Abyss! - SubZero Generation 7 | Flame Blue Burst | 7-String

You know that famous warning about staring into the abyss for too long?

Apparently nobody considered what would happen if Sarah found it, brought it home and Jordan gave it a fret level.

Meet Abyss, a SubZero Generation 7 and proof that getting into seven-string guitars doesn’t necessarily require selling a kidney, remortgaging the house or explaining a suspiciously large transaction to your significant other.

Finished in Flame Blue Burst, Abyss pairs a flame maple top with an alder body, fading from vivid electric blue through to almost black around the edges. The back and sides continue in gloss black, while the natural satin maple neck and wood-faced headstock provide a rather lovely contrast.

It is, appropriately, quite difficult to photograph without making it look like some sort of portal.

Underneath all the blue drama is a guitar designed specifically for extended-range playing. Abyss uses a 27-inch scale, providing additional tension and definition for that low seventh string compared with a conventional 25.5-inch scale.

The bolt-on maple neck is topped with a jatoba fingerboard carrying 24 frets. Position markers are kept almost entirely to the side of the neck, leaving the front remarkably clean.

Which is probably wise.

There are already seven strings happening.

She doesn’t need to show off.

At the business end are two direct-mounted passive ceramic humbuckers, with a higher-output bridge pickup and medium/high-output neck pickup. One volume control, one tone control and a three-way toggle handle everything else. 

No batteries.

No complicated switching system.

No Floyd Rose.

Just seven strings and some extremely poor intentions.

An individual-saddle fixed bridge allows adjustment across all seven strings, while a graphite nut and sealed die-cast tuners complete a surprisingly sensible extended-range specification. 

And that’s really where Abyss makes sense.

If you’ve always wondered whether you’d get on with a seven-string but don’t particularly fancy spending hundreds of pounds to conduct the experiment, she’s a wonderfully approachable way in. Equally, if you already know precisely what that seventh string is for and simply want an affordable guitar that can go low and hit hard, she’s more than happy to oblige.

Abyss has some honest cosmetic marks and light scratching from her previous life, particularly visible across the high-gloss finish when it catches direct light. Nothing affects her playability, and we’ve photographed her as clearly as possible so there are no surprises.

As with all our Strays, she has been thoroughly cleaned and inspected, with her hardware and electronics checked, frets levelled, crowned and polished, fret ends attended to and a complete setup carried out before being declared ready for adoption.

The result is an enormous amount of guitar for £175.

A proper 27-inch-scale seven-string.

A flame maple top.

A frankly unreasonable quantity of blue.

And an adoption fee that leaves some money in the budget for an amplifier capable of upsetting the neighbours.

Nietzsche said that when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.

He neglected to mention that occasionally it chugs back.

Adoption Fee: £175

Rescue • Restore • Rehome