This was a dream build, inspired by the band Admiral Angry who converted Cort Curbow 5 string basses into 7 string guitars. Being a fan of their music, I wanted to build my own so finally made it happen. I contacted their second guitarist who was very helpful with information on how the made them, the tuning, etc.

I had all the work done by Jon Turner of Turner Guitar Co in Ogden, Utah. Mine is built from an Ibanez GSR105, which has specs that closely match the Cort Curbow. EMG 707 active pickup with solderless kit and a single volume knob. Admiral Angry used this same pick up and wired it straight to the volume, so I went with a similar setup. Ibanez Gibraltar I top-loading bridge. A custom Tusq XL nut was cut. The original tuner holes were plugged with dowels and glued, sanded down, and new 7 string tuner holes drilled. I used a set of Jackson 7 string tuners for this. Headstock was painted matte black after the modification. You can see where some of the old holes were plugged, a lot more work could have been put into this to make it totally flush but I opted not to. A new output jack was installed, body needed to be bored out some to make it fit.

The tuning Admiral Angry used on their album "Buster" is basically "double drop A", or A0D1A1D2G2E3E3, so this is the same tuning I went for. Yes, the last 2 strings are both E standard. I used Kalium strings since they make just about any gauge and scale length imaginable. Admiral had used a 0.95 bass string on top followed by the first 6 strings of a 7 string set. All the Kalium strings I used are made for 34" scale, and the last two are plain, non-wound strings. Here are the model names/gauges:

BH-098

BH-073

BH-063

BH-047

BH-037

BP-022

BP-017

Check out my awkward goofy video I made after this was completed for some sound samples and information. I really don't want to sell this, but it doesn't get the use it deserves and I was recently laid off so the extra funds are needed.

The total cost with materials and labor was over $600. It will be packed very well.