My First 8-String. Power Chords Sound Awful

[eggy in a bready]

there's lots of things i would try first before i go spend money on new pups. dial back the gain and the bass. boost the high mids. use a compressor.

 

[Chris Bowsman]

Mess with the height of the pickups, too. That makes a huge difference.

 

[ExileMetal]

I'll mirror what some others have said because I have an 852 with Abasi pickups -

Power chords don't sound good on the 8th string. I don't think the pickup or amp selection matters for this over general clarity etc. After playing for a year or so and working it into my music, I think I've mostly used octaves. You're constantly battling clarity vs punch, and its harder to get a nice compromise with the extra string.

I think BKPs have better clarity for the most part, but for me they start sounding thin if your songs have a wide dynamic range (at least the Painkiller set.). Fishmans helped with that, but I needed to lower my gain a lot for it to not be all fizz.

 

[cardinal]

I ran through more pickups for 8 strings than I usually do. It’s tricky to get something clear but not thin.

The Fluence Modern Alnico seems to be the best balance for me. Both at the bridge and the neck position. Just wish it was available in a passive size.

 

[kisielk]

The reason power chords don't sound good on those really low tunings doesn't have much to do with pickups or particular but more to do with the frequencies being played. Whenever you play a chord you get the fundamental notes, a bunch of harmonics, and a bunch of resulting beat frequencies. When you are playing notes so low the beat frequencies also give you some additional low frequency content that really muddies things up. It's not limited to guitar, try playing a 5th on the lowest keys of a piano, or even a low tuned synthesizer with some relatively pure waveforms, it will sound bad. Now throw on a bunch of amp distortion on top of that and you're just amplifying all of that...

 

[chopeth]

maybe multiscale help fix these problems

 

[bracky]

It's not a problem. It's just how it is.

 

[Winspear]

The reason power chords don't sound good on those really low tunings doesn't have much to do with pickups or particular but more to do with the frequencies being played. Whenever you play a chord you get the fundamental notes, a bunch of harmonics, and a bunch of resulting beat frequencies. When you are playing notes so low the beat frequencies also give you some additional low frequency content that really muddies things up. It's not limited to guitar, try playing a 5th on the lowest keys of a piano, or even a low tuned synthesizer with some relatively pure waveforms, it will sound bad. Now throw on a bunch of amp distortion on top of that and you're just amplifying all of that...

It's not a problem. It's just how it is.

Yup prettymuch. A longer scale+thinner strings would improve it. The most important things are absolutely perfect intonation of all 3 notes and no pitch fluctuation from loose strings. However, even in such a perfect setting, it's a very different sound and certainly less useful as explained above

 

[Winspear]

On a slightly related note, when playing 3rds - not powerchords - you can improve minor thirds (53 type shape) by bending the 3 on the 2nd string 15 cents. You can improve major thirds (54 shape) by bending the root 15 cents. If you use distorted thirds in your playing much, this will improve their clarity significantly especially in low tunings. If you bend it slowly you will hear the distortion lock into tune. These cents numbers assume starting from perfect intonation.

 

[MerlinTKD]

Not debating the physics (which would be stupid ) but on my Septor 828 in drop E (with an .80) power chords sound great above the 5th fret or so; below that, there's a level of out-of-tuneness/distortion that I actually enjoy, but it's definitely not clear like a 7 string in B or A. It's actually pretty similar to when I had my 7 in drop G.

Which made me remember Deftones... aren't there some songs on Diamond Eyes where Stef plays power chords with the 8th string?

 

[Winspear]

Think so yeah! It's definitely a sound that can be useful, but someone picking up an 8 string and expecting to powerchord everything as usual (if that's what they usually do) could be in for a surprise indeed

 

[c7spheres]

The reason power chords don't sound good on those really low tunings doesn't have much to do with pickups or particular but more to do with the frequencies being played. Whenever you play a chord you get the fundamental notes, a bunch of harmonics, and a bunch of resulting beat frequencies. When you are playing notes so low the beat frequencies also give you some additional low frequency content that really muddies things up. It's not limited to guitar, try playing a 5th on the lowest keys of a piano, or even a low tuned synthesizer with some relatively pure waveforms, it will sound bad. Now throw on a bunch of amp distortion on top of that and you're just amplifying all of that...

Yep, This is exactly it. I would add that as an experiment to prove this you can tune your perfect 5th absolutely perfectly with a tuner to the 1/2 cent, (remember your open vs fretted chords will probably be a bit out of tune so tune the chord your going to actually play) for those low 2 strings, and then pick very lightly and slowly and it will suddenly sound very fat and clear and perfect, but pick hard and it will sound crappier the harder you play, slam the pickup into the body and it will sound a little better because it's not picking up everything. Better pickups only give the illusion of actually sounding better. It's the pickups lack of picking up the offending freq's that make you think it sounds better, but they are still there just in a different mixture. This is why certain pickups may sound better on different notes/chords because of that pickups res freq or freq emphasis etc. Remember the lower notes are physically slower resonating too so playing them fast makes it so the note doesn't fully develope also. This doesn't mean you can't find a combination of settings or gear etc that you don't like though. Just some thoughts.

 

[teamSKDM]

ive had an rga8 and rg2228 and found that 27" scale is too short for f# and lower, and really barely keeps g standard for my 27" 7 strings clear enough. then after playing a jackson multiscale at guitar center with 28" the issues i was having with the timbre and tonality of the thicker strings seemed absent and while power chords on my 27" guitars sounds flubby on the 28" it was clear enough for power chords to ring through clearly on the lower register. right now im about to add an ormsby 8 with 28.2" on the low side to the collection to replace the others. alot of 8 string sets also come with a 64 for the low 7th b string and i find thats too fat and using a 54/52 on the lowest for the b and like 42 on the e with a .74 at the thickest for the 8th string will help the lower notes resonate better together without fighting one another over bass frequencies during power chords. for what its worth i plan on stringing the 25.5-28.2 ormsby with 11-13-17-24-32-42-52-74 with the 11 being my preference for the e string on 25.5. to get appropriate tension on my 27" however i have to use DR 11-80 which is all far too bassy and tubby at that thickness with still not as much tension the 28" had on the low notes destroying the possibilty of power chords.


TLDR : its not that the f# is too low to play power chords on , its that the 27" scale is too short to support f# power chords and using thicker strings to compensate only worsens the tone at this register. i wouldnt use anything less than 28" and nothing thicker than .74f#/.52b/.42e if planning on being a dedicated recording 8 string player with power chords as a priority.

 

[Lindmann]

Yup prettymuch. A longer scale+thinner strings would improve it. The most important things are absolutely perfect intonation of all 3 notes and no pitch fluctuation from loose strings. However, even in such a perfect setting, it's a very different sound and certainly less useful as explained above

I'll second this.

My recipe for good-sounding low power chords is:
- Long scale length (I'm talking about 30" here, not 26,5" or so)
- thin strings (plus getting used to playing with low tension)
- perfect setup
- tubescreamer in front of the amp and in order to make up for this, dial in a good amount of bass at the amp.

 

[cardinal]

Ok I figured I’d throw this here. Some mindless low F# string riffing with power cords



26.5” scale, .068 lowest string, PAF8s, Marshall Superlead booster with an OD808.

 

[TheShreddinHand]

Appreciate this thread as I've been contemplating jumping into the 8 string game myself finally. Some good insight in this thread!

 

[KnightBrolaire]

27" scale is fine, >28" scale is fine as well. most amps work fine with 8 strings imo. I mean I've used my 8 strings with a spider 3 amp before and they sounded just fine.
Use as thick of strings as you need to get the tuning you want. If you're happy with most of your setup and you know that string clarity is the issue, then grab some LaBellas/D'addarios. Those are the clearest strings I've found by far. Kalium's really big winds (>.90) are much warmer/muddier than comparable Labellas ime.
I've had success down to D1 on the 8th string but most pickups/guitars are useless below that point with either a 27 or 28" scale (you need a stupidly thick string to make it viable and it still sounds like farts even on longer scales like 30" ime).
Seeing as I'm probably the only guy on this forum that's put like 15+ pickups through the same 8 string, I'll say that pickups>>>>>>>>speakers>>>>amps>>>>>>>Strings
By all means, start with the easy stuff like pickup height/amp eq/changing strings, but never forget that pickups are basically forced eqs. It doesn't matter if you run a razor clear amp if the pickups sound like R2D2 on Ketamine, you're gonna have a miserable time trying to get them to sound good.

 

[LeviathanKiller]

R2D2 on Ketamine

But yeah, D'Addario and LaBella strings are where it's at for easy-to-find sets. Really balanced tension wise and that's why I promote them like crazy whenever asked.

 

[ixlramp]

As stated, possibly just an inherent result of low pitch chords.
The consonance of a chord is directly determined by it's pitch (as well as the intervals used), the lower the pitch the lower the consonance.

In the standard '12 Tone Equal Temperament' system we use, the 12TET fifth of 7.00 semitones is very close to the perfect-harmony 'Just Intonation' fifth of 7.02 semitones. 2 cents is smaller than the unavoidable natural pitch variation of strings, so this is not a case of 12TET being significantly out of tune.

 

[jephjacques]

All you folks who swear 27" isn't long enough or you need a .94 for f# are crazy, all my 8s are 27" with .74s and I can get nice clear power chords all the way down to drop E. It's all in how you pick.

Part of the problem is also that 808s just sound like ass. Also, turn down the bass and gain! 8 strings can be super picky, don't be afraid to get wild with your amp settings if it gets you the sound you're after.