I have this guitar since 10-22-1998.
The first time that I saw this 7 string guitar, was in the 7th heaven promo video which you would get when you bought a new 7-string.
Someone from the Dutch Ibanez importer had send me this tape, since I was interested in buying a seven string, but I needed some more info on the guitar it self.
But once I saw the tape I was sold and ordered the UV777PBK right away.

With the extra Low B or High A string you can get wild sounds.
This setup with the lower B string work great for some new ideas that I was

The pickups are the Dimarzio Blaze II for both the humbucker and single coil specially made for the Ibanez Universe seven string series.
They are named the same, but each has a different character, When you compare the two you will hear that the Blaze II Bridge has more Bass and treble, but the same mid range as the Blaze II Neck pickups.

The Single coil Blaze II goes even beyond with his treble, but with a lower bass tonality for a bride and clean sound, with a perfect clean balanced mid tone.
When you want to play those signature seven string Steve Vai guitar licks, the Dimarzio Blaze II in the pickup setup you want to go for.
A good, clean and deep heavy sounding Dimarzio pickup setup.

The nice thing about this Ibanez Universe is that it is made with the same technique an idea’s like Steve Vai had while making the Ibanez Jem series.
There are still some differences on this guitar; there are no scalloped upper frets, Lion claws and monkey grip in this body.
For the early 7 strings, Ibanez made some for Steve while he was touring with Whitesnake for the Slip of the tongue tour in de ‘90, but later they only did this on the Ibanez Jem series.

Like I said, there is no Lions Claw tremolo Cavity under the bridge.
But you are still able to pitch the notes by pulling the bar down into the body just like the Jem does.
It also has a locking system on the head and tremolo like the Ibanez Jem series has.
The guitar is made of an American Basswood Body and a Maple neck, Lo-Pro Edge 7 Bridge, 2 Dimarzio Blaze II Humbuckers and 1 Blaze 7 Dimarzio single coil.

The springs in the back of the body, and in a V shape, meaning that the two outside springs are diagonal for a better string tension, this works the best since there is an extra string and I needed the lower action on the neck.

After many configuration I found out that for this guitar, this set up works the best.
But when I set the guitar with a High A instead of the Low B, I use the regular setup.
Less tension is then needed, or the string keeps on breaking.

Once I tried to tune this guitar with a high A string, instead the lower B string, this sounded really great.
The only downside, I kept breaking the sting when I did some pulling in the tremolo or strings.
The thing that I really love about it, was the tonality I go to the chords that I was playing.
But after breaking a lot of string, I re-tuned it with the lower B string and kept is that way ever since.
The strings that I use for this guitar is a set of Ernie Balls stings from 0.09, 0.11, 0.16, 0.24, 0.32, 0.42 and a 0.52 for the low B.
Like most other guitars I also use a black Dimarzio clip-lock strap on this guitar.