8 String Guitars?

[jeffwith1f]

I thought 7 was too many.
anyone seen one of these, I saw a guy playing jazz on one of these in the subway.

 

[EunosFD]

Blackmachine out of the UK makes some interesting & purposeful looking 8'ers:

www.blackmachine.net

Not quite the same though.

 

[hawklet06]

Novax makes some.

http://www.novaxguitars.com/sales/index.html

Charlie Hunter is pretty good with one.

 

[rosscoep]

+1 on Charlie Hunter. He's a master. Elliott Sharp as well. He's a mad genius. Someday I'll have one.

 

[steven.rogers]

I was going to mention Charlie Hunter as well. I think they're really neat, I'd like to get one eventually to mess around on.

 

[PFCG]

the charlie HUNTERS* are way different than the ibanez/esp/nevborn/blackmachine creations. those are for jazz, the 8 strings made by big time builders are for metal. they kick ass. Listen to Catch33 by Meshuggah. Youll **** yourself

 

[ahardmark]

the charlie parkers....

uh, i think he meant "charlie hunters", as in the 8-strings that are made by novax, unless bird has arisen with a guitar in his hands. nice guitars imo

 

[shuie]

I can barely play the ones with six strings. Charlie Hunter is an alien.

 

[Bill Brasky]

They can be tuned anyway that you want. There isn't any rule that says you have to tune it the way Charlie Hunter does. The assumption is that it would be harder/more complex to play but I've heard it explained that it's actually easier. You can just reach over with a finger and grab a note instead of moving up and down the neck as much as you would on 6 string.

 

[Brett Valentine]

Got the chance to try one of the Novax 8 strings (someone I know who works in a music store bought one and brought it into the shop). Definitely takes a little bit of time to get used to, but if you do fingerstyle, you can work things out.

Check out the Conklin 8 (with a high A string). This one's got my attention now:

http://www.tomlippincott.com/8str.htm

http://www.conklinguitars.com/bizarregallery/biz8images/biz8stg.html

 

[Brett Valentine]

Here's a better picture of a Conklin fanned fret 8

How 'bout 9?

 

[jeffwith1f]

the conklin looks most like what he was playing. very cool. allowed him to do credible bass lines while also playing the normal guitar parts. very chet. I tried so hard to do something interesting with my 7 string, something that was just downtuned riffing, but at the end of the day, that's all I seemed to be able to coax out of it.

it would help if I was a better rounded player I suppose.

when I was reading through my most recent guitar mag today I saw an ad for a 9 string. (top three doubled like a 12.

have we gone mad people?

 

[Brett Valentine]

Nah, I think it's a great time toi be a guitarist in as far as instruments go. Stretching the guitar's compass can lead to great new ideas in playhing and music. After listening to Paul Galbraith play a Bach cello suite on his, I decided that I was eventually going to "need" at least one guitar with more than 6 strings. . .

 

[jaywalker]

I regularly use an 8 string clasical in the studio for 17th century folk stuff. It's a real bastard to tune though.

 

[Orren]

I think Ed Degenaro has a double neck with one of the necks being an 8-string. Yikes!

Orren

 

[fiftywatt]

This is the one that interests me. But it's Meshuggah that got me interested in 8 strings. Having said that
I don't play in a metal band.

http://www.espguitars.com/guitars_fm408.html

 

[jcoggins7]

I believe the Brazilian Guitar Quartet has two eight string classicals, which they switch off using.

 

[michaelvincent]

Dino from Fear Factory is using an 8 string now as well. I first saw the Meshuggah guys using them and though 'i can't handle 7....this is nuts!'

 

[enditol]

A lot more can be done then just chugga like 'shuggah (which I love), check this guy out, very innovative player in Metal IMO - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-lv9ltZ2cw

 

[PFCG]

im not liking his sound. cool licks, im definitely more into the meshuggah and necrophagist type stuff