# Prat Basses 9 string 36 fret and 8 string signature ERBs



## ixlramp (Feb 12, 2014)

Prat Basses https://www.facebook.com/pratbasses

9 String 36 fret ERB for Curtis Rielley ...


















8 string Igor Saavedra signature with removable body wings ...






And the release video ...


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## abandonist (Feb 12, 2014)

At what point are we reaching diminishing returns on the whole Extended Range action?

I posit we've reached it with 9 string instruments.


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## InfinityCollision (Feb 12, 2014)

Can't help but wonder if the upper frets on that 9-string intonate worth a damn on even the highest strings.


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## Hollowway (Feb 12, 2014)

I know these aren't particularly useful for everything, but I have to go on record (again) as saying I frickin' LOVE these! My only gripe would be that if you're going to go for a 9 string like that, may as well fan it. I'd love to play one of these in person so I could hear the lowest string. I just can't really hear them on the youtube videos because they're so low.


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## yingmin (Feb 12, 2014)

Do you mean 4 octave PER STRING? As in 48 frets?


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## ixlramp (Feb 12, 2014)

Yeah my mistake it's a 3 octave fretboard, not 4 octave.
Funny how some people think 9 strings is extreme, in the ERB world no-one even flinches at a 12 string, there are practical 13 string basses being built right now by Letts Basses, and i have word of 14 and 15 string basses that are so far being kept secret from the public by their owners, understandably due to the internet hate they would receive 
Fanning is not as necessary on ERB as it is with ERG (apart from personal preference), fanning only becomes essential at 12 or 13 strings.


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## Hollowway (Feb 12, 2014)

^Yeah, I know the fanning isn't necessary, but I was just assuming that bassists would loathe the bright ice-pick sound of the thin, long scale high strings, and would prefer the shorter scale there. Or is that not really an issue for them?


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## abandonist (Feb 12, 2014)

Well, that kind of what I mean. We're getting to the point of the low strings being inaudible, and the highs being unlistenable.


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## ixlramp (Feb 12, 2014)

Yeah its crazy what some people are doing with ERB, my interest in low notes is down to around G0 and i don't like plain strings thinner than .009. ERB players are usually very tasteful about the range, rarely using the highest or lowest extremes, quite different to guitarists hehe.

Hollowway, ERB players rarely dislike the effect of a bass scale on thin plain strings.
That 9 string looks to have 2 plain strings so im assuming F#BEADGCFBb, which is my own personal limit of string sanity, so the top strings are around .018 and .011, .018s are a bit stiff but i expect the .011 would intonate up to the 36th fret okay.


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## Lankles (Feb 12, 2014)

abandonist said:


> At what point are we reaching diminishing returns on the whole Extended Range action?
> 
> I posit we've reached it with 9 string instruments.



I'd be inclined to think that returns diminish immediately. 

A 1-string bass is infinitely more useful than a 0-string bass. Even from the second string being added, you're gaining less and less. Everyone's going to have a different threshold for when the diminished return becomes insufficient to justify the increased expense and changes to the feel of the instrument. 

I am a prick for semantics though.  Personally I rarely use my 6 to its fullest extent, but would hate to go back to 5.


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## AugmentedFourth (Feb 12, 2014)

I, for one, welcome our new many-stringed overlords.

Really it's just up to personal preference. We can continue to engineer ways around the shrillness of the high strings and make more exaggerated fans and more strings all day, but in the end it's what the player wants to do with it.

Like, if I already have strings so low on my 13-string bass that any lower would be inaudible or non-reproducible, but my new ideas demand a bit more range, I can exaggerate the fan and make a separate pickup just for my high strings, and one for my middle strings, and one for my contrabass strings so that they can all be preamped to a consistent output/tone. Then I can add high strings all damn day.

Therefore I think it is quite appropriate to say in this context "the only limit is your imagination". Also the audible frequency range for humans.


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## MaxOfMetal (Feb 12, 2014)

Why do people look at an instrument like these and only think of the highest and lowest note they produce? There's so much possibility between those two notes, almost infinite. 

It's like seeing the very beginning and very end of a movie, or only reading the first and last paragraph of a book. Yeah, you know what the setup is, and what the outcome is, but you just don't know the story. 

Sorry to get so "out there" it's been a long day at work.


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## JoshuaVonFlash (Feb 12, 2014)

MaxOfMetal said:


> Why do people look at an instrument like these and only think of the highest and lowest note they produce? There's so much possibility between those two notes, almost infinite.
> 
> It's like seeing the very beginning and very end of a movie, or only reading the first and last paragraph of a book. Yeah, you know what the setup is, and what the outcome is, but you just don't know the story.
> 
> Sorry to get so "out there" it's been a long day at work.


I guess most people's natural reaction to new things is to focus on the extremes of said new things. Such as with AI and the extreme being them attacking us.


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## Hollowway (Feb 12, 2014)

These instruments (ERG and ERB) occupy a pretty low end of the sonic spectrum, which means that going steadily lower is almost futile. But there is so much room to go higher, if we could just develop strings that would hold up. I know Garry Goodman is working on it, but it would be nice to have someone who is not a paranoid schizophrenic to also develop something.


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## InfinityCollision (Feb 12, 2014)

The middle is vanilla, we all have a pretty good idea what it takes like. The outside stuff is what's newer and more exciting.


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## LordCashew (Feb 13, 2014)

InfinityCollision said:


> The middle is vanilla, we all have a pretty good idea what it takes like. The outside stuff is what's newer and more exciting.



It's also more likely to get burnt. 

Sorry. I love extended range but I couldn't help but extend the food analogy!


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## abandonist (Feb 13, 2014)

MaxOfMetal said:


> Why do people look at an instrument like these and only think of the highest and lowest note they produce? There's so much possibility between those two notes, almost infinite.
> 
> It's like seeing the very beginning and very end of a movie, or only reading the first and last paragraph of a book. Yeah, you know what the setup is, and what the outcome is, but you just don't know the story.
> 
> Sorry to get so "out there" it's been a long day at work.



Well, the middle ground of these is territory that's been covered pretty well. 

The same is true of these new 9 and 10 string guitars coming around. The instruments just aren't built properly to get good sounds with our current strings/tolerances. A high E isn't going to sound very good on a scale needed for a low F. You can deal with that by going the fan route, but that's not the norm. 

I just think it's an arms race for the most extreme tunings without regard for practicality. 

I know people said the same thing about 7 and 8 string guitars, but at 10 strings it's time to take a look at ourselves and at least think that this may be a fool's errand.


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## yingmin (Feb 13, 2014)

MaxOfMetal said:


> Why do people look at an instrument like these and only think of the highest and lowest note they produce? There's so much possibility between those two notes, almost infinite.
> 
> It's like seeing the very beginning and very end of a movie, or only reading the first and last paragraph of a book. Yeah, you know what the setup is, and what the outcome is, but you just don't know the story.
> 
> Sorry to get so "out there" it's been a long day at work.



Or, for a more direct analogy, what percentage of time do pianists spend only playing on the highest or lowest octave of keys?


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## InfinityCollision (Feb 13, 2014)

yingmin said:


> Or, for a more direct analogy, what percentage of time do pianists spend only playing on the highest or lowest octave of keys?



Better analogy: what's the first thing people do when introduced to a Bosendorfer Imperial? I'll bet most try out the added bass keys fairly quickly.


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## MF_Kitten (Feb 15, 2014)

I saw a lot of ERB players at and around NAMM, and many of them proved to me just how useful all that rang can be. Check out Scott Fernandez for an amazing example!

Also, I saw Curtis there, as he hung out on our booth for a while, and he went nuts on a 9 string bass for a while.


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