Seven-string guitars became a staple of the nu-metal sound in the 90s and early 2000s, thanks in large part to James “Munky” Shaffer and Brian “Head” Welch of Korn. It created the nu-metal sound that we know today, and amazed a lot of people who were easily impressed by one more string being added to the guitar. The same people were easily impressed with how Wes Borland wore contact lenses that turned his whole eyes black, not just the irises. It was a simpler time.
But how did Korn end up using the seven-string guitar, exactly? According to a new interview with Head for WSOU 89.5FM reported on by Metal Injection, it was largely due to Munky being influenced by Steve Vai, who helped Ibanez design the first commercial seven-string electric guitar, The Universe, around 1990.
Says Head in the interview:
“I was a guitar student, and I went towards the greats: Eddie Van Halen, George Lynch, and Warren DeMartini. My friend, Munky, went to Steve Vai and Joe Satriani; the more jazzy stuff. It was a thing where we were just discovering music…
“[Munky] came over one day, and sure enough, I put (on) Dokken’s ‘Under Lock and Key’. And I played it note for note, rhythm-wise; when we got to the solo, I faked it as much as I could, but I could definitely hit a lot of the most important notes. [Munky] was playing acoustic guitar, and I was the first one he saw in person playing an electric guitar successfully. And so, he was like, ‘Whoa, man, I want to do that!’”
Head continues:
“I influenced him. But later on, about 10 years later, he got into the seven-string guitar because of Steve Vai. Steve created that, and (Munky) bought one.
“I wasn’t playing with James at that time, but he invited me to come back and jam with him. That’s when I started playing seven-string. So I influenced him early on, and then he influenced me. I started playing seven-string because of him.”
As Metal Injection points out, Vai gave Korn credit for popularizing the seven-string guitar in a 2020 interview with Ultimate Guitar. Vai said that, when the sales of the Universe dried up, he asked Ibanez to keep the guitar available “even if you only sell a few a year.” Then one day he heard Korn on the radio, and it blew his mind:
“Then, I’m driving down the street and this song comes on the radio and I’m like, ‘What the heck is that?’, and I pull the car over. It sounded so heavy, I instinctually knew it was a seven-string and somebody was doing something with it that was much different than what I was doing.
“And that band was Korn. That was sort of the rebirth of the seven-string. So it was a co-creative effort. I was a part of it but it took many, many people to bring it to the level where it’s at.”
