The 8 String "Leviathan"

John

Plus once you have the deposit down it gives you the incentive to save your money and get the bugger quicker.

Doctor J

Yeah it gives you two months to get the rest of it together

Karl Hungus

I still can't get the thoughts of the guitar out of my head! Christ it's gonna rule so much! And to hear it through a Mesa Boogie amp, oh my! Must try sharpish and get some money.

Nidge

Sorry i couldn't read all 25 pages. You are still going with the 8 string is it? Do you play in a band? Doc is right, playing that at a gig would be madness. Course anything you do in the lower register would sound different (actually just lower, same freakin notes all the same).

I'm just intrigued as to what possessed you to want an 8 string, aside from Feylure mentioning it to you. Do you genuinely feel limited by 6 strings? I feel almost like we are similar. In that i have more gear than i should have, for the time i am playing. Sometimes i wonder whether or not i am buying gear to compensate for my playing level, as if it will make me better. I just wonder whether buying an 8 string for 2500 is a heightened case of the same thing.I don't mean to be sounding negative, sure i have no idea how good a guitarist/musician you are.

Did you say you are gonna have to wait 6 months for it to be built and delivered? How will you live, judging by your current excitement, i'd say you'll **** yourself waiting for it. I, again am in the same ship as i am waiting for a guitar that will take max 12 weeks to be made and delivered. I can't wait for that, 6 months is incredible, i hope for your sake you get amnesia so you can relax for the next 6 months, and then get the biggest fecking surprise of your life!!! Good luck with it.

Karl Hungus

Well Nidge, I think I've settled for a 7 String at the moment, but the 8 String is definetly still on the cards. I'm not playing in a band right at this moment though, I've more ideas of recording some stuff at home, making a few demo CDs and the like. I'm also supposed going to be playing in a friend's band, and likely starting a Death tribute band, which should be great fun, but if I get together a band to play my own material live then all the better!

As for what possessed me, I suppose it's just the thoughts of what I could do with the extra range that got my imagination sparked, and I had enquired to a number of places before to see about the possibility of an 8 string, so it wasn't because Feylya mentioned it, moreso he mentioned it because he knew I was very intruiged.

I do indeed feel fairly limited by 6 strings, and even playing bass I always went for 5 and 6 strings over the 4 string variety. I own a 5 but I'm also very interested in getting a nice 6 string at some stage too, probably of the fretless variety. But as for the guitar, I think my need for the extra low end will be taken care of by the 7 for now.

I don't think I'm buying anything to compensate for my skill, as there's nothing for that besides learning more technique, and that's what John Petrucci's Rock Discipline DVD is for.

The 7 string I'm getting is going to be from the BC Rich custom shop, and it's going to be the Stealth model. There's some pics somewhere in this thread, if you want to try have a go at finding them.

6 months give or take I was told, but I heard a horror story from one fellow who's order took 15 months. So I'm pretty sure I will have gone mad by the time I get it, but that's a lot of time to practise! I'm sure I will be completely over the moon when it does arrive though, amnesia or not!

Doctor J

And there's a queue about yea long waiting for a go so back of the line for Nidge

John

*elbows his way forward*

and I was here first! (may not be true)

nesf

Excellent thread, very informative, and definitely very broad in it's range..

Zoton

Thought this might be of some use to you Karl. Its a part of an interview with adam jones about how he manages to get his tone. Thought you might be able to apply it to the 8 string conundrum.

Do you layer guitar parts to get such a huge sound?

Not very much. There are a couple of songs on the album where I overdubbed a few layers, but for the most part, it's just one guitar. You see, I want to be able to pull off everything I do in the studio onstage. I usually do one pass routed through different amps, or two passes where I'm playing the exact same notes to make a part more powerful.

I plug into three amps at the same time -- even when I play live. For what I want, I don't think one amp would do the trick. One amp is for a solid-state sound, one for more of a non-master-volume tone, and the third fills in the bottom with a cardboard crunch. If you used the amps individually, you'd find that one doesn't have much low end, and one doesn't have enough high end. But they're really good together because you're getting three different things at once, and you can hear all of that in the sound. That's why it sounds so big.

What kinds of amps are they?

I use a modified non-master-volume Marshall bass head and a Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier, which I swapped out with a Sunn Beta Lead for the recording. But my favorite amp is a Diezel, which is a four-channel tube amp from Germany. It's awesome.

You could amybe adapt this setup someway (2 amps instead of 3 or something, although that'd be very awkward for gigs)

Also here's a rough guide to his setup from guitargeek
http://guitargeek.com/rigview/593/

Nidge

Haha nah i don't think it'll be trying it out, interesting, but i have never been interested by 7 so 8 won't be any different. The chord shpares will be all out of whack, but as long as you approach as a different instrument that's grand. I personally would be worried that i'd end up playing the exact same things only saying, "i wonder what this sounds like an octave down?" Tell us how it goes i can't wait to see your reaction. That 15 months thing sounds scandalous, he must have really wanted it, i'd have the order well cancelled...

LGM Guitars

Just out of interest, there are 3 8 strings in the works right now, one of which is a 25.5" scale with a High A instead of a Low F#, I'll be sure to post pics of them as they progress for you if you're interested.
Jeremy

feylya

Oooh, please do

Doctor J

Meshuggah's 8 string



Seemingly this is tuned F, Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Bb and Eb

but the guy generally makes 8 strings tuned A, D, G, C, F, Bb, D and G

http://www.nevbornguitars.com/

feylya

Ya know, I wouldn't mind trying my hand at making an 8 string, just to annoy Karl...

Karl Hungus

feylya wrote:

Ya know, I wouldn't mind trying my hand at making an 8 string, just to annoy Karl...

Yeah, because making it because you'd want to play it just isn't cricket. :rolleyes:

Doctor J

Fey, you haven't made a feckin ukelele yet let alone a 6 string guitar

Ancient1

you haven't made a feckin ukelele yet

lol, that's some funny sh1t...

Man, that 8-string is a veritable MONSTER :eek:

feylya

8 string ukelele.... Yes.

Nidge

That is not a guitar. That is....a monstrosity, only joking i'd love to try it out. It's really very basic, nothing one could called aesthetic at all. A roughly carved piece of wood, with A pickup, a good few strings and then your frets headstock and bridge. I wonder what it plays like, i dunno the background to the guitar, but it almost looks like he built it himself.

david

Why do they have 5 POD XT's?! 4 XTpro rackmounts and on one XT regular underneath!

feylya

Two guitarists, one main POD each, one back up each and the Pod XT for other sounds...???

Karl Hungus

Apparently said guitar plays like ****, they've swiftly gone on to Ibanez who built new 8 strings for them. Supposedly the Nevborn was almost impossible to keep in tune. :eek:

Hardly encouraging, but the Nevborns are quite easily some of the ugliest guitars in creation.

John

Is everyone ok, there hasn't been a post here in two weeks!

feylya

I think Karl is off selling his body on the streets of Galway to afford his 7 string Stealth.

John

Once everyone is accounted for. Now where's DocJ gone off to. I've some money to give him.

feylya

Ah, Doc's around. He's been terrorising young folk recently. In fact, I do believe he is shaking his head at their carry on at a Megadeth gig.

Ancient1

feylya wrote:

I do believe he is shaking his head at their carry on at a Megadeth gig.

He is indeed

Just got back from that one.....whoaaa is all i can say.
Should have seen Mustaine's DV-8, drooool....

(have work in the morning, will post report then )

feylya

Bastard <_<

Karl Hungus

feylya wrote:

I think Karl is off selling his body on the streets of Galway to afford his 7 string Stealth.

This is true. I'm living on a diet of rice crispies, koka noodles and whatever wanders into my sandpit.

If anyone's curious, here are the final details on the stealth:

Stealth 7 string
Solid black colour
Neck-through Maple
Mahogany Body
Ebony fretboard with no inlays (Side markers only)
Reversed pointed headstock
Locking Tuners
Metal pickup rings (Black)
Pull/Push Pots with Coil tapping
DiMarzio Blaze pickups
Fixed bridge
Chrome hardware

Nice, eh?
Go ahead and say it's great if you want to!

And I think once I get it, I'll get myself a customized truss rod cover with my signiature on it. Swish, eh?

Doctor J

All apart from the gay truss rod cover