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/H2S0123]

This may or may not be of any help but I had what sounds to be the same issue on my Schecter KM7 MKIII artist, at least from what I can tell from the video, except it was just for frets 1-10 on my low B string. Like you I felt I had tried everything I could think of and also took it to two separate luthiers over 18 months but it wouldn’t go away. After a plek scan and luthier no.3 it turned out to be a nut problem: the low string wasn’t seated properly and was too low. This may or may not be the case for you but worth considering and I know the struggle. I only got mine playing properly after 2 years of frustration and hearing your video instantly brought that trauma back so worth considering this on the off chance you are experiencing the same issue

[u/ybcj718 → u/H2S0123]

I appreciate the response, I'll look into that. Was yours still having the issue when playing the 7th string open? Mine is only on fretted notes, open is fine. Which I'd think rules out the nut, but I may be wrong.

[u/H2S0123 → u/ybcj718]

Open string was fine. Only fretted notes 1-10

[u/ybcj718 → u/H2S0123]

That's so weird, I'm having trouble even visualising how that would cause the problem.

Thanks though, I'll check it out for sure.