Anyone play an 8-stringer?

[ARGH]

I feel its a little evil to have Bagpuss prop up such a weight!

[BigRedX]

Lorne - what's the scale length on BCR 8-stingers? They look shorter that than the others. - 30"?

[Lorne]

[quote name='BigRedX' post='44023' date='Aug 10 2007, 10:39 PM']Lorne - what's the scale length on BCR 8-stingers? They look shorter that than the others. - 30"?[/quote]

All Bich basses were 30.5" scale length,as per Neal Moser's design-however there were approx 4x 34" scale 4 string versions made-Neal has one of them

Edited August 10, 2007 by Lorne

[Lorne]

[quote name='ARGH' post='43997' date='Aug 10 2007, 09:27 PM']I feel its a little evil to have Bagpuss prop up such a weight! [/quote]

As this guy was one of the previous users of this bass



SOD Bagpuss

BTW,my friend owns this



1 of only 7 ever made

[bnt]

[quote name='RichBowman' post='42914' date='Aug 8 2007, 03:09 PM']I'm intrigued - does anyone know if you can get a 10-stringer (as in low ? I'd love to have a go at that.[/quote]
I know Michael Manring got Zon to make one for him... but here's one made in the UK by Manson:
[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGHWxLruLvA"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGHWxLruLvA[/url]

As for the 8-string, try the following video: [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuRuVT6QElw"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuRuVT6QElw[/url]
The sound quality is not that good, and the singer is ... unique ... but it takes more than that to get in the way of that 8-string.

Edited August 12, 2007 by bnt

[Scoop]

[quote name='RichBowman' post='42914' date='Aug 8 2007, 03:09 PM']He's a legend.

I'm intrigued - does anyone know if you can get a 10-stringer (as in low ? I'd love to have a go at that.

Ooooh - and while I'm here, has anyone tried playing a 8 or what not finger style? I'm guessing that you might have to reverse the courses of the strings (eg, thick string on top, octave below)?

Rich[/quote]

The only 10 string manufacturers that I know of, although there are bound to be others, are Godlyke & Dean. From what I can gather Godlyke are a USA brandname for the Japanese company which makes Bacchus handmade guitars. A google search will provide all the details you want and I can happily verify that Bacchus are cracking basses. And then there's Dean who make a 10 string version of, erm, the Edge (I think) - the bass certainly exists I'm just not sure of the model name.

I own a Dean Rhapsody 12 and, while it can be played fingerstyle (with care), there's no doubt that you get the best tone out of these things using a pick and playing mainly (though not exclusively) with downstrokes.

Two things which you can do with a 12 which make all the hassle of adjusting you playing style and building up your left hand strength worth all the effort are:

1. Ultra rapid octave and fundamental playing by using a pick on the upstroke on the outer octave string, skipping the inner octave and then catching the fundamental on the downstroke. Do that as a really fast alternate picking style and you can get utterly stunning effects.

2. Tune the D and G courses to fundamental, fifth and octave instead of fundamental and unison octaves. You can't do this with the E and A courses as the neck really can't cope with the string tension. Using a signal splitter and go to both a bass amp and a guitar amp with a swell pedal in the guitar amp's chain. If you play in a three piece, in particular, this is really usefull. When your twiddler goes into another of his interminable solos, you move your bass riff onto the D and G courses and bring in the guitar amp using the swell pedal. You instantly have the effect of a bass PLUS a guitar playing powerchord fifths as rhythmn guitar. It works brilliantly and really fills out the sound of a power trio when the guitarist is on solo mode.

I've got to admit that the novelty of my 12 string wore off after a while (and I only bought it because, yes, Jeremy was in the set of my rock covers band and we wanted to do some King's X too tho never got around to it before the band split). I'm glad I have one, glad I've used it and gigged it, but I'm not sure I'd buy another if this got light fingered away.

Scoop

Edited August 13, 2007 by Scoop

[jacko]

[quote name='Scoop' post='44673' date='Aug 13 2007, 02:46 AM']The only 10 string manufacturers that I know of, although there are bound to be others, are Godlyke & Dean. ......

Scoop[/quote]

Alembic will make anything you ask for. Here's a ten string they've just finished..

[url="http://alembic.com/club/messages/631/21834.html?1182300784"]http://alembic.com/club/messages/631/21834.html?1182300784[/url]

They're also busy with a 12 string for someone else...

[url="http://alembic.com/club/messages/631/14858.html?1181154908"]http://alembic.com/club/messages/631/14858.html?1181154908[/url]

John paul Jones played an Alembic 8 string on Achilles last stand.

Edited August 14, 2007 by jacko

[Metal-Mariachi]

I have been wanting an 8 and 12 string for a long time.
Played a used Alembic 8 that was just phenomenal.
The Sales person pointed out a switch that “doesn’t do any thing” and said “the tone knob does something different I think”.
Well the switch was for lighted side markers, and the tone knob when rolled all the way back created a Univibe type sound. I fell in love with it.

Un fortunately I couldn’t afford it at the time and it got sold. Now I probably won’t be happy until I come across another like it or that same one eventually gets traded in.
Keeping my fingers crossed.

MM

[SJA]

Chris Squire sometimes uses a Ranney custom 8 string - he uses 5ths tuning for the high strings on the E and A and octaves for the D and G (or the other way round- can't remember!) eg. on "changes".

[Lorne]

[quote name='Scoop' post='44673' date='Aug 13 2007, 02:46 AM']The only 10 string manufacturers that I know of, although there are bound to be others, are Godlyke & Dean. From what I can gather Godlyke are a USA brandname for the Japanese company which makes Bacchus handmade guitars

Scoop[/quote]


I know the owner of Godlyke guitars in America-he is mainly a seller of vintage pedals,the basses are just another branch of his company