WTB - compare Cutlass 7 JR, Kaizen 7 or JP15-7

[MMeyer]

Hello,

Can you share your experiences with all those models - Cutlass 7 Jason Richardson Majora Purple, Kaizen 7 or JP15-7?

Want to buy one of those and I know, all of them are very very different. JP15-7 is the last option that I am thinking about to be honest. My main interest is between JR model or Kaizen. I already own Majesty 7 20th anniversary.

Thanks in advance for your opinions/thoughts

 

[Norrin Radd]

Well, I had a Jason Richardson in majora purple, and I still currently own a Kaizen, but mine are only six string versions. I could certainly speak to the differences between them in that capacity.

The first thing and most obvious is that the necks are very very different. The Kaizen has fanned frets and is multi scale. The JR is standard 25 1/2 inch scale. They both have stainless steel frets, so that’s a wash. The JR is much more traditionally sea shaped. The Kaizen is more D shaped and you really notice it comparatively. It’s definitely larger on the shoulders and thinner in the middle. They were both fantastic! But I preferred the neck on the Kaizen. You may not! So they definitely have a different feel when you are playing them.

Electronics – this is where the big differences are. I’m not going to go into the set up of the electronics, but rather the sound. The Kaizen has the most wonderful neck pick up – it’s a mini humbucker and it sounds fantastic! The bridge pick up is, well I would call it medium output, but it definitely has a mid hump like a very traditional humbucking pick up. The JR on the other hand has much more modern sounding pick ups. And the bridge pickup is the best bridge pickup I’ve ever heard. It is so perfectly EQ’d. You can definitely hear every string equally in its output. I’ve been looking for a long, long, long time for a pick up like that! The JR also has all the fancy push push switching for boost and coil splits – and they both work great!

I don’t think you can go wrong with either one. They are both fantastic instruments. I would recommend playing each of them before you buy if possible because they do feel so differently in the hand. Good luck!

 

[MMeyer]

So I Bought JR Majora Purple 7 and I have a little issue with high E string slipping of the neck. I have to always concentrate somewhere back in my brain that I have to take care about high E string during playing chords or fast runs.. Seems to me like that is too close to the edge of fretboard. I have experienced something similar or even worse than that on Majesty Monarchy 2018.

Do you have some thoughts about that one?

 

[Norrin Radd]

How about a photo of the bridge so we can see what's going on down there?

 

[Sweat]

looks normal to me but like Norrin stated don't do the 7 strings, as Darrell Dime bag stated, if you cant play 6 why the F do you think you can play 7

 

[MMeyer]

How about a photo of the bridge so we can see what's going on down there?

Well this is how bridge looks like.. Looks to me that high E string is about 1mm out of the other strings,.. thats also what exact measurment says

 

[MMeyer]

What I have done now is that I moved position on high E a bit further to the other stings by moving this part like that. Looks very redneckish but now its the way its supposed to be I would say.. 9mm on the 12th fret between each strings exactly, now I don’t have to constantly think about it when I’m playing...

 

[beej]

It's hard to tell from the angle of the photos. I'd suggest this is probably fixed by adjusting your neck. See Dr Kev's helpful video:

That high E saddle is out of whack though, I would level that out.

 

[DrKev]

Yep, looking at the photos, it seems to me that neck alignment could be adjusted a little. Compare the string positions relative to the 12th and 24th fret dot markers.

Note: Don't look at the centre dots. With thick bass strings and skinny trebles luthiers argue over whether string spacing at the nut should be equal between strings, equal from string centre to string centre (as it is at the bridge with individual bridge saddles), or some other arrangement. The end result is that the 4th string on a 7-string guitar (or half way between 3rd and 4th on a six) may not be dead center and so may not align 100% with the centered dot markers. So don't look there to judge alignment. It's a more obvious issue on basses rather than skinny string guitars.

The good news is that Music Man nuts are made with a locating pin that sits in a corresponding hole at the top of the fingerboard. That means the lateral string positions at the nut are always consistent. And modern CNC routing means the bridge position is always correct to the centerline of the neck. If the string alignment is off, 99 times out of 100 it's just because the neck has rotated a little in the pocket.

 

[MMeyer]

Yep, looking at the photos, it seems to me that neck alignment could be adjusted a little. Compare the string positions relative to the 12th and 24th fret dot markers.

Note: Don't look at the centre dots. With thick bass strings and skinny trebles luthiers argue over whether string spacing at the nut should be equal between strings, equal from string centre to string centre (as it is at the bridge with individual bridge saddles), or some other arrangement. The end result is that the 4th string on a 7-string guitar (or half way between 3rd and 4th on a six) may not be dead center and so may not align 100% with the centered dot markers. So don't look there to judge alignment. It's a more obvious issue on basses rather than skinny string guitars.

The good news is that Music Man nuts are made with a locating pin that sits in a corresponding hole at the top of the fingerboard. That means the lateral string positions at the nut are always consistent. And modern CNC routing means the bridge position is always correct to the centerline of the neck. If the string alignment is off, 99 times out of 100 it's just because the neck has rotated a little in the pocket.

Am I able to do it just by myself?

 

[beej]

Yes

 

[DrKev]

Am I able to do it just by myself?

Yep! Just watch my video. Music Man customer service send people to it too. You don't even need to detune the guitar.

That's a much younger me though. My wife says I'm more handsome today.

 

[MMeyer]

Well, so this was like before I have tried your tip - I could stick like 3 sheets of paper in there. After the thing? Not even one could fit in. It really helped, I was scared to do it even without detuning strings.. Really helped.. thanks alot!!