The pix are the ones SW sent me when I ordered the bass; will post some from home later on.
So many years ago (1983 - 1991) I owned a Kramer XL-8 eight string, loved the idea and the sound but the bass was kinda meh.
This was basically Kramer's take on the BC Rich Bich 8 string but not to the same level of quality.
One of the things I really disliked about the Kramer was it would not stay in tune, the aluminum neck thing sounds like a good idea but even the warmth of your hand would make the thing go out of tune.
On stage when thousands of watts of PAR cans hit it, two songs tops and it was out of tune.
It helped that I only used the bass on specific songs and maybe 5 songs a night in four sets. Also our guitar player had a Conn Strobe tuner which made it easier to tune.
But it didn't play very well, and in that era I didn't really have the amp power to do it justice (I was using an Acoustic 220 through two 15" single cabs with JBL speakers, but the amp was only 125 watts through those cabs).
I used it on some recordings and that was cool but in general my enthusiasm for the Kramer cooled pretty fast so I traded it straight up to a guy for a synthesizer.
Being a huge fan of Greg Lake, I loved the sound he got on Works (he used an Alembic) and heard him use the 8 string to great effect on that tour. It was just a sound I could not get out of my head.
So cutting to the present, I recently sold my vintage Charvel and flush with cash from that decided to get an 8 string.
Well unless you get into the custom/boutique world there are only two choices on the market these days; the ESP and the Schecter.
The Schecter is a good bit more expensive, but has neck through construction, looks a lot better and I just liked it more. Never played either one because good luck finding one in a store, you most likely won't.
So.....what's it like?
Well I have not given it full rip here at the house just yet (our son works nights and sleeps during the day and my wife tends to turn in early) but even at low/reasonable volumes it's a helluva sound.
I suspect played loud through an amp with a touch of overdrive it will sound like a 55 gallon drum full of murder hornets LOL.
The action kinda sucked as it came, I played it a couple of days and realized man I need to address this, it was not just being an 8 string.
So I started lowering the bridge, then lowering it some more. In the end I bottomed out the bridge entirely, which then of course caused a lot of frett buzz, so I moved it up just ever so slightly from there and it plays really well now.
I also lowered the pickups a tad after lowering the bridge.
No doubt I need to work up to playing this thing, even with lowered action it's a good bit physically harder to play than a regular bass, and I run the action on my regular basses quite low.
So about the bass itself:
1. Build quality is great, first rate, I could find no flaws. The finish is sort of satin, not glossy but that is cool, just looks more glossy in pictures.
They offer this bass in a woodgrain finish, with gold hardware, I'm NOT a fan of woodgrain basses or gold hardware so I went with the transparent black finish and it of course has black hardware.
2. It has some sort of low end EMG's, sounds fine to me but apparently a lot of people upgrade these.
3. Takes TWO 9 volt batteries to run the preamp, these are in a separate cover on the back of the bass but kinda hard to remove the cover and access them (one is on top of the other). If you gig with one of these you might want to pop in a fresh set of batteries ahead of time.
4. Controls are cool, very much like my active Ibanez SR1200 but that bass uses stacked pots.
Master volume of course, then a pickup knob that pans between the pickups. This knob has a detent to let you know you have both pickups equal
Three band EQ, with boost and cut for each band, center detent for flat
5. Weight - well it is kinda heavy (just over 10 pounds) but that comes with the territory of an 8 string and neck through construction. It has a tad of neck dive but not bad at all really. The rear strap button is in a really odd place, like not in the center, but further up. This might be to counteract the extra weight of the headstock, I dunno
I'll post more impressions later on as I get more playing time but it's a lotta fun so far!
Analogeezer
p.s. One first impression was my arms are kinda short and it's a bit of a reach to the furthermost tuners LOL.
Also with the Kramer (like the BC Rich) the octave string tuners were at the back of the bass, I kinda like having them all up on the headstock (plus it makes the headstock look rather cool) but I have found myself turning a tuner when tuning and wondering why it isn't doing anything. The I realize "oooops, wrong string!"
So many years ago (1983 - 1991) I owned a Kramer XL-8 eight string, loved the idea and the sound but the bass was kinda meh.
This was basically Kramer's take on the BC Rich Bich 8 string but not to the same level of quality.
One of the things I really disliked about the Kramer was it would not stay in tune, the aluminum neck thing sounds like a good idea but even the warmth of your hand would make the thing go out of tune.
On stage when thousands of watts of PAR cans hit it, two songs tops and it was out of tune.
It helped that I only used the bass on specific songs and maybe 5 songs a night in four sets. Also our guitar player had a Conn Strobe tuner which made it easier to tune.
But it didn't play very well, and in that era I didn't really have the amp power to do it justice (I was using an Acoustic 220 through two 15" single cabs with JBL speakers, but the amp was only 125 watts through those cabs).
I used it on some recordings and that was cool but in general my enthusiasm for the Kramer cooled pretty fast so I traded it straight up to a guy for a synthesizer.
Being a huge fan of Greg Lake, I loved the sound he got on Works (he used an Alembic) and heard him use the 8 string to great effect on that tour. It was just a sound I could not get out of my head.
So cutting to the present, I recently sold my vintage Charvel and flush with cash from that decided to get an 8 string.
Well unless you get into the custom/boutique world there are only two choices on the market these days; the ESP and the Schecter.
The Schecter is a good bit more expensive, but has neck through construction, looks a lot better and I just liked it more. Never played either one because good luck finding one in a store, you most likely won't.
So.....what's it like?
Well I have not given it full rip here at the house just yet (our son works nights and sleeps during the day and my wife tends to turn in early) but even at low/reasonable volumes it's a helluva sound.
I suspect played loud through an amp with a touch of overdrive it will sound like a 55 gallon drum full of murder hornets LOL.
The action kinda sucked as it came, I played it a couple of days and realized man I need to address this, it was not just being an 8 string.
So I started lowering the bridge, then lowering it some more. In the end I bottomed out the bridge entirely, which then of course caused a lot of frett buzz, so I moved it up just ever so slightly from there and it plays really well now.
I also lowered the pickups a tad after lowering the bridge.
No doubt I need to work up to playing this thing, even with lowered action it's a good bit physically harder to play than a regular bass, and I run the action on my regular basses quite low.
So about the bass itself:
1. Build quality is great, first rate, I could find no flaws. The finish is sort of satin, not glossy but that is cool, just looks more glossy in pictures.
They offer this bass in a woodgrain finish, with gold hardware, I'm NOT a fan of woodgrain basses or gold hardware so I went with the transparent black finish and it of course has black hardware.
2. It has some sort of low end EMG's, sounds fine to me but apparently a lot of people upgrade these.
3. Takes TWO 9 volt batteries to run the preamp, these are in a separate cover on the back of the bass but kinda hard to remove the cover and access them (one is on top of the other). If you gig with one of these you might want to pop in a fresh set of batteries ahead of time.
4. Controls are cool, very much like my active Ibanez SR1200 but that bass uses stacked pots.
Master volume of course, then a pickup knob that pans between the pickups. This knob has a detent to let you know you have both pickups equal
Three band EQ, with boost and cut for each band, center detent for flat
5. Weight - well it is kinda heavy (just over 10 pounds) but that comes with the territory of an 8 string and neck through construction. It has a tad of neck dive but not bad at all really. The rear strap button is in a really odd place, like not in the center, but further up. This might be to counteract the extra weight of the headstock, I dunno
I'll post more impressions later on as I get more playing time but it's a lotta fun so far!
Analogeezer
p.s. One first impression was my arms are kinda short and it's a bit of a reach to the furthermost tuners LOL.
Also with the Kramer (like the BC Rich) the octave string tuners were at the back of the bass, I kinda like having them all up on the headstock (plus it makes the headstock look rather cool) but I have found myself turning a tuner when tuning and wondering why it isn't doing anything. The I realize "oooops, wrong string!"
