Studying or practicing Ear Training?  If you're a musician, you should be.  You'll find my Palm software Ear Trainer invaluable.  Also, I teach guitar lessons in Orange County, CA.  (See OCGuitarLessons.com)

(7 Playing Strings Plus 12 Sympathetic Strings)
 
 
 

I first became curious about playing a seven-string in the early '90s.  I knew it would facilitate solo self-accompaniment, but I couldn't find any seven-strings that were anywhere close to affordable to me at all, so I contemplated many plans to put something together myself.  I had zero interest in acoustic guitar, but I ended up with a Yamaha twelve-string acoustic, which has a wider neck than a typical six-string.  I simply made a seven-string nut and replaced the twelve-string one with it, filled the twelve holes of the wooden bridge base with hard epoxy then re-drilled seven holes in it, and re-notched the bridge piece accordingly.  String spacing was just a little tight, but it worked.

I didn't feel I was getting anything out of the seventh string for a few months, till I finally got around to memorizing the pitches on it and got natural at grabbing particular bass notes there while improvising a melody.  It was a definite asset to have significantly more options in this department.

This guitar ended up becoming the object of a few little experiments of mine....  (The nut area is blurred because it's a prototype for an innovation for which the patent application is currently still pending.)
 

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