[Elysian]

so while i was at work today i started brainstorming an 8 string... i'd use my superstrat shape, although i wouldn't carve the top, i'd bevel it, paint it black and paint the bevels red... i was thinking about scale lengths, and i think i'm going to go with something like 27.5 on the low end and 25 on the upper end... i need to pick up a roll of butcher paper so i can actually put something on paper, but i'll worry about that this weekend... i'm going to do it as an alder body bolt on(this will be my first bolt on too), ebony board, 2(or 3) piece maple neck...

the thing i've been thinking about doing with it, is instead of going for an 8 string pickup or an emg bass pickup, i think i will go for 2 humbuckers... i think an X2N-B for the lower end, and a X2N for the upper end... and have the X2N-B closer to the bridge and the x2n stacked on top of it, kind of like a backwards split bass pickup... and of course have it match the scale length change.... that way i can do a "single" pickup setup, wire them each in series, and then wire them in series together, and have a volume, maybe a tone, and go to the output jack... the treble strings would be picked up by the pickup further from the bridge, thus giving them a bit of a smoother tone, while the lower strings would have a crunchier tone... i'm not really dead set on the X2N-B just yet, i need to find out more about how it would sound, but i think itd at least be neat to try, and then i could say that i've made a fanned fret guitar, as well as an 8, and offer that in the future... i'd want to get started in this i think within the next month or so, and work on it when i'm not at work...

[rogue]

sounds nice mate, im not quite positive what you mean with the pickups though

alder is probably a good choice though, that should stop it getting too muddy, lots of pictures please

[D-EJ915]

what would be kind of cool if you're using 2 pickups would be to slant them.

[Elysian]

something like that...

[D-EJ915]

yeah pretty much except I would've put it the other way...like take the top one and move it below so they're about at the same place in between the bridge and neck.

[Elysian]

nah i want the lower strings to be crunchier and the upper strings smoother, thatd kinda defeat the purpose, itd get a little bit more pronounced effect than i already have on the slanted pickup on my V...

i really need to find out how the x2nb sounds in comparison to the x2n7... i don't want to use 2 regular x2n's because i don't feel they sound good for down tuned stuff, the x2n7 is a vast improvement, and i'd imagine the x2nb would be pretty good for it too, and its high output as well(i read 580mV), so i think itd work for what i want, but i'm not 100%... maybe i should call dimarzio

[Nik]

About time

I've loved all your work so far and I'm really curious to see how an 8-string would turn out.

[Durero]

Right on Elysian!

I absolutely agree with your pickup placement design - it should give a much more balanced sound that way, between the high & low strings.

I'd also be careful to take into account how much overlap you allow between the two pickups. Too much and the middle strings may not balance their volume with the outside strings if the inside ones are being picked-up by both pickups and the outsides are only sensed by one.

Can't wait to see what you'll come up with!

[nyck]

Very cool dude!! I would recommend an all maple neck+fretboard for added attack and snap. But that could pose a balance issue with the neck being too heavy with the alder being such a light wood.

The idea with the bass x2n and guitar x2n is incredible! It should be very interesting. I'm not sure how the bass pick will sound on the bass side, but I'm sure it will sound FAT.

Good luck with that dude.

[Karl Hungus]

It's an excellent idea about the pickup positions, I had the same thought myself a while back. But wouldn't the bass pickup sound muddy?