Eight strings?!? What the hell is the tuning on these things and does anybody play them?

Example:

http://www.americanmusical.com/item...--brand-89.html

They are just octaves. So the strings would be: E E A A D D G G. Not nearly as cool as the other style 8 string.

http://www.conklinguitars.com/faceb...ery/8spalt2.jpg

What a fun bass. I've played the Conklin Birdseye 7, so beautiful. Standard tuning I believe is: F# B E A D G C F

wow, I've never seen something likes this before. It's looking very interesting. Imagine that u can every song on it without tune down or up the strings.

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man thats a fucking monster bass...............who the hell has hands that can get round the bottom of that neck?

Nothing for guys with small hands !

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I play 7 strings easy enough and i was warned i better have big hands, but man........that just looks insane.

http://www.otheroom.com/NAMM03/imag...ars/Conklin.jpg

now thats about too much bass.

Fuck - that.
That's crazy.

12-string=All but useless.
8-string=Okay, but only if your name is D.D. Verni.
6-string=Cheating.
5-string=Okay, I guess...
4-string=The only thing worthy of being called a bass.

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omg.. that is fucking crazy ...

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Holy. Crap. I've never seen one of those before, that's amazing!

That is the strangest bass ive ever saw. Man i thought that eight string was weird....this blows it out the water, and then kicks its ass all over the beach.
Shit thats a good saying, ive gotta right that down.

haha this is the link i wanted to post initially, couldnt find it. the guy who plays the damn thing. http://lordonly.net/lojtbas3.htm

some quick specs - double neck, both 7 strings, bottom is fretless. made of frankensteinian combination of ash, wenge, oak, walnut, maple, ebony, and god knows how many other trees. bolt on neck, custom Lane Poor pickups, seymor duncan preamp, neck selector switch, 28 frets, tunings are BEADGBE, body is semi hollow to bring weight to only 25 lbs

if one of those strings snapped it would kill someone...

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Just listen to NECROMANTIA's song "De Magia Veterum". Their style is Black Metal, but they use 8-string bass as the main instrument and the rhythm creator, and it sounds damn good.

Essentially you are saying you can't handle range?
And for the record how is a six string bass cheating? what is it cheating on?

Meshuggah's old bassist used to play an eight string and magnificently if I must say so.

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Thats one sophistamacated do-wacky.

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I honestly have no interest in anything with more than 5 strings, as relates to playing a bass. Anything more is simple wank value.

yeah i would never buy a 8 string or a double neck 8 string thats just too much takes the piss, something lesclaypool would do or something, just whip it out and play a song on it, i would love to try it! definetely.. it wud be fun.. but not purchase it or play shows with it..

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5 strings more than enough

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I agree, 5 strings is enough, but if you could play the 8 string properly (and by that I mean some psycho shit we haven't heard before), then why the fuck not, eh?

6 Strings too much?

When I owned a four string I thought 5 would satisfy my desire. The fifth string (B) is extremely useful when you're playing something pretty high and have to suddenly go a lot lower. You do not have to move all the way down the neck to do so.
As I'm improving and learning more classical stuff, I'm beginning to wish I had a sixth string. When you play a song and you have to play a long fill with continous sixteenth notes, it can be difficult moving down from the 16th fret on the G all the way down to the 2nd fret on the B. If I had a sixer I could at least start on the 11th fret, which would make it much easier. It also is annoying to have to play up at the 20-24 frets on the G because the frets are so close together that a semitone trill means you have to be carefull one finger leaves enough room for the other, if you understand what I'm trying to say.
6 may not be necessary, but it really would help.

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I tried a six string the other day in local music shop.. i really hated it.. i mean yeah you got a higher string.. good for like octaves and higher notes for like solo bass.. but the strings were so close together and the neck was so damn wide! didnt like it at all, but whatever floats your boat go for it.. just my opinion on the case. jon myung makes it look so easy and comfortable..

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I honestly don't see what's the big deal about a wider neck. I've also tried out a 6er in my local music store, and I could easily reach the B string. And I have pretty small hands too. As for the string difference, it took me a couple of months to get fully used to the difference of a five string, so it should be about the same (or a little longer) for a 6. The only reason I wouldn't like a wide neck is that barring the strings would be more difficult. Luckily that is not needed very often, and I personally never play chords with more than four strings, I find it just sounds bad with more than that.

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Yeah i can reach the B string, but it still feels uncomfortable, me being used to 4 string neck.. so thats probably it..

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I saw, (and was able to play...in the store) an 8-string bass...it was..."Unique" needless to say. It felt ok, (since I have big hands...and I play bass after all...but it was WAY too big even for me.) but I have too big of fingers and I couldn't deal with it...I'll just stick to 4-5 string basses for now.

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