reunited with my 8-string!

[maxschrek]

Hey, so long as it's stable, thin is good! Fantastic bass by the way

[hieronymous]

Finally some new pictures of the eight.







I enjoyed working with the reflections to try and be as unobtrusive as possible - not easy, but rewarding!

And I don't usually have that many effects - two are superfluous, the Hematoma is being replaced by the Fulltone Bass Drive, and the TC Flashback by the Space Echo pedal. Have a couple of performances tomorrow - very short but going for both the sound and the image of the black 8-string...

[uwe]

The 5-string is slightly wider and breath thicker ... You have to squint your eyes to see it though.

[hieronymous]

The 5-string is slightly wider and breath thicker ... You have to squint your eyes to see it though.

I've never actually played a 5-string Ric - saw one once back in 2002 at Mr. Music in Allston, Massachusetts.

Today was a beautiful day so I made the most of the 8-string's reflective qualities:

[Granny Gremlin]

drool. 

I hate how much I love the look of these things - not only are they expensive but the necks just don't work for me so I can never let myself buy one despite the sex appeal.  Incidentally, I like the root on top (the first 8 string I ever played was that way, as were most of the 12 string geetars I've played so it's just the way I'm used to it.... every other 8 I've ever encountered was octave on top and it always weirds me out), but your reasons make total sense (especially the fingerstyle root only thing - Ima try that next time I come across one.

[Highlander]

+1 on reflective...

[Happy Face]

Wow! What a great thread, featuring two of my fav online bass buddies.

That bass sure does look righteous! I once bid on one pretty aggressively, but I was sorta glad I lost since I'm not sure I have the hand strength to handle one. You guys are in a league well above mine!

[hieronymous]

I definitely love the look of the 4003S/8 - I love the 4001/4003 in general, an 8-string version is just icing on the cake, it can be cool in an 8-string way, or like a 4003 on steroids. Definitely takes some effort to play - I'm toying with the idea of tuning it down (after listening to King's X on the way home from a meeting) - I definitely really need to sit down with it, change the strings, then consider if it needs any adjustment. Maybe try the down-tuning before changing the strings, just to see what happens...

[chromium]

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.