I was sorta glad I lost since I'm not sure I have the hand strength to handle one.
I have trouble specifically with that as a side effect of carpal tunnel surgery, but in my experience if the bass is setup well it doesn't really take much strength to fret the string pairs beyond what a 4 string would require. I have my coursed strings all setup pretty much like my 4s (similar neck relief and action), and I do fine on them during extended play 4+ hours.
Just sayin' that there may be hope, and if it is a struggle to play one then a good setup might just be in order.
Sparked from some advice from Carlo, I started experimenting with strings a bit on my Hamer B8S - making my own set of roots/octaves. After some trials and much patience, I landed on the following gauges - made up from a set of D'Addario EXL220M bass strings and EXL110BT balanced tension guitar strings:
E - .095
E - .046
A - .075
A - .034
D - .060
D - .025
G - .045
G - .017
(Edit: forgot to mention that I preferred and kept the heavier "G" root from a EXL-170S set. Mix and match!)
I was a little worried about the 95s being too floppy on a short scale, but so far I'm digging it! This thing flies now, and plays effortlessly. This mixed set strikes good balance between the uber heavy EXL-170-8 set and the extra light SIT packaged 8-string sets.