How do you guys use 8 string, and bass guitar?

[dudeskin]

Hi all, im slowly getting more of the 8th string into my music.
i was just wondering how you guys write with bass?

my bassist had a 5 string and is tuned standard, but i use the Tosin tuning with the low E.

is it right to think that my low E is the same as his normal E?

cheers

Joe

 

[Qersty]

Yes the low E-strings is the same. You could do like Meshuggah and play the 8 string parts in the same octave, or you could get your bassist some heavy strings and tune to the sludgy E0. Warwick Black Label Dark Lord Set - Thomann Sverige plus a D-string should do it, i don't have any experience with warwick strings but they were the heaviest i found.

 

[Captain Shoggoth]

My band's transitioning to 8-string guitars and 5-string basses, we're thinking of having guitars in Drop E and the bass in Drop A, so for most of the range the bass still has the potential to play a full octave lower than the guitar, and for the very lowest range we can experiment with unison, fourths (ie. lowest E on guitar with low B on bass played underneath), or the bass being above the guitars.

May or may not work but I've never seen/heard it done before, and I'm eager to try it out.

 

[dudeskin]

Sorry about double post threads. Stupid phone.

Cheers guys, i know it worked we'll last practice. Just in that track atleast. I guess ill think of it as he has an extra low string too.haha.

 

[jephjacques]

If your tones match well the bass will still take up frequencies not used by the guitars, which will fatten up your tone significantly. This is basically the key to Meshuggah's sound.

 

[Halowords]

If your tones match well the bass will still take up frequencies not used by the guitars, which will fatten up your tone significantly. This is basically the key to Meshuggah's sound.

Isn't that sort of the key? I am just kind of presuming here, but with a guitar amp/cabinet and the pickups, you should be brighter and less, well, bassy than your bass guitar. Am I wrong in that train of thought? I know on the Myka below, the pickups are split, and sure the two bottom strings are thicker however they have bass-wound pickups and the sound is dramatically different as a result. There are clips of it somewhere I can try to dig up.

And the pickups are easier to see below. They're 6/2 split, so not set up like a typical eight-string and more like a true six-string with two bass strings thrown on with a two-string bass pickup.

2011 Greg Hurley Custom Scorpion

Anyway, the sound difference was dramatic enough (not subtle at all) to sort of demonstrate how radically different the bass pickup part was than the more standard guitar pickup section. It seemed pretty apparent.

-Cheers

 

[lucasreis]

I find the unison approach interesting.

I don't have a band currently, but I would probably have a 5 string bass tuned to B standard or drop A and I would tell the bass player to use those low notes whenever I use their higher counterparts and use the F# and E (if tuned to drop E) in unison, because it sounds good if EQ'd in a good way. I think the Mnemic approach in interesting as well, but the bass sound really low, in F# makes me tired after listening too much to it. It does sound good, but sometimes it lacks clarity, it sounds heavy as .... though

 

[FrancescoFiligoi]

5 string bass tuned to B standard, goes one octave lower when we play riffs on the 7th string, goes same octave when we play stuff on the 8th string.
It balances nicely since 7 string stuff sounds bigger to match the 8 string stuff.

 

[patata]

Drop F
When we get our shit sorted,we're gonna get a 4 string with slightly shorter scale to tune to drop F.

 

[Rev2010]

Heh, I wish I had a dollar for every time this question is asked around here

Certainly a valid question though no doubt. I think unison is the best for something as low as E.


Rev.

 

[smethubd]

Musically, I would say that separating parts into points of interest is key. If the bass is playing something worth hearing then bring out the interesting line and try not to be too concerned about how things are tuned, and same thing with guitar. As for the chug, unison most likely because too fast and too scattered doesn't turn out the best musically all the time if both instruments are super low. I consider the low tuning just to be more options when I play 8's.

 

[jimwratt]

You could always use the low strings to comp for the bass player while he or she takes a solo.

I would think you'd use it like the left hand on a piano. It holds down the low end, but it's not playing the bass line per se.

 

[Wings of Obsidian]

There are like 20 current threads asking this same damn question in the "Bass" section on the forums here. -.-'

 

[dudeskin]

and...

 

[Veldar]

You'd need a powerful rig to drop tune that much without it sounding like a fart.

 

[Halowords]

Video here:
Scorpion_guitar_demo1 on Vimeo

Of the Myka guitar I mentioned before in the new guitar day thread here:
http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/lu...66176-myka-strikes-again-custom-8-string.html

Anyway, the clip sort of shows how the six-string part of the pickups (it's split 6/2) sounds pretty dramatically different than the bass pickups. The difference seems pretty apparent when listening. I am just guessing you could use the different voicing of an 8-string guitar's pickups and some judicious playing (holding the low note when your bass player solos or whatnot) so you are not stepping on your bass player's toes, but just filling in the higher frequencies their range does not extend to.

-Cheers

 

[Ben.Last]

I've actually decided to get a bit creative with my approach to this. I'm doing bass guitar in unison, and then a moog vst an octave below, mirroring that. Given, I'm doing industrial, so the electronics don't seem out of place, which wouldn't work for everyone. But I'm liking the effect I'm getting so far.

 

[Dayn]

I just tune my bass down to drop E. Makes it simple, and I love the range.

It depends on what you write. Some things sound good in unison, others sound better with the bass dropped an octave below the guitar. I use both approaches in one of my songs. The unison part thumps you in a small thematic part, then the octave part provides a crushing groove afterwards.

 

[studmiester7]

My bass player uses a standard 4-string, and keeps the E at standard tuning, with the A,D,& G strings tuned up a whole step to match the octaves on the 8-strings. The bass may be in the same octave, but there is still plenty of low-end bass thud, that our songs sound super brutal, but super clean. I've heard/seen some bass players put on uber thick strings, and drop to a super low drop E...but IMO they tend to sound dull, muddy, unclear, and you can hear the string slink in the tone. No bueno

 

[redkombat]

8 string is EADGCFAD 5 string is ADGCF with a capo on the 4 high strings to put it in drop a for the 8 string stuff and capo off for the 7 string stuff. on some songs using an octave pedal on the bass as well