7 strings.