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Has anyone built an 8 string/octave bass?

Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2015 4:34 pm
by DRodriguez
I'm thinking of building one in the next year, but parts seem to be hard to find. Anyone gone down this road? Am I better off just buying one and modding it to fill my need to tweak things?

Just trying to find out if I'm crazy and should stop now before I start.

The bass that inspired me: https://reverb.com/item/404863-postal-h ... n-p-pickup

Re: Has anyone built an 8 string/octave bass?

Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2015 5:10 pm
by Swordfishtrombone
Skullservant built one for his wife iirc. It may have just been the two high strings that were doubled up tho. This was forever ago, so I don't remember too clearly. It sounded good iirc.

Re: Has anyone built an 8 string/octave bass?

Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2015 5:15 pm
by Swordfishtrombone
Okay, it was only the two high strings doubled, but here ya go: viewtopic.php?f=192&t=36045

Re: Has anyone built an 8 string/octave bass?

Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2015 5:33 pm
by skullservant
Wouldn't be super hard depending on how you laid out the headstock to accommodate the octave strings. Luckily none of them would be much if any outside of a guitar gauge so you could probably use guitar tuners unlike what I did.

Re: Has anyone built an 8 string/octave bass?

Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2015 5:52 pm
by DRodriguez
Cool, thanks y'all!

Re: Has anyone built an 8 string/octave bass?

Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2015 8:16 pm
by Mudfuzz
I've built one...
Image

modding a pre-made neck to an 8 is a pain, to do it right you have to fill in all the holes and re-drill, also you have to think about neck construction, you want a really well made neck, extra stiffening rods or two truss rods might be a good idea, if I was to make that neck again I would go with more internal stiffening vs mass :idk: