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8 string bass?

Yeah, that's what I thought too. I guess I draw the line at 6, will stick with 4, but if I was to start fresh would probably have picked up a 5 instead, just for the efficiency of left hand movement that fretboard provides. I say if you want 8, why not go for more, get a Warr Guitar!
Have you seen the price of a Warr guitar?
 

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Could spend a lot less.

The price of all four of my sixers together barely reaches $5000.00
Which IS the price of a Warr.
I know, I agree, me too. My five basses together don't reach $5,000. My fav bass right now is also my least expensive one (but it is the only fretless). Spending an additional $ does not necessarily translate into a $ better bass. Usually it gets you a prettier, more unique, or exotic bass. Still, the Dire Wolf is back-ordered, in high demand, and there are people who think nothing of spending that much to fly round trip to Europe on private jets, which costs even more than the Dire Wolf! Money to burn?

Remember, you can't take it with you. As a 93 year old friend at gym (he works out 3X each week) says, "I've never seen a hearse with a trailer hitch."
 
Could spend a lot less.

The price of all four of my sixers together barely reaches $5000.00
Which IS the price of a Warr.
A lot less, especially if you are handy at modding cheap Chinese guitars.

Less than $300, but several hours of pleasant sweat equity. Note the p-pickups I installed on the bottom 4.
 

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This is my Rickenbacker 4003S / 8. (Not to be confused with the Rickenbacker 4008) The octave strings are flipped compared to the Ibanez.

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i have a Jazz body/Warmoth neck 8-string that I had converted to Ric-style stringing. It's harder to fret cleanly since the high string is under the pad of the finger rather than the very tip. But, I use a pick, and it sounds WAY better to have the low note dominate on the downstrokes.
 
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Dunno about 8, but Ibanez has a few 7-strings: a couple BTB models and then there's the Ashula, a split-course bass (ADG fretless, EADG fretted)
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The existence of this bass astounds me. Who thought of it? Who assessed that crazy idea and though "let me sketch this out and come up with a basic design." That person then had the gall to present what looks like absolute nonsense to an executive. That executive said "yeah, let's build this."

When the guy running the production line got the final plans, what did he do? Did he go to his boss and ask what got messed up in the design files, and want to know what they were actually supposed to be making?
 
The existence of this bass astounds me. Who thought of it? Who assessed that crazy idea and though "let me sketch this out and come up with a basic design." That person then had the gall to present what looks like absolute nonsense to an executive. That executive said "yeah, let's build this."

When the guy running the production line got the final plans, what did he do? Did he go to his boss and ask what got messed up in the design files, and want to know what they were actually supposed to be making?
After a limited-edition 6-string, the 7-string version started production in 2017 and got an update four years ago, so it's selling well enough to have stayed in their catalog for almost a decade. I don't think anybody at Ibanez is crying in their beer about it.
 
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After a limited-edition 6-string, the 7-string version started production in 2017 and got an update four years ago, so it's selling well enough to have stayed in their catalog for almost a decade. I don't think anybody at Ibanez is crying in their beer about it.
I'm not thinking of its success in the market; no one ever knows what's going to come out in the right time and place to sell. I mean getting this idea to the market. A lot of people had to say "yeah, this could work," but I look at that bass and think "who would ever even try to make that work?"
 
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The standard bass notes, with additional octave up strings. Unusual, but not rare. Hagstrom made one back in the 60’s that was used by both Noel Redding and Jimi Hendrix, then Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick took the concept further by adding yet another octave with a 12-string. Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam picked up on it as well.

The point is to fill space with guitar-like tones. I had an 8, made by Wolf, great instrument, but you really have to dedicate yourself to the technique changes, so I passed it along and just use octave boxes.

Currently, the most recent 8-string player I know of is Sara Johnston of this goofy Canadian band, the Boojums…



Sting played one of these briefly in the Police…fretless if I remember right.
 

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