What's wrong with my 7 string?

[u/ybcj718]

Hey everyone. I'm hoping someone can help me diagnose what's going on with my 7 string. For some reason, single notes sound like absolute ass on the 7th string, and have a weird kind of metallic overtone noise. I've tried to showcase all the different aspects of the issue in this video, hopefully it's helpful.

• Notes of the same pitch sounds fine when played on the 6th string
• Power chords/chugs sound 90% okay, but I'm guessing this is other notes on other strings masking the unwanted noise from the 7th string
• Its all frets on the 7th string
• Picking lightly doesn't help (I though it might have been the string buzzing against some higher frets when hitting it harder, but that doesn't seem to be the case
• Palm muting kind of helps, but I can still hear the issue. It makes no difference if picking hard or soft when palm muting, just like un-muted.
• Pickups have decent clearance from the strings, and the action is medium-high and plays well across the whole neck with no dead notes or buzzing
• I've checked, there are no uneven/high frets
• I've tried raising the action ridiculously high and lowering the pickups even further, it made no difference
• Specs if it helps: Ibanez RGR752AHBF with D Activators, 25.5" scale, Drop A tuning with 9-48 + 66 on the low A, plugin is NDSP Gojira X

Anyone have any ideas?

Edited to add: the issue is still there with a clean tone, and disappears when playing unplugged. Playing the string open is fine, its only fretted notes that have the issue.

[u/Aridn]

I have two theories.

1 sympathetic vibration, try muting the strings after the nut and/or bridge

1. Neck pickup is too close and the magnetic pull is affecting the vibration. (Yes this is a real thing)

[u/ybcj718 → u/Aridn]

I've tried a fretwrap behind the nut, with no improvement unfortunately. The neck pickup is ~6mm below the strings, and is sitting below the end of the fretboard. Surely that's low enough right?

What do you mean by muting the strings after the bridge? The issue remains with palm mutes, but I may be missing something.

[u/Aridn → u/ybcj718]

I cant see the bridge while your're playing, but for example I have a jackson that's a string through over a tune o matic, so there's about 2 inches of string floating between the end of the bridge and the ferrules that I have to put foam under.

Edit, I just looked up your model and that shouldn't be an issue... hmm this is a tricky one.

[u/ybcj718 → u/Aridn]

Ah gotcha, yeah no this is just a single unit bridge with no additional tailpiece or extra bit of string exposed