Aristides Instruments from The Netherlands have just previewed the 070, a 7-string guitar that will be officially launched at the NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) Show in January. Made from a single piece of Arium, it’s a 26.5” scale instrument available with passive or active electronics – including your choice of our passive Pegasus bridge and Sentient neck pickups, or active Blackouts. There’s a five-way switch combined with a single push/pull volume control and single tone control for a wide variety of pickup configurations. And all components, for both passive and active models, are MEC Electronics.

The 24-fret C shaped neck is 1.89” wide at the nut, and it’s capped with a compound radius ebony fretboard which transitions from 12″ at the nut end to 16″ by the time it gets to the higher frets. Hardware is available in chrome, black or gold finishes and includes a Hipshot Hardtail or Floyd Rose Original tremolo, Hipshot Griplock tuners and Schaller straplocks. Available colors are matte anthracite, white or orange, and the guitar ships with a Gator XL hard case. Aristides sets each guitar up with either a Graphtech Black Tusq nut or Floyd Rose locking nut and D’Addario Nickel Wound XL 10-56 strings, and each is outfitted with an anti-theft security microchip.

Arium has no fiber structure, which allows it to vibrate three-dimensionally to increase sustain and volume. It also doesn’t contain water, so it’s more stable and requires less maintenance. For more on unconventional guitar construction materials, check out this post which looks at Aristides as well as New Zealand’s Olaf Diezel.