All About Eight-String Guitars

Fancy eight-string guitars give the most intense sound texture. Electric, acoustic and other 8-string guitars have unique tones in the low registers, they are made for Heavy Metal. This article will show you how to select these models and how to play them.

The eight-string guitar is a hard rock instrument. Additional strings significantly expand the range of the sound to the lower side - just what you need for Jazz, Heavy Metal and other brutal music.

Therefore, the tuning of such a guitar is different. In the classical it looks like this: "mi", "si", "sol", "re", "la", "mi". And in the 8-string, the notes "F sharp" and "B" are added in the lower register. Usually, the notes are arranged in this row: F #, B, E, A, D, G, B, E ("F sharp", "B", "E", "A", "D", "G", "B "," Mi ").

Compared to conventional 6-string guitars, these guitars have a number of features.

• Pickups should be more powerful - the number of strings and octaves has increased. A humbucker, a high frequency pickup, is often used.
• Neck width increased - it is 54-55 mm.
• Length of the sounding part of the strings - scale - is 26-29 inches (660-749 mm). This stabilizes the tuning, which tends to go into the bass zone due to the extra string. Often these guitars are multi-edged - this is how the low strings are pulled tighter. In this case, the frets are located diagonally.

Guitars with 8 strings first appeared in the 19th century with the musicians Luigi Legnani and Giulio Regondi. In XX they played classical music and jazz. True, they were considered unusual tools and were rarely used.

In 1980-1990 such guitars met in the groups Meshuggah (Sweden), Emperor (Norway), Fear Factory (USA) and others. They were also played by classical guitarists - Alexander Vinograd (Ukraine), Livio Gianola (Italy), Paul Galbraith (Scotland) and some others.

Finally, in 2007, the group "Meshuggah" from Sweden drew attention to the instrument. The musicians were looking for something special to create heavy riffs. Found - they still actively use this 8-string instrument. Moreover, the popularity of this group led to the creation of the Ibanez RG2228 series of electric guitars.

There are many guitars made by manufacturers that differ in both sound and price. We will talk about the most attractive of them (in our subjective opinion).

• Electro-acoustic guitar Baton Rouge AR11C / ACE-8. The neck material is mahogany and the soundboard is made of solid Canadian cedar. Pickups - Baton Rouge BR-2P from Shadow, 20 frets. Designed for right-handers. It costs about 30,000 rubles.

• Acoustic Alvarez ABT60CE-8BK. It is made of Sitka spruce. Pre-amplification system - L. R. Baggs, equalizer - Stage Pro, pickup - LR Baggs StagePro (with tuner). Its cost is about 50,000 rubles.

• Schecter Damien Elite Electric Guitar 8. The body is mahogany and the neck is maple with rosewood fingerboards. Pickup scheme - H-H from EMG, there are volume and tone controls. The number of frets is 24, and their size is X-Jumbo. It is valued higher - about 55,000 rubles.

• Bass Guitar Schecter Stiletto Studio-8 STBLS. It is made of fire maple and has a multi-layered walnut neck with rosewood fingerboard. It uses 24 X-Jumbo frets and a 34-inch (863 mm) scale. There are volume and mix controls, as well as a 3-band EMG equalizer. Its cost is approximately 65,000 rubles.

• Electric Guitar ESP HRF NT8B BK. The body is made of alder and the neck is made of 3 pieces of maple. Seymour Duncan AHB-1-8 Phase 2 Blackouts Pickup Kit installed. There are volume and tone controls. Its price is about 160,000 rubles.

Of course, there are many more guitars that haven't made it to our list. But this does not mean that they are bad.

The easiest way to do this is when buying from a store. But if you are a beginner, then choosing the right guitar will be difficult. It is better to seek help from a specialist. The best option is a guitar teacher.

But if you came alone - do not be upset. Most problems can be detected by taking a close look at the product. Especially the budget one - in it the build quality and settings affect the sound more than the case material.

• The bar must be straight. To test this, take your guitar like a gun and inspect its side line. If it is straight, everything is fine.
• Cracks and scratches are not allowed. There should be no swelling of the varnish and non-glued joints of the case either. The product must be properly painted and polished.
• Twist the tuning pegs - they should rotate smoothly and quietly.
• Make sure the strings do not protrude beyond the plane of the fretboard. Especially the extreme ones.
• All strings should sound approximately the same amount of time.
• For smartphones, there are special programs that check the sound of each string. It is advisable to use them. Here they may say - you need to configure, and everything will be fine. Perhaps, but it is better that the guitar was initially tuned.

Online shopping is a little more complicated. Here you have to rely on the honesty of the seller. However, if he has a high rating and a lot of orders, there is nothing to worry about.

Remove the guitar from all sides in one take. Particular attention is paid to the joints and edges, they are the ones that suffer most often.

Try not to save money, especially if you are a professional musician. A good sounding guitar has to be expensive.But if you are just starting your career as a musician, then buying a status instrument is not worth it. At first you won't see the difference, but you will feel the difference in price right away (50,000 or 160,000). It's a pity to use an expensive tool for learning, but conquering the musical Everest is our next goal.

The 8-string guitar is more difficult to learn than the 6- and 7-string. Therefore, first it is better to learn to play the "classical", and then move to 8 strings. But you will have to change the style of thinking, since the bottom string is now not "E", but "F sharp".

Do specific exercises.

• Learn to hold your guitar in a new way. The thumb should be at the bottom of the neck to reach the extreme string.
• Master all the notes clearly. It’s easier to remember if you play “E” on different frets and strings in turn. After that, you can move on to other notes.

Then you can start rehearsing. The goal is to learn the Djent (hitting the strings) technique. For solo performance, master Tapping (lightly hitting the strings on the fretboard between frets). After that, you can move on to the chords in the F sharp minor scale.