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Searching for an 8 string


fezzza
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After a newfound obsession for King's X and numerous relistens to Precence and Vs ( Pearl Jam ) i've developed insane GAS for a 8 string, some basic research yeilded choices spanning from Hagstrom ( short scale is a massive turn off ) and a few other brands i'm not otherwise keen on ( Esp, shecter, etc ). Warmoth seem to sell 8 string necks so would it be feasible to possibly attempt a build and stick one of these onto a loaded body adding in the necessary bridge? if so how would I be able to gage to compatibility of the parts? or would it be more cost-efficient and rewarding to wait to find something I like? Spector 8 strings look fantastic but I've yet to find any stockists and I'm not keen on importing from the states...

Cheers!

Edited by fezzza
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There's a Dean 8 string Rhapsody on one of the Facebook selling pages recently, it's the one where Col (Buzzardist) of these parts is an admin - The Great UK Bass Guitar Gear Exchange.

The guy is after £500 for it, but the last sale fell through so he's probably open to negotiation.

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Having played most of the budget 8-string models, if you are going for a Dean get the more expensive (Rhapsody?) of the two 8-string bases that they make. It's streets ahead of the cheaper (Edge?) model.

However I thought the Schecter Stiletto 8-string was better than both of the Dean models.

IMO best value if you can find it is the Carlo Robelli 8-string. Made for one of the big US music store chains, they have a single MM style pickup and exactly the same hardware as the Dean and Schecter models at a considerably cheaper price tag than any of them. Only down side is the body shape which is somewhat prone to neck dive and the fact that the sparkle silver finish won't appeal to everyone.

However the very best 8-string basses are probably made by Tune in Japan. They do come up form time to time on the Ishibashi Ubox, but by the time you've added shipping to the UK and import costs you'll be way over your £500 budget.

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Two things to watch for with some of the older 8-string basses.

1. A lot of them are short (30") scale. In particular models from Kramer, BC Rich and Hagstrom

2. Some don't have individual intonation adjustments for each string in the pair. Some people claim that this doesn't matter, but IME if you are going to play above the 7th fret, then you need to be able to adjust the intonation of each string separately otherwise that lovely chorusing sound starts to become unpleasantly discordant!

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[quote name='Graham' timestamp='1397726279' post='2426763']
There's a Dean 8 string Rhapsody on one of the Facebook selling pages recently, it's the one where Col (Buzzardist) of these parts is an admin - The Great UK Bass Guitar Gear Exchange.

The guy is after £500 for it, but the last sale fell through so he's probably open to negotiation.
[/quote]

I'd say £500 is rather ambitious, but they're great basses.

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