All user reviews for the Caparison Dellinger 7

Japan has brought some great guitars onto the market to be sure, and Caparison is definitely at the forefront of these. If you are lucky enough to find one in your country due to their small amount of distributors and even smaller scale production, you have stumbled upon a keeper, and the Dellinger Seven is no exception. This guitar features a mahogany body and a bolt-on 25 1/2 Inch scale neck with the Caparison Standard "Devil's Tail" Headstock mounted with Gotoh Height Adjustable Pole tuners. Finishes available are a natural finished satin mahogany or the Caparison Pro-Black. The pro-black finish is supposed to enhance low-mid response. Pickups are the Caparison PH7-n and Caparison PH7-b in the neck and bridge position, respectively, with Controls of Master Volume, 5 Way Lever Switch, and
Master Tone with Tap Bridge and Neck Pickup Coil Split Switch. The Neck is topped with a rosewood fingerboard with the Caparison Clock Inlays with 24 jumbo fret. The neck carve is a very comfortable "D" shape with a 49mm nut width and an oil finish. Topped off with an Original Floyd Rose, and this guitar is the seven-string shredder's dream.

UTILIZATION

The one complaint that is heard often with Caparison is a particular distaste to their pickups. The PH series is very low-end heavy and takes the proper amount of dialing to get it to your personal tastes. All frets are easily accessible and the neck is very comfortable. The coil-tapping feature is especially nice, and provides a lot of tonal variety. If you are looking for an alternative to a USA Jackson Soloist 7, this may be a good option for you. The low "B" is nice and chunky, not muddy like quite a few ERGs out there. As usual, Caparison's are built to take a terrible beating and keep going, no worries about it's reliability.

SOUNDS

All my reviews are done through the same collection of Amplifiers:

Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier Solo
Soldano SLO
Fender Twin Reverb
Peavey XXX
Peavey Ultra 120
Rocktron Vendetta

Effects are typically not used. Clean tones on this guitar are clear, with a very low-emphasis. The guitar shines through the Soldano and Mesa for meatl riffing and shredding. That being said, this is no Jazz guitar, it's purpose is very straightforward: Heavy music.

OVERALL OPINION

This is definitely a good option in the high-end seven market. There are quite a few Extended Range Guitars in this price range, and this one deserves a look. Downsides are the Pro-finish tends to get dirty rather quickly, and the Dellinger 7 is a bit of a rarity. These rarely come up for sale, but with Caparison resuming production, I wouldn't be surprised to see a few more hitting the market. Caparison's build quality is phenomenal, fretwork is amazing and these guitars are extremely reliable. My final thought?

Expensive, hard-to-find, but a solid axe that shines for dropped tunings. This one deserves a look from any player searching for a new seven string.

The Dellinger 7 was Caparison's first ever seven string. It was brought into production thanks to Nils Norberg of Nocturnal Rites. Aside from it being a seven string, nearly everything is the same as the original Dellinger II. One thing worth noting is that it has an Original Floyd Rose instead of the standard Schaller. This is due to the fact that Schaller doesn't offer a seven string bridge. The neck is also a five piece neck similar to the way Ibanez makes their Prestige necks. Another thing is that Caparison has a push-push pot in the tone control to allow for splitting the pickups.

UTILIZATION

Caparison did an awesome job at making their first seven string guitar. Coming from an Ibanez seven string, this guitar will feel right at home. The neck feels very familiar, but it's just a touch more round and a touch thicker. It is not, however, obnoxiously thick like some other seven string necks out there. Access to the controls for on the fly switching is pretty good, and access to the higher frets is a breeze with the sculpted neck joint. Everything feels just right, and anybody coming from an Ibanez seven string should feel right at home.

SOUNDS

I never got to try the original pickups with this model as I bought it used, and the previous owner replaced the pickups with some DiMarzios. I wasn't really feeling those, so I replaced them with a 59-7 and a Custom-7. While it's a mahogany body with a rosewood fretboard and maple neck, the guitar is actually a touch bright. It cuts through nicely, but it's not quite as thick as my two Horus guitars. I didn't really like the push-push split as the middle position was out of phase, so I disconnected the tone (like I do in almost all my guitars) and replaced the switch with a proper 3 way switch. The middle position on the 3 way switch allows for a split coil sound similar to the way John Petrucci has his setup. Despite there being only three sounds, these three sounds are extremely distinct and allow for a very versatile setup.

OVERALL OPINION

If you're looking for a different take on the Ibanez RG seven string series, I highly recommend checking out the Caparison Dellinger 7. They can be hard to find and get ahold of considering only a few were imported into the US, but if you're willing to wait, you should be able to find one pop up on the used market.