On November 4, 2020, I ran into a question for open discussion on a forum at a website dedicated to 7-string guitars. I wrote an answer, but never got around to posting it. However, since it relates to the video guitar lessons I’ll be publishing in the near future, here is the original question, followed by my response.
Given that a significant portion of players don’t seem to be making use of the extended range of seven or eight string guitars, then why are they a thing in the first place?
Source: Sevenstring.org Forum
I’ve been playing 7- and 8-string guitar since the mid-90s. There were basically no cheap mass manufactured guitars like that at the time. I started with classical, and the purpose was to get the range for stuff like the Bach lute suites, or add lower notes for ordinary songs, or do baritone versions of ordinary songs. My guitar teacher introduced me to them, and I liked playing them, so my dad and I bought an 8-string from him that was previously custom made for him by a Spanish luthier specifically to stay in a budget students and their parents could afford ($2k—by no means cheap, but far cheaper than most 8-string classical guitars at the time, because they were pretty much all custom made).
Later, when cheap electric 7-strings (but not 8-strings) started becoming available, I picked up one of those because I was joining a metal band and figured it was easier to just get one guitar I could use for whatever I wanted rather than get another guitar that was only useful for low tunings because that’s the way it would be set up. I convinced the other guitarist to do the same and that was that.
But when I wrote songs on that guitar, I found myself missing the extra range I had on my classical guitar, so when 8-string electrics finally started getting in the $1000 and lower range thanks to big manufacturers like Ibanez and ESP, I picked up one of those and have had it since. I’d like to replace it with something better and probably custom or heavily modded, but for now I have other priorities and that stuff takes time that I don’t have at the moment.
Bottom line, it simplifies my life to have one main guitar that can do everything I need to do than have to have 2 or 3 guitars to do the same.
As for why those guitars became so common…well, that’s a mix of celebrity, fads, marketing, and the usual offshoring to cheap Asian factories, plus people’s personal preferences and other practical reasons like those I mentioned above.