I've been wanting to do an eight string for a while now, and have finally got around to it. Up-front warning: this probably won't see tons of action until the end of March when school finishes up for me.
I decided to make this a one-piece design, which is another thing I've been wanting to try. I got a real nice slab of mahogany for a great price from my local supplier.
Here's the design:
27.5" scale length. The fretboard will be ebony. Ebony headstock plate, black horn nut. The plan is to dye the body/neck dark grey, and do some black glazing to accentuate the curves (it will get some extensive carving).
Hardware-wise, it will be getting EMG 808s and the Hipshot eight string bridge. Unsure about tuners at this stage, but I'd like to find some lighter weight ones. Any suggestions?
Here's the MDF body/neck template:
And the blank cut out with the top levelled:
I really like this piece of mahogany -- great figure and color, with a really nice tap tone (not that I think that really matters).
That's it for now. Next up will be thicknessing the headstock, doing the scarf and routing out the headstock design. Then truss rod and CF rod installation, neck thicknessing, fretboard installation, etc. etc.