8 string setup

[peeps74]

Hi. Great site and lots of helpful people here. I'm posting for the first time because I'm at the home stretch of setting up my rg8. I have taken a lot of advice to heart here about gauges, etc. Right now, I'm using an 80 gauge low F string. I'm setup experienced in general, and have the guitar playing well but get nasty buzz without the strings being super high. I understand relief, nut height, neck angle etc. and feel I have those bases covered, at least a string height that I think would be reasonable.

I can give you my measurements later today, but my question is basically how you guys like to setup you 8s? I have a stew mac string height gauge also if anyone uses those as a reference. It would be cool to get some of your string height setups. Thanks in advance,
Pete

 

[lewis]

I have the saddle as far back on the low as possible. I even cut the screw in half to give me maximum amount of space. Im eeking out as much tension on the low as I can.

I use Drop Gb open tuning on my 8. My Low is a 74 and I find that suits me alot. I only have problems with intonation once the strings are old/dying. A fresh restring gives me no problems and I dont need to do proper setups or anything. Plug n play. I did add Locking tuners to it too.

 

[peeps74]

Thanks so far guys. Really helpful

You think the 80 is too big a gauge for the rg8 scale length? Gotta say that I own a lot of guitars, and the lower budget Ibbys are pretty solid quality-wise with a little elbow grease and setup. I'm just not used to the high string gauge setup. The saddle trick sounds really good also since intonation is a little less important on the high registers of such a thick string.

Maybe F# is the way to go. I had a 74 I think on it earlier and it felt nice tuned to F#. Was hoping to dig into some Meshuggah F tuning so got a few 80s. That also made me cut into the nut slot a little to make the string fit. Hope that doesn't mess things up for a 74 gauge if that's the way to go. Anyone buy a new nut for their 8 or rg8?

Keep the comments coming. I really appreciate it. I'll have a look at my string height tonight. Having a lot of fun with the 8 string and can't wait to get the setup right.

 

[lewis]

Thanks so far guys. Really helpful

You think the 80 is too big a gauge for the rg8 scale length? Gotta say that I own a lot of guitars, and the lower budget Ibbys are pretty solid quality-wise with a little elbow grease and setup. I'm just not used to the high string gauge setup. The saddle trick sounds really good also since intonation is a little less important on the high registers of such a thick string.

Maybe F# is the way to go. I had a 74 I think on it earlier and it felt nice tuned to F#. Was hoping to dig into some Meshuggah F tuning so got a few 80s. That also made me cut into the nut slot a little to make the string fit. Hope that doesn't mess things up for a 74 gauge if that's the way to go. Anyone buy a new nut for their 8 or rg8?

Keep the comments coming. I really appreciate it. I'll have a look at my string height tonight. Having a lot of fun with the 8 string and can't wait to get the setup right.

Going as low as Drop F and E would require an 80 and above imo. 74 seems perfect on F# with the 27inch scale.

You can get down that semi tone drop to Meshuggah tuning (F# to F) using a pitch shift with no issues. That way you can always keep the preferred tension/string gauge, yet also bust out the Meshuggah covers when needed and its just 1 click of a button. (activating the pitchshift)

 

[lewis]

EDIT. Sorry Op Im actually using an 80 gauge for F# not 74. My mistake. So take everything I said but add it up. So Drop F and lower you would need 84+gauge etc.

 

[beavis2306]

Keep in mind that the RG8 is a low end guitar. It's not a cheap guitar, but it is one of the most affordable 8 strings on the market. I had an Ibanez RG2EX2 (6 string). I tried throwing heavy gauge strings on it and it pretty much grew a mouth and told me no. At any tuning I tried, it resisted. If you want to play aggressively, the low end will have to be a bit high. I've got my RG8 setup with 10-74s, tuned standard...and last time I checked the F# string was 2.5mm at the 12th fret. Tho, it's something I'm learning how to play.

What brand of strings do you use for this? I've only ever used kallium for my 8 because string set customising convenience and anything less than 79 i found to be far too loose. A 74 would be great.

 

[peeps74]

Thanks again for the advice. I'm using D'Addario NW080s. I may go to 74s but I cut the nut to fit the 80s. Tension is nice right now but the buzz is pretty bad. I don't mind buzz and understand that this is part of the extended range guitar, but the notes can't fret out. The notes were fretting out at around fret 7 on due to the added relief. Catch 22 right now.

 

[peeps74]

Oh and the pitch shift is interesting. I always like effects so if I have a pitch shift option, it will eat away an effect option. I'm curious about what you use. Would a pedal work even when using an interface or amp sim interface, like a POD HD or something like that?

 

[lewis]

Oh and the pitch shift is interesting. I always like effects so if I have a pitch shift option, it will eat away an effect option. I'm curious about what you use. Would a pedal work even when using an interface or amp sim interface, like a POD HD or something like that?

good call.

I personally am currently using the Pod HD pro with the floorboard controller to do whammy/dives etc. And If I need to I use this to change tunings to obviously.

I have used the Whammy DT in recent times and that too was an amazing pedal.

 

[Winspear]

I don't mind buzz and understand that this is part of the extended range guitar

It doesn't have to be
27" .080 F is only as tight as a .045 E on standard scale, so it's not surprising if it buzzes. I would suggest 85-90. The downside is the tone will be darker, but it will be more comparable to a 48 E string.
Try Kalium strings. They perform and intonate very well. A lot of ERG players here swear by them - to be honest I probably wouldn't want to play half of my instruments if I couldn't use Kaliums anymore.

 

[vick1000]

Play lighter, get used to a little buzz, or get used to sounding like a bass player.

That's the problem with needing tons of tension at F# or lower, you lose guitar harmonics.

Not all RG8s are created equal either, the first one I had was really bad, with little to no neck relief, and would not budge with the truss rod. The second one was much better, but still would not budge on the truss rod. Lucky for me the one I have now is just right, but still has buzz at F# on a .74, but I have adjusted and don't smack the 8th like I used to.....most of the time.

The Iron Label S8 I had was no better, so don't count on the "mid" range to beat out the RG8 in the neck dept. anyway.

Jacksons are the only ones I have played that are better for under $700, and they are 26.5".

 

[peeps74]

Thanks for all the responses. I have noticed in the past that some strings just buzz more also. I'm wondering if the Kalium strings are better that way?

Also, if anyone can give me your 8th string height at 12 and 24, that would be helpful. I have pretty minor relief. Too much relief and I get buzzing toward the end of the bow. I try to keep Ibbys in particular pretty straight and raise the string height at the bridge. The relief is less than a business card width when pressing the first fret and the further down. But enough to see a slight gap and produce a click when I tap it.

Thanks again. I feel like the 8th string is pretty damn high and still pretty buzzy. The rest of the action on other strings feels pretty standard compared to my other guitars. String 7 can buzz a lot also.

 

[vick1000]

To set relief, you fret at the first and tenth (some people use the sixth) and as long as you can get some action between those spots, you have enough relief. If you get buzz when fretting above the tenth but not when open, you have either too much relief and not enough bridge height, or just not enough bridge height.

I don't use a feeler guage our anything, I just fret the first with my fret hand as normal, with the guitar in position just as you would play it, and fret the tenth with my pick hand thumb, then use my index finger of my pick hand to tap the sixth fret. If the string has action and I can hear a little sustain after the tap, I know I'm good.

Also when changing the neck relief, make a small adjusment, then let the guitar sit a while, say an hour or so, retune and check relief again. The change will continue to occur over a long period of time, depending on the neck wood and scale, etc...It could be 24 hours before it settles in.

 

[GunpointMetal]

As far as I can tell, 27" really isn't long enough to accommodate ANY 8-string tuning, and if you listen to a lot of stuff (especially clean stuff) in that register w/that scale (AAL, Josh Martin) if they don't approach that low string delicately you get audible buzz through the amp and in the recordings. The thing with string buzz, especially on electric, is that if its not being amplified and its not killing your sustain, its a non-issue. My Schecters both have 28" scales w/90 gauge low E strings (9.5-61 for the other 7) with about 1.2mm action on the high E and about 1.8-2 on the low E, and both have very audible buzz acoustically, but neither of them really put it out through the amp unless I play really aggressively. Every six-string I ever owned that I wanted set-up for fast play had acoustic buzzing, but it never really amplified.

^ I've been told by other set-up guys you should be fretting first fret/last fret on neck-through guitars and first fret/whever the neck meets the body on bolt-on guitars to check relief.

 

[Action]

I use medium action. 2mm on 1st string, ~3mm on 8th string, at 12th fret. I do not play lightning passages or lead, and I hate even acoustic buzz, so I specifically set my guitar up with the goal of no string buzz on any string on any fret unless picked quite hard. And I'm playing a $500 guitar that does not have perfectly level frets, or I'd venture to say that I could go a bit lower and remain buzz free. Only time I ever feel like my action is too high is when I see a picture of a guitar set up with ridiculously low shred action.

 

[Explorer]

I am lucky that all my instruments have a hardtail Hipshot bridge, and that hipshot has shorter bridge saddles available direct from them, allowing setting the intonation correctly for low tunings.

 

[Metalworker]

I like a higher action than most even on a 6 string. My low E (6 string) is set to 3mm at the 12th fret on all of my guitars.

On the RG8 that I just got I set it up with 9-80 strings. I have 3mm on the 6th string E 12th fret, 3.5mm on the 7th B 12th fret, and 4mm at the 8th E 12th fret. I'm really liking this setup. Very minimal buzz when picking moderately hard and fast.

Edit: sorry about necro, I was using the search to find where the majority set the action on their 8 strings.

 

[Hywel]

I'm at about 1.3mm high E, 2.5mm low F# @ 12 with 0.5mm of relief (0.02") @ 8 on a 26-27" fanned fret 8 with .011 to .080 strings. This seems to work well for me with a bit of buzz on the lower strings but nothing you can really hear though the amp. The high E is about as low as it will go but there is some room to lower the low F# depending on your level of buzz tolerance.

 

[DaemonAuriel]

As far as I can tell, 27" really isn't long enough to accommodate ANY 8-string tuning, and if you listen to a lot of stuff (especially clean stuff) in that register w/that scale (AAL, Josh Martin) if they don't approach that low string delicately you get audible buzz through the amp and in the recordings. The thing with string buzz, especially on electric, is that if its not being amplified and its not killing your sustain, its a non-issue. My Schecters both have 28" scales w/90 gauge low E strings (9.5-61 for the other 7) with about 1.2mm action on the high E and about 1.8-2 on the low E, and both have very audible buzz acoustically, but neither of them really put it out through the amp unless I play really aggressively. Every six-string I ever owned that I wanted set-up for fast play had acoustic buzzing, but it never really amplified.

^ I've been told by other set-up guys you should be fretting first fret/last fret on neck-through guitars and first fret/whever the neck meets the body on bolt-on guitars to check relief.

^you make a very good point with scale length; before getting my blackjack Atx 8, I took a good look at what other people talked about with intonation and found most ERG's with a shorter scale length(i.e., 25.5"-26 or 27") simply doesn't hold intonation well on the lower end. I guess this is to be expected as the ERG market is fairly new and luthiers have quite a bit leeway and no set ground rules for scale length. Or, this is just imagined in my mind?

I am curious though, I haven't heard of anyone using a .90 gauge as a low drop e string for the 8th. I use a .10-.80 since it sits better with my 28" scale length on my blackjack 8 and allows for decent tension with minimal buzz. Soo, what is your reasoning for .90 gauge? You doing some bass slappage? I also am surprised you get no buzz with such a low action- i have my low 8th e at 1.7 or 1.8mm, about the same as yours and I would think that with a thicker gauge, you'd need a little bit more height. So it's good to know that can be pulled off! Also, where are you getting your .90's? Are you buying them as singles?

>>I made a profile just so I could ask you about this!<<

 

[Deadnightshade]

On a side note, is there a concensus about respecting the fretboard radius on an 8 string?

Some thoughts:

1) The common multi-sided radius gauges introduce even more error when placed over the strings due to the string width.

2) The commercially available understring gauges aren't wide enough to accomodate all 8 strings. As a result, using a 6 string understring gauge to set up the height of all 8 strings becomes a wacky job.

3) Even when the string action throughout all 8 strings respects ideally the fretboard radius, the sheer number of strings and fretboard width make middle strings uncomfortable to play, especially when tapping in the higher fret region, if the 1st and 8th string action is standard medium to low.

How do you go about setting your string radius?