Why did you get an 8+ string?

[UV7BK4LIFE]

I tried to like playing bass. It didn't work. I sold the bass, saw an RGA8 for a good price, snagged it.

 

[tm20]

And have you succeded ?

not yet slowly learning yippy kay yay motherfucker, but uni is occupying me (and also cant be fucked most of the time XD) my dream is to play it at the campus band comp next semester

 

[canuck brian]

Mostly because I wanted a guitar to play every song i needed to on. I had the low F for Meshuggah, the Bb for all the Nevermore covers.

The one i built for myself recently was just because i wanted a 30 inch scale 8 string....cuz why not?

There's so many options out there now - play what you want and what you like.

 

[oniduder]

my penis is very, well not big,

and i grew up listening to meshuggah

isn't that everyone's answer?

 

[muffinbutton]

Don't have one yet, but this site, and seeing these guys live.

 

[Wyvern Claw]

My first "real" guitar was a 7 string, got it one year after I first started playing on a 6, and the thought of having the extra string to worry about never once felt daunting to me like it (surprisingly to me) does to a lot of people I know. In fact, I had only first heard about 7 string guitars existing at all just a few weeks before I found my first 7 in a pawn shop, so I thought I just had to get it because having more range, even when I was at that age/skill level, just seemed better to me, because I automatically assumed having more strings and thus more range obviously made it a more useful instrument. Not entirely true, as I now know, but that was my logic back then.

So my one and only guitar for the next 5 years or so was that LTD 7 string, so spending about 80% of my total time ever playing a guitar on a 7 made the thought of adjusting to a 6, another 7 or an 8 a complete non-issue for me. However, the first time I saw an 8 string, I actually laughed, thinking it was one of the most pointless things I've ever seen, thinking that going much lowing than a low A would just be ridiculous. Somehow though, even though I never listened to any music whatsoever that used an 8 string, I got more used to the idea, and then even though I had never even so much as picked up an 8 string guitar, I decided to get one just to experiment with and see what kind of music of my own I could create with it, so I ordered a DC800. I'm glad I did too, because as I suspected, the time it took me to get used to was about the same as it took me to get used to a 7 string, and because I bought this guitar, I was asked to join a band because the other guitarist also had an 8 and they needed another. And being that I never was able to form a band of my own, it's great to finally be able to get out and seriously play stuff with other musicians.

 

[Rational Gaze]

I got an RG 7231 because of Korn in 2002. I wanted that low sound. Long story short, I heard Meshuggah's Nothing a year later. And I heard they recorded it with extremely low tuned 7s. So I bored out the low B nut, and threw an 80 in there, and played extremely shitty Meshuggah rip off riffs for awhile until LTD and Ibanez announced they'll make production 8 strings.

Got an FM 408, which was kind of a piece because of the low scale. Then I bought an Agile Intrepid 828. Currently, I am waiting for my first DC 800.

I enjoy the 8 strings because of the ridiculous range of song writing possibilities. In my band, I use a drop E tuning, and we have found a nice balance of using the lowest string for accentuation, and not emphasis, which was a struggle for awhile. Mainly because it's there and you just want to BWUAAAAAAUUUUMMMMM all fucking day long.

And here we are.

 

[Fred the Shred]

To me, it was just a consequence of composition, really. I was writing stuff that I saw working better incorporating an extra string, both for tonal and chordal range motives.

 

[Rational Gaze]

It's still amusing to me when I see my "virtuoso" buddy pick up an eighter. I'm a shit guitarist. I know NOTHING about scales or theory. But my buddy Garret operates on that level. However, the minute he holds an 8 string, there is zero comprehension. He does not understand the instrument. He cannot play it. I'd figure it would be generally simple for a person of his aptitude to just pick it up and figure it out in minutes. Transpose his scales down two strings. But no such thing. I think it's the only time where I actually feel like I'm better at something concerning guitars than he is!

 

[ben_hurt]

I played a double-neck bass/guitar for a while in a project that never saw the light of day, but that thing was so heavy it started to hurt my back. I had already been listening to Meshuggah and AAL when I started a new band... seemed like an obvious choice. I can double bass lines and go high for normal guitar sounds. Fun stuff.

 

[Danukenator]

Because it seemed cool. I always though "different" guitar features were fun to try. I scalloped a guitar once just to try it out. "Vanilla" is fine but I prefer to experiment.

 

[Rook]

Just adding to my hipster fantasy, I went into a shop yesterday, and asked if they sold Cobalt strings. 'nah you don't want anything like that, all bright and nasty, if you want something a little different try these *picks up random brand* they have a little more steel in the alloy and are brighter" etc, he goes on.
"I was looking specifically for the 7 string set so those won't be much good"

*pause*

"Oh we don't do anything like that" *screws up face*

I lol'd, I really wanted to tell him I had an 8 as well but didn't get the chance.

/hipster

 

[sage]

deftones and AAL. I had read an interview with Stef Carpenter where he stated remorse for not getting on the 7 string bus when it first left the station, so as soon as an 8 from ESP was a possibility, he wanted one right away so he was at the forefront of a new era in guitars. It made sense to me. I had only dabbled in 7's up until that point and had never owned one. I'd been tuning my guitars down to drop B for years. It just made sense to go for that extended range. I bought an RGA8. It was a piece of crap. Brutal fret job, neck needed shimming, it never should have left the factory. I paid $250 to have it fixed. It worked really well after that. I sold it and bought an Agile 82527. It was an excellent guitar, but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't put a band together that could utilize the range. So I traded it for a PRS Torero and I'm back to rocking 6's. I will pick up another 8 at some point, but I'll probably do what it seems like 90% of SSO members do, play it by myself to programmed drums as some sort of creative outlet solo thing. For now, though, I'm still needing that live outlet.

 

[Rap Hat]

I was way into sludge and doom, had been listening to a lot of Moss, and wanted to create something that slow and heavy, but lower. I had a 7-string and some baritone 6's, but it wasn't enough. At first I used a 6-string bass with some G based tuning, but I couldn't quite nail some of the stuff I came up with thanks to the string spacing and scale. Decided to get an 8 as a compromise; I'd have to forego the sub-octave parts I'd used in a few songs and it wouldn't sound as thick, but I'd gain playability and a huge range of notes, and also cover 6 and 7 string music as well.

Of course upon getting the 8 I realized how comfortable and useful it was and never got around to finishing that specific project. I still mainly do sludge-influenced music with it, and ironically I'm starting up with the 6-string bass as guitar again.

 

[Jayy]

I got mine to experiment with things, it was a big idea on my mind since i got into AAL.
Also i skipped from 6 to 8, cause i wanted a 7 string originally so i figured ill play an 8 one day any way. i used mine like a 7 for a long time, when i tryed to play the 8th the tention on it was horrible cause it was a 25.5" scale. Recently just got an agile 830 , and it dose wonderful for me, i love it, it dose cleans and it also dose djent

 

[NoMod]

Because 7 wasn't enough...I kept wanted moar notes...

...oh and I had major GAS after watching Under One Sky video by Chimpspanner!

 

[facepalm66]

Used to play bass, but I find it to be more interesting to experiment and easier to create music with a guitar rather than bass.
I like my bass like I like my world of warcraft: supportive role with a 'Hey look, I can SOLO thing thang' attitude.

A really well rounded instrument.. Eh, perfection I say!

 

[Eden57]

Because the chicks dig a long, wide hunk of wood.

Really, it happened one day before heading up to Park City. At home I was watching Tosin introduce On Impulse on jamplay through youtube, and my friend suggested we watch more once we got to the hotel. We found the EMGtv vids of Babies and Solomon, and the amazon order for a Schecter ATX C8 was placed immediately.

Unfortunately, the guitar was nowhere near my liking initially - not because of any kind of adjustment issues (I'd never had anything more than a six prior to this), but because the knobs were too close to the pickups...which is a prime example of why impulse purchases suck dick. Another issue was that the lower horn was so ridiculously close to the fretboard, I could not physically play anything above 20 or so frets up.

So I sawed the motherfucker off.

I learned my lesson for sure, and since then I've been able to hone in on my criteria for a great guitar. Got a Strandberg on order now, and it's gonna be titties.

 

[Cool711]

For as long as I can remember, I've wanted an 8 String.

First custom order did not live up to expectations completely, and then Schecter production models came out.

Bought the Hellraiser, and recently bought the Blackjack.

No regrets thus far.
Always wanted a high A, and the first 7 I bought only gave me a low B. Eventually I got used to it, so the next logical step was 8.

Plus, moar.

 

[Slunk Dragon]

-AaL, Meshuggah, Chimp Spanner, and Periphery (I thought most of their songs on PII were on 8s, only to find out later most were just detuned 7s)
-Moar notage
-More interesting chords and lines
-8 strings look damn sick next to 6 strings.
-This damn website shot my GAS for an 8 through the furthest reaches of the atmosphere.


Sadly I still have too much damn fun chugging away on the F# like I'm going to be the next Meshuggah. (I only own one 6 and one 8, plus a 5 string bass atm)