8 String Build

[Stewey]

Hi Guys

Well I have been caught by the 8 string bug

Only problem is that I have very little idea about them.

I've done some searching for the 8 string builds and no-one seems to mention the specs.

I was wondering if some of you 8 string guys could help me out with some opinions?

I am planning:

8 strings (unsure of the gauges, any suggestions?)

27 or 28" scale

Alder or ash body, Fat RG shape

Rock Maple neck with single truss rod and 2 carbon rods.

Indian Rosewood fretboard, no inlays.

24 jumbo frets

Bridge pickup only. I am thinking Barenuckle?

1 x Volume

4 + 4 tuners. Is there any easier way of getting 8 tuners than buying 2 six packs? (especially in Aus)

Fixed bridge. Is the Hipshot one any good? Or am I better off making my own with strat style saddles?

It's fun throwing yourself into something you know not a lot about.

Thanks in advance.

[Bionic Dave]

Do a search on google I'm sure you can find some specs some were.

[Stewey]

Yeah but guitar manufacturers are boring, I want to know what the real pros think.

[low end fuzz]

manufacturers are the professionals; theyve sunk all the time and money into developing a playable instrument that is flawless in 'every' way; then the cutom guiys take that and put a soul into it; but for the most part their still using mass produced hardware that as far as specs go; have to work in tandem with all these parts and anything else tat could be changed would be based on your personal opinion at the time of building it.

[Stewey]

OK Guys, lets start this thread again.

I spent the weekend drawing out full size plans and this cleared up most of my questions about 8 string guitars.

Now I have a tentative buyer for one of these guitars straight off the plan and I also want one for myself, so while I'm at it why not build three.

1:

Fattened RG shape, 2 piece QLD Maple body, 50mm thick in the centre. Simple body carve.

Rock Maple neck, 27" scale. Set neck.

NG Rosewood fret board, 24 super jumbo frets.

4 + 4 Tuners.

Hipshot fixed bridge.

Bridge pickup, either SD Blackout or a Rondo pickup, depending on the customer.

Single volume pot.

All black hardware.

2:

Same as guitar 1 except:

Mahogany neck

SD Blackout bridge pickup.

3:

Same as guitar 1 except:

1 piece NG Rosewood neck with Mahogany skunk stripe.

Undecided on hardware colour yet.

I picked up 3 mt's of QLD Maple during the week:

And the same quantity of NG Rosewood (It looks way lighter in the picture, it's got a more red tone):

I also got my template cut out of MDF:

I will be cutting up the Maple for the body blanks this weekend hopefully, damn I wish I had a jointer.

Any and all comments welcome about how I'm gonna screw this up please.

[Akula]

Awesome. Out of interest, how far dyou reckon that much wood will go? It'd be more than three, but I'm wondering how many guitars you could get out of it...

[Stewey]

Well out of the QLD Maple I am projecting to get the three bodies and three blanks I can use for necks on other projects plus lots of bits for making headstocks, cavity covers etc.

The Rosewood would get me a couple of solid necks per mt if I really wanted to push it. I'll probably use the three mts for 2 long scale necks and then cut the last mt up into fret boards, I should get six if I'm careful.

It is a lot cheaper to buy timber in bulk. /obvious statement of the day, ha.

[Muzz]

This is looking cool

[ElRay]

If you haven't nailed-down your scale and spacing at the nut, use something like FretFind2D to lay-out your fretboard and make a cardboard mock-up so you can play with the string spacing, scale length, etc. I'm a big fan of 28-5/8", because it's essentially just two frets "behind" the nut of a 25-1/5" scaled guitar.

Ray

[Prostheta]

Yeah but guitar manufacturers are boring, I want to know what the real pros think.

The real Pros says use a longer scale. 27" is short, only reasonable for a 7-string.

manufacturers are the professionals; theyve sunk all the time and money into developing a playable instrument that is flawless in 'every' way; then the cutom guiys take that and put a soul into it; but for the most part their still using mass produced hardware that as far as specs go; have to work in tandem with all these parts and anything else tat could be changed would be based on your personal opinion at the time of building it.

No they haven't. They're still manufacturing 25.5" scale 8-strings. Or maybe they understand that the majority of the saps out there don't understand scale length.

[low end fuzz]

i would still consider that a personal opinion/preference; because the mass population is still stuck in the standard scale spacing for guitar for their little fingers to play it; although i do agree with you at some length; and would back off the certainty of some of my statement

[Stewey]

Excellent! That's the type of feedback I was after, thanks guys.

So is there a general consensus of what is manageable for a guitarist to transition from a 6 to an 8? I think 27" would be the easiest but I don't want to go that length if it will be too floppy. The 28-5/8" looks good on the fret finder. I'll make up a sample from cardboard or something and have a play, thanks for the tip Ray.

[Prostheta]

There is a definite transition. 30" is huge and more bass-like. I have settled on 27.5" (or whatever I used on the Dark Sabre 7) as a balance of tension and ease of playing.

[westhemann]

I always think about building an 8 string as a fascination thing(I would never be able to play it properly I think),but if I did it would certainly be 27.5"/28" on the bass side down to 25.5"/24.75" on the treble.

I just can't see making an 8 string with such a long scale on all of the strings.I had a 27" baritone 6 string and the higher tension bothered me on the treble strings(I tuned it to D standard,rather than the B standard it was sent with,and I used 10s instead of the standard huge strings it came with.)

[Stewey]

Well I made up some samples of 27.5", 28" and 28-5/8" and attached them to my 27" 6 stringer.

I can tell a noticeable difference with the 28-5/8" and the 28", it does feel a bit like a bass. The winner is the 27.5", I can't really feel much of a difference between it and the 27" (despite the obvious neck width difference) and I can't see having the extra bit of scale length as a bad thing.

Wes, I tried pushing the idea of a multiscale to the dude but he isn't keen. It makes sense to me but that is his wishes.

[Prostheta]

Just measured my seven - definitely 27" scale, and that is about as long as I will go without considering multiscale. 27.5" would perhaps be in the realm of using a 0.008 gauge high string, and a corresponding set through based on tension.

[Stewey]

Thanks Prostheta, now I just need to find a tension calculator and work out the best string set to get.

So with the scale length finally sorted I continued on with some progress today.

Planed the edges of the body blank halves and got down to gluing:

I also cut the scarf joints for the necks and glued them up too:

You can see just about every clamp I own in that pic

[MuffinPunch]

I dont know if it was intentional but thats a great pic! looks like a studio shot with that lighting and everything... I tend to notice those kinds of things, sorry.

This should be a cool build. Cant wait to see it come together.

[Stewey]

Haha, thanks mate.

Good pictures aren't really that hard, you just need to pay attention to where the light is coming from. Photography is another hobby of mine, so many expensive hobbies...

[Muzz]

Go Stewey, this is gonna be a monster

[Stewey]

Spent the entire weekend with my router and bandsaw.

The three body blanks out of the clamps:

I made up a template for the headstock and screwed it down using holes where the tuners will eventually go. Also routed for the truss rods and made a cavity for access:

Yes one of the headstocks is a bit shorter than the other two, I decided to use the bit of scrap I had lying around rather than buying another length of mahogany.

The three bodies rough cut out on the bandsaw:

Two of the bodies are very pink with a bit of figure. The third is quite white with straight, plain grain. Something for all tastes

[Stewey]

Two necks with fretboards, one without:

I completely messed up the first board I radiused, I didn't realise that the sanding block wasn't as wide as the fretboard so that left some nice grooves down the side of the board, doh.

Ah well, that gave me a chance to knock up a board design I've been thinking about for a while now. I'll show some pics next weekend if it turns out.

Here are the bodies with the shape routed, just need a bit of sanding now:

I just realised today that my little Ryobi router will be 10 years old soon. It has outlasted 4 or 5 "high quality" routers with not even an attempt at a service.

Just goes to show that you don't always get what you pay for.

[Stewey]

Got the neck pockets done this weekend:

You can also see where I have routed to start the carves.

And this is the replacement fretboard:

As you can see, nut to 12th fret is Indian RW and 12th to 24th fret is NG RW. I got out my french curves and did up a template which made the whole process rather simple. And no I am not worried about the strength of the board.

I also drilled the tuner holes and rough carved the rosewood neck, I'll do the other two next weekend.

(PS. can a mod please take the 'Planning Stages' out of the title? I think I am a little bit passed that now )

Edited June 20, 2010 by Stewey

[King_Petrucci]

Looking good Stewey!! Love that fretboard. Ive been thinking of trying something like that.

Cant wait to see the carve progress

[Duke]

good idea on that fretboard, never see anything like that before.