# New Rick Toone 8 string



## StevenC (Nov 29, 2014)

Eight String Guitar - Rick Toone | Luthier



Yes please!


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## Enselmis (Nov 29, 2014)

Not even remotely impressed with that demo. Looks like a stunning instrument though. Considering the people who play these things, they probably could have found somebody who seems like they've actually held an 8 string before.


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## Erockomania (Nov 29, 2014)

um. wut.

that was painful.


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## JP Universe (Nov 29, 2014)

Sweet rig and this is probably the first Toone that I've liked but damn that was some horrible playing  Oh wait&#8230;. thank god he's playing clean now, this will sound a bit better&#8230;. hmmm no

4:10


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## Hollowway (Nov 29, 2014)

It bothers me how absolutely massive Rick's bridges are. I much prefer the strandberg bridge.


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## Dominoes282 (Nov 29, 2014)

Oh man wat....

Reminds me of the review GuitarWorld did with the Carvin DC800....


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## Steinmetzify (Nov 29, 2014)

I dug it....cool rig, absolute beast of a guitar. Could have found someone more in tune with playing 8s, but whatever. If it sounds that good with that guy playing it, it'd sound incredible with someone decent at the helm. I wanna touch it.


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## asher (Nov 29, 2014)

I really want better pictures of the back.

It's really, really neat though.


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## GRIZ (Nov 30, 2014)

JP Universe said:


> 4:10



hahahaha "hmmm...wtf do i do now"


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## narad (Nov 30, 2014)

GRIZ said:


> hahahaha "hmmm...wtf do i do now"



Ha, that's some poor editing. But seriously, the guitar is awesome, and the guy's clearly not a bad player. It's hard finding good 8-string players and most would probably do a bunch of low djenty recycled Meshuggah stuff which ...yea, would let me know how the 8th string sounds...but is equally as unenlightening about the guitar overall...

I really, really need to try that neck!


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## Slunk Dragon (Nov 30, 2014)

That guitar looks super awesome, but I feel like the camera audio doesn't give us a really good grasp of how it sounds.

At least from that demo, we know that it's got some good... sustain. xD


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## Philligan (Nov 30, 2014)

When I saw the hair and beard, my knee-jerk reaction was Guthrie. His playing answered that pretty quickly, though. 

It's a cool-looking guitar, but that pickup placement honestly seems to kill a lot of its potential. Even for styles other than metal, everything he played on the lower end sounded completely like a bass. Maybe that's what Rick was going for, but I don't get it.


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## crg123 (Nov 30, 2014)

Dominoes282 said:


> Oh man wat....
> 
> Reminds me of the review GuitarWorld did with the Carvin DC800....




Fvcking Paul lolol


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## Erockomania (Nov 30, 2014)

Dominoes282 said:


> Oh man wat....
> 
> Reminds me of the review GuitarWorld did with the Carvin DC800....





wtaf.


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## downburst82 (Nov 30, 2014)

That is probably the nicest toone I've seen! 

The demo video  

- Audio is terrible
- Lose the "warehouse" lighting and A.D.D camera work.. I just want to see the guitar
- They definitely could have found someone better to demo it (this guy sounds like me on an 8 string....and no guitar maker is their right mind would want me demoing 8 strings )

.....but seriously that is a BEAUTIFUL guitar!


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## simonXsludge (Dec 1, 2014)

Not for me. You could chase me down an alley with that thing... 

The sustain seems to be pretty epic, though.


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## mag8 (Dec 1, 2014)

5 fingers and still the dude plays like Django...


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## Fred the Shred (Dec 1, 2014)

While not the worst demo I've seen, it's pretty on the "what the hell am I supposed to do with this?" side of things, which doesn't really help, of course.


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## GRIZ (Dec 1, 2014)

Dominoes282 said:


> Oh man wat....
> 
> Reminds me of the review GuitarWorld did with the Carvin DC800....




This guy's review of the TAM00 is even worse than this one.


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## Zsharp (Dec 1, 2014)

The tone is horrible, not sure if it's the $10,000 guitar, or the $5,000 rig but somewhere something went wrong haha


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## sojorel (Dec 1, 2014)

GRIZ said:


> hahahaha "hmmm...wtf do i do now"



I think he is showing the sustain of the guitar. He lets the note ring out to illustrate.


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## oniduder (Dec 1, 2014)

meh, ghey, not only the vid but i honestly think that guitar looks uncomfortable

and how many does loony toons build a year? a half a guitar???

i don't get his "business model" if he has one, 

i guess it's over hype to shit and then sell to only famous people?

ok 

cool

ok i'm sorry i personally dislike rick toone, sorry, i can't help it, he seems sooo unctuous priggish supercilious

my only problem is i am redundant


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## GRIZ (Dec 1, 2014)

sojorel said:


> I think he is showing the sustain of the guitar. He lets the note ring out to illustrate.



its just the face he made. he was looking at it with this kind of "how the hell do people play these things" look


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## Shimme (Dec 1, 2014)

GRIZ said:


> This guy's review of the TAM00 is even worse than this one.



For the morbidly curious - 


They need to fire this guy.


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## Given To Fly (Dec 1, 2014)

The Rick Toone demo was done using an iPhone according to the credits at the very end. Judge how you will.


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## MAJ Meadows SF (Dec 2, 2014)

Shimme said:


> For the morbidly curious -
> 
> 
> They need to fire this guy.



Ouch those two 8 string reviews are brutal. I'm not any bit awesome of an 8 string player, but I'd at least prepare something relevant or proper to demo one. Paul isn't all bad. Just keep 8s, hell even 7s away from him. It's not about "his style" versus x,y, or z style; it's just a bad representation of the instrument which in turn can be detrimental for advertising to outside the somewhat niche market for 8s.


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## GRIZ (Dec 2, 2014)

MAJ Meadows SF said:


> Ouch those two 8 string reviews are brutal. I'm not any bit awesome of an 8 string player, but I'd at least prepare something relevant or proper to demo one. Paul isn't all bad. Just keep 8s, hell even 7s away from him. It's not about "his style" versus x,y, or z style; it's just a bad representation of the instrument which in turn can be detrimental for advertising to outside the somewhat niche market for 8s.



they really didn't do either of them justice


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## will_shred (Dec 2, 2014)

I don't think I've seen a single good ERG demo that was "professionally" shot. Most people just don't know what to do with all those strings, or how to dial in a decent tone with them. The first video I ever saw of an eight string was Tosin Abasi noodling on a Jesse Hall custom, which I immediately thought was ....ing awesome. IF my first impression of an eight string had been from Paul I probably would avoid them like the plague.


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## Erockomania (Dec 2, 2014)

GRIZ said:


> they really didn't do either of them justice



haha, that's an understatement. I think he did them a disservice!


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## Zhysick (Dec 3, 2014)

will_shred said:


> I don't think I've seen a single good ERG demo that was "professionally" shot. Most people just don't know what to do with all those strings, or how to dial in a decent tone with them. The first video I ever saw of an eight string was Tosin Abasi noodling on a Jesse Hall custom, which I immediately thought was ....ing awesome. IF my first impression of an eight string had been from Paul I probably would avoid them like the plague.



I think Sam Bell reviews for Nevada Music are pretty nicely done... obviously is a fvcking amazing player also but... those are profesional reviews...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOgorjcCMHY

Just to enlighten you a little bit... yes! There are good 8 string reviews!!!! We are lucky.


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## yingmin (Dec 3, 2014)

Hollowway said:


> It bothers me how absolutely massive Rick's bridges are. I much prefer the strandberg bridge.



By contrast, I much prefer Toone's headpiece over Strandberg's implementation, which always looked sloppy, lazy and inelegant to me.


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## narad (Dec 3, 2014)

yingmin said:


> By contrast, I much prefer Toone's headpiece over Strandberg's implementation, which always looked sloppy, lazy and inelegant to me.



By contrast, I much prefer Toone's bridge, which resembles some contraption from a by-gone era where people had to be rely on ingenuity to accomplish complex tasks by mechanical means. I much prefer Strandberg's headstock which has always looked simple, unobtrusive, and to-the-point, vs. you know... a bottle opener.


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## Andrenighthound (Dec 4, 2014)

Why on the website it says "made for humans" I don't understand that? So what would Gibsons and Fenders be for Aliens?


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## glassmoon0fo (Dec 4, 2014)

Andrenighthound said:


> Why on the website it says "made for humans" I don't understand that? So what would Gibsons and Fenders be for Aliens?


 
Just a blasé artistic comment on the ergonomic design, I bet he typed that up while sipping wine with his legs crossed.

BTW, is this one of the guitars produced from that run of 8s he was supposed to do a few years ago? I really wanted one, but didn't follow up and havn't since then. What ever came of that?


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## StevenC (Dec 4, 2014)

glassmoon0fo said:


> Just a blasé artistic comment on the ergonomic design, I bet he typed that up while sipping wine with his legs crossed.
> 
> BTW, is this one of the guitars produced from that run of 8s he was supposed to do a few years ago? I really wanted one, but didn't follow up and havn't since then. What ever came of that?



That run hasn't happened yet. All that came of that was the run of S2 6 strings, I think. I emailed a few months ago about 8 strings and he told me he'd be announcing something at the end of this year. I'm waiting for that, but if the 8 strings are like this, I'll be pretty interested.


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## shikamaru (Dec 5, 2014)

guys you&#8217;re very harsh with Paul the Carvin demo isn&#8217;t actually that bad, he played the whole range of the guitar with different amounts of gain, maybe it&#8217;s not your style, but not everyone has to play AAL&#8217;s stuff either (don&#8217;t get me wrong, Tosin is my favorite guitar player these days, along with Guthrie and JP).

Same goes with that Rick Toone guitar. With what he played I got a good idea of the possibilities of this guitar. So much negativity :/


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## Zsharp (Dec 5, 2014)

These days a demo can make or break a guitars reputation, especially with builders putting out so few guitars, it's almost like you have to make a connection with the instrument before you receive it, and they are *incredibly expensive*. The demo is not good, the tone is not good, I honestly think the playing isn't half bad but that axe fx patch is not doing either him or the guitar justice.


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## shikamaru (Dec 6, 2014)

Zsharp said:


> These days a demo can make or break a guitars reputation, especially with builders putting out so few guitars, it's almost like you have to make a connection with the instrument before you receive it, and they are *incredibly expensive*. The demo is not good, the tone is not good, I honestly think the playing isn't half bad but that axe fx patch is not doing either him or the guitar justice.



Thats your opinion. For me a demo isnt even representative of what you can do with an instrument, because thats only one person playing it. You cant at the same time say a demo can make or break a guitars reputation and at the same time say its all in the fingers. Im of the latter opinion. Give Slash an entry level Epiphone or a Chibson and he will make it sound like a high end Gibson, you know what I mean ?

Ive seen people just playing 0100010101 on the low strings. That doesnt give you an overview of the instrument but in these case people played the whole range of the instrument. I agree with the axe fx patch bit though.


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## Cloudy (Dec 6, 2014)

First killick and now this

D:


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## jephjacques (Dec 6, 2014)

It's a really cool guitar and if the owner is happy with it that's all that really matters


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## frahmans (Dec 6, 2014)

Toone has always been an inspiration - from his ideas on ergonomic playing, correct position, and ideas. 

Initially, a lot of his ideas seemed too out there but they work. Trapezoid neck or ?I can attest a flat surface is better for playing.

The tone was not half bad. The design ideasIs why I like this build. Integrating more metal parts between neck and body...


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## SiggyCertified (Dec 7, 2014)

Man, Rick Toone is such a beast. How could this not be great.


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## Zsharp (Dec 7, 2014)

I agree, I think the guitar is AWESOME. Guitar marketing these days is nothing like it used to be however, guys sell guitars based on how cool they look on a website or a in youtube vid, look in a guitar store and find me a toone or strandberg to try out. Thousands will look at that guitar online before anyone actually gets to try it for themselves, which is FINE, but I can tell you already from hearing this demo it's enough to make me hold on to my 8 grand. The only reason I even put my 2 cents in is because I drooled over strandbergs only to find the hype well exceeded the product once I actually laid my hands on one. Again, my opinion, but then again, what are forums for?


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## narad (Dec 8, 2014)

Zsharp said:


> The only reason I even put my 2 cents in is because I drooled over strandbergs only to find the hype well exceeded the product once I actually laid my hands on one. Again, my opinion, but then again, what are forums for?



What hype? It's an ergonomic guitar. Was it not comfortable? Did it not have great balance? Could you not balance it in a classical position on your leg?


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## StevenC (Dec 8, 2014)

So, I found something I really don't like on the guitar:







The part that is purple on the first 6 strings is black on the lowest 2. Awful.



Zsharp said:


> The only reason I even put my 2 cents in is because I drooled over strandbergs only to find the hype well exceeded the product once I actually laid my hands on one. Again, my opinion, but then again, what are forums for?



What about Strandbergs didn't live up to the hype for you? Is it possible you've been paying too much attention to a certain Facebook guitar advertising page?


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## Zsharp (Dec 8, 2014)

Honestly for me it was several things with the neck. I really did like the endurneck, which is what intrigued me the most about these gutiars. The one I owned and played was an S7, the neck bevel didn't match with the neck pocket completely (which i've also seen on several washburns) and the zero fret wasn't placed properly (almost like it was bent inward or something) and most importantly I couldn't access the 22nd-24th frets on the high e without having to take my thumb off the back of the neck. It looks like you have an MTM which might make all the difference in the world, i'd love to try a MTM but I don't know anyone who has one, i didn't even know anyone with a boden which is why I had to buy it to try it! I guess it does seem like i'm hating on strandys a little but it was the most i've ever spent on a single piece of music gear!


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## StevenC (Dec 8, 2014)

Zsharp said:


> Honestly for me it was several things with the neck. I really did like the endurneck, which is what intrigued me the most about these gutiars. The one I owned and played was an S7, the neck bevel didn't match with the neck pocket completely (which i've also seen on several washburns) and the zero fret wasn't placed properly (almost like it was bent inward or something) and most importantly I couldn't access the 22nd-24th frets on the high e without having to take my thumb off the back of the neck. It looks like you have an MTM which might make all the difference in the world, i'd love to try a MTM but I don't know anyone who has one, i didn't even know anyone with a boden which is why I had to buy it to try it! I guess it does seem like i'm hating on strandys a little but it was the most i've ever spent on a single piece of music gear!



S7?! There's your problem.

I've put a lot of playtime into an S7 Boden7, as well as my own M2M, but it was certainly a much better example than what you appear to have played. Don't let it put you off, they are much better than that! If you can find or try a good one, you'll be much happier. Though, unless you have tiny hands, I've got to question the lack of high fret access, because my hands are pretty small and I've never had an issue.


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## narad (Dec 8, 2014)

StevenC said:


> S7?! There's your problem.
> 
> I've put a lot of playtime into an S7 Boden7, as well as my own M2M, but it was certainly a much better example than what you appear to have played. Don't let it put you off, they are much better than that! If you can find or try a good one, you'll be much happier. Though, unless you have tiny hands, I've got to question the lack of high fret access, because my hands are pretty small and I've never had an issue.



Eh, you do have the neck-through. It doesn't bother me, but after playing yours I could see the need to do some extra shifting with the boden bolt-on heel.


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## Zsharp (Dec 8, 2014)

StevenC said:


> S7?! There's your problem.
> 
> I've put a lot of playtime into an S7 Boden7, as well as my own M2M, but it was certainly a much better example than what you appear to have played. Don't let it put you off, they are much better than that! If you can find or try a good one, you'll be much happier. Though, unless you have tiny hands, I've got to question the lack of high fret access, because my hands are pretty small and I've never had an issue.




I have pretty decent sized hands, I noticed that to get to the highest frets I had to move my thumb from the neck onto the heel. I was so close to ordering a boden 7 but the finishes have seemed very dark and overall inconsistent on the recent ones, i'm really waiting for the perfect used one to pop up but i'm also incredibly picky about wood choice and prefer wenge for fretboards (another reason why i might have not liked the neck but that's my own issue nothing to do with the builder). I still love the guitars, I love Ola's forward thinking vision, I just don't like that the production guitars aren't consistent with the ones pictured for the webpage and FB page! Since we can't try them in stores a picture really does say a thousand words!


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## StevenC (Dec 12, 2014)

Another new 8:

TigerShark 8 - Rick Toone | Luthier

With a familiar guitar:


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## Hollowway (Dec 12, 2014)

Wonder why he didn't fan the pickups on that? I think Toone is probably a love it or hate it design. I actually feel like he said, "Let me build a guitar with all the of the things Hollowway hates," but I think I'm probably being a little egocentric.


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## narad (Dec 13, 2014)

Hollowway said:


> Wonder why he didn't fan the pickups on that? I think Toone is probably a love it or hate it design. I actually feel like he said, "Let me build a guitar with all the of the things Hollowway hates," but I think I'm probably being a little egocentric.



I don't think it matters nearly as much as some (/a single vocal person) like to profess that it does. Or we could all just move our bridge pickups back even further on regular guitars for... _the ultimate tightness_


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## frahmans (Dec 13, 2014)

Tosin with 2 toone guitars. I like the Way the carbon fibre is included with the wood.



StevenC said:


> Another new 8:
> 
> TigerShark 8 - Rick Toone | Luthier
> 
> With a familiar guitar:


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## Svava (Dec 13, 2014)

Shimme said:


> For the morbidly curious -
> 
> 
> They need to fire this guy.



This is horrible.

This... My god.

How many sales they must have lost Ibanez.

The dude has no idea what to do with it....


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## TemjinStrife (Dec 14, 2014)

There are a number of people on TGP who are getting the runaround from Toone after putting money down. Too bad.


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## StevenC (Dec 14, 2014)

TemjinStrife said:


> There are a number of people on TGP who are getting the runaround from Toone after putting money down. Too bad.



I saw that too, and it's rather killed my GAS for one of these. Maybe one will come up used eventually...


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## Musiscience (Dec 14, 2014)

Dominoes282 said:


> Oh man wat....
> 
> Reminds me of the review GuitarWorld did with the Carvin DC800....




The guy in OP video is no Tosin, but nowhere near as bad as Paul. I swear, Paul has friends in high places, there is no other logical explanation. No bashing on him though, he seems like an awesome dude all playing aside.


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## narad (Dec 14, 2014)

Musiscience said:


> The guy in OP video is no Tosin, but nowhere near as bad as Paul. I swear, Paul has friends in high places, there is no other logical explanation. No bashing on him though, he seems like an awesome dude all playing aside.



Well Paul was way ahead of the curve on these high quality video demoes. He's not the greatest player, but ultimately you don't need Yngwie in order to demonstrate what a guitar sounds like, or to simply talk about specs and notable aspects of the instrument. I mean, you need to think about who the intended audience is for these videos - good communication is going to trump ability.


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## ramses (Dec 14, 2014)

TemjinStrife said:


> There are a number of people on TGP who are getting the runaround from Toone after putting money down. Too bad.



I would guess that's due to his recent move to TX.


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## Erockomania (Dec 14, 2014)

narad said:


> I don't think it matters nearly as much as some (/a single vocal person) like to profess that it does. Or we could all just move our bridge pickups back even further on regular guitars for... _the ultimate tightness_



I actually think it makes a huge difference. Moving the pickup even an 8th of an inch in either direction can have profound effects. The way he positions them gives the low strings more of a bass-like sound/neck pickup sound. Some folks dig that. I do not like the way it sounds at all, actually.


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## 8STRINGS (Dec 14, 2014)

That vol knob placement seems very awkward. Beautiful guitar though. Rick has a very cool aesthetic that I've always admired.


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## narad (Dec 14, 2014)

Erockomania said:


> I actually think it makes a huge difference. Moving the pickup even an 8th of an inch in either direction can have profound effects. The way he positions them gives the low strings more of a bass-like sound/neck pickup sound. Some folks dig that. I do not like the way it sounds at all, actually.



You never get to move the pickup in a guitar, so how would you know how much of a difference it makes in a controlled setting? In strats, where you can do the pickguard swap, it tends to thin the sound out a lot. In fact, the guy most noticeable for playing this way - Hendrix - is also noted for staying on the neck pickup almost the entire time!

In lieu of all things, I tend to trust to the experimental guitar builder to know what he's doing to make the guitar sound good. You don't make huge life-altering changes to relocate and focus on guitar building, build a new platform bottom-up, with custom designed hardware everywhere, and then overlook where/how to place the pickups.


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## theoctopus (Dec 14, 2014)

Erockomania said:


> I actually think it makes a huge difference. Moving the pickup even an 8th of an inch in either direction can have profound effects. The way he positions them gives the low strings more of a bass-like sound/neck pickup sound. Some folks dig that. I do not like the way it sounds at all, actually.



I own a multiscale guitar with straight pickups. The cleans are warmer and the high gain sounds just fine.


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## Musiscience (Dec 15, 2014)

narad said:


> Well Paul was way ahead of the curve on these high quality video demoes. He's not the greatest player, but ultimately you don't need Yngwie in order to demonstrate what a guitar sounds like, or to simply talk about specs and notable aspects of the instrument. I mean, you need to think about who the intended audience is for these videos - good communication is going to trump ability.



Communication is essential, as well as presenting the specs correctly, and Paul does that pretty well. Otherwise, I am not in agreement that he does a good job in demonstrating what the instruments sounds like, contrary to some other reviewers who really come up with riffs and amp settings fitting for the instrument they are reviewing. A well informed player will buy the instrument after trying it out or knowing the impact the specs have on what they are buying, but to others these demos can really kill a sale in my opinion, sounding nothing like what they are looking for. For example, the TAM100 video riffs and tones sounds nothing like animals as leaders. What I mean is, it's not important he has the virtuosity of the player, but at least he has to choose the tones well enough that it will retain the interest of those who want to emulate that tone by buying the instrument. 

That's only my opinion though, and I am not the CEO of an enormous guitar magasine so what do I know haha


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## schwiz (Dec 15, 2014)

StevenC said:


> So, I found something I really don't like on the guitar:



Ummm, everything?


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## narad (Dec 15, 2014)

schwiz said:


> Ummm, everything?



That guy likes Auerswald guitars -- his opinion cannot be trusted.


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