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I have a client who has requested an 8-string solidbody electric guitar which will be tuned very low... The bottom string will be the same E as the low E of a standard bass guitar. Does anyonthe here have experience with 8 strings and what type of wood combinations best compliment them? The genre is melodic death metal, this is for a friend of mine with whom I studied classical guitar at a conservatory, so articulation is very important.

Any thoughts/ideas. He's interested in mahogany perhaps with a maple cap... which is probably hard to go wrong with.

Sounds like a Bass 6 with two exrta strings, Hugh.

I'm planning a six string myself based loosely on the Fender version.

http://www.scribd.com/full/25284407?acc ... toh3l1t7d0

Idk if that'll help much but it's where I started in my planning.

The Fender body is Alder and the neck Maple. Mine will probably be Sapele body and Maple face and neck but I'm working a on bunch of wood combinations for regular guitars... I may change my mind about the bass 6 wood after that experiment.

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StuMusic

Sounds like scale length is a bigger concern. Are you going to use fanned frets, or try without? Maybe 30" to 27"ish?
(Sorry, this doesn't answer your question either, but I was curious about your plans scale-wise)

Scale length will be 26.5" and I have no plans for fanned frets at the moment. If by doing so I can magically produce an instrument of equal quality to Mr. Dingwall I would do it in a heartbeat Considering I plan to use a 4+4 tuner arrangement, scale length should pose no special challenges.

I have a ton of alder sitting around at the moment (left over blanks from a project I did for Fender last year). I'm sure mahogany could work, but Fender has never had any complaints about the tone of their basses. One idea my client liked a lot was using alder or mahogany with a boodwood cap (and possibly a quilted maple veneer stained blank on the top as a cool looking decoration. If I can score a good price on quilted maple I would consider capping the whole thing with it. However, I'm building this guitar as a favor, and will not be charging him for the work or wood... Athough he knows that even if his hardware bill reaches $500 hes coming out waaaay ahead. My hope is that with his endorsement and the need for high quality 8 string guitars in the metal scene, this move will drum up some business. I will post some of my concept art out of solidworks soon.

Zlurgh: as a fellow engineer it might be nice to bounce some ideas around with you. Since I'm running solidworks, I might even be interested in talking to you about some CNC work this project might require. Also, since you've been getting interested in pickups I have some concepts that might intrigue you. I've been planning to use a 8-string tune o matic bridge, but your design adapted to 8 strings would look fantastic. Send me a PM if you'd like to chat it up with me sometime... I have a lot of free time now that I'm between jobs and sitting out a pile of severance pay.

there are a lot of what if's left with this question. Tremolo? Neck wood? construction? string set(stainless, nickel, chrome)?
pickups? active or passive? 250k, 300k, 500k pots? Brass, steel, or aluminum bridge?

A lot of things go into the sound, response and attack of an instrument, and body wood is one of the least important factors. Alder is a good choice for average weight and average resonance. Neck and fretboard woods will help to determine attack and and tendancies for sound. Construction will also dictate how the instrument reacts especially for sustain and attack. Bolt on's tend toward less sustain and a more percussive attack, whereas neck throughs generally have better sustain and a quicker attack. Set necks fall between. Brass Bridges are generally darker sounding, Aluminum generally brighter, and steel somewhere in between. For this type of instrument, Nickel strings with steel cores would give you a darker sound while maintaining a higher tension, making the low E easier and clearer to play. A lot of things need to be addressed to get a better idea of where the sound will go.

Good luck with it

Put two truss rods in it.

Do you know what kind of bridge you're gonna use? If you're gonna have to use the single string bridges anyway, I'd go ahead and do fanned frets. It should balance the sound and feel of the strings better than just being flat.

And take pictures, plenty of them.

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I'm still collecting a lot of details myself for this build. I'm not certain of the string gauges involved, but the client has been very happy with the performance of a 26.5" scale and the bottom string tuned down the same as the low E on a bass! I might just throw together a test fixture, but it seems short.

You beat me to the punch regarding two truss rods... That just seems like the best way to guarantee that any potential to warp can be controlled. The neck will be laminated, largely because that's the way I build. Many of the decisions related to wood and construction methods have been deferred to my expertise and best judgement. People tend to throw out buzz words or construction styles that they've heard are the best, and have no idea why. My current plans are to go with a set or very deep set neck (extending back to the bridge.) It will be a fixed bridge, the specifics beyond this are unknown at the moment because I'm trying to find the best option. Active pickups are desired, and a couple of options have been discussed, his leaning seems to be in favor of EMG. I don't have a reliable supply chain in place for my custom circuit, which requires low-z pickups, matching transformers, and allows for independent adjustment of gain, Q, and resonant frequency... It's awesome... But also more flexible than he wants. Actually, the only control he wants is a single volume knob. I have oodles of really nice alder body blanks I had as leftovers from a project I did for Fender last year.

The tricky part for wood selection right now will be on the top as well as some facets along the side. He likes quilted maple a lot, and when the color red came up he loved bloodwood... Being in a metal band, he even loved the name. Unless these are done in a decorative manner, I see the tone going way too bright. At the same time I don't like veneers much. At the moment, I'm leaning towards perhaps a 1/4" quilted lamination on the top, routing a section (almost like binding) to install the bloodwood facets. If I'm feeling really fancy, a bloodwood neck might put things further over the top... but I have such outstanding maple that I use it whenever I can.

There will be tons of pictures, because this is going to be an incredibly unique build.

Any thoughts on the bridge? I've found one source for 8 string tune-o-matics that were going for $120 including the stop bar (which I dont need.) A custom design isn't out of the question. It's easy enough for me to design the part in solidworks and can get machine time on a 5 axis CNC mill if need be... It's just not the cheapest route.

Hipshot has a string through hard tail. Stock order piece. If you have an account with them, you can get it cheaper than the $123 price tag you generally see from retailers.