octave 8 fretless neck

I've played one of those before. Not that hard to fret because the strings run very close, and one if very thin, but I see no point in it. There's no major advantage that I can see, and buying strings for them must be a total bitch.

 

Not really, just get a set of piccolo strings and a set of your favorite normal strings; I use flats on the bass strings and rounds on the octave strings on my 8 string.

I have always really liked the idea of a fretless 8, I bet you could really play some neat oudish parts with one.

 

Mark Egan did some fretless 8-string stuff, IINM(if I'm not mistaken).

 

A friend of mine has an octave 12 (3 x 4 strings). It wasn't that hard to play, you just had to make sure you were holding down and striking three strings instead of one. As for the point, you should hear the crazy full sound you can get out of one of those things. He was in a 3 piece band and the extra top end basically filled in where another guitarist would have been.

Of course, that was before he found Dingwall. I don't think the 12 gets touched much anymore.

-Nate

 

bassmonkeee from Atlanta has a Curbow fretless 8 with the pair strings seperated so you can play them individually or paired if you just pay a little attention. Works like a charm, sounds cool (when bassmonkeee is playing it!).

I sound like ca-ca playing it!

 

Geez, you don't have to buy seperate sets, they sell 8 string sets right out of the box.

like these:http://juststrings.com/ghs-8ls-dyb.html

And you don't see a point? Well how's about it being the equivalent of a 12 string guitar (octave pairs) or you could tune it to fifths, and make full sounding, chord-like voices off one string pairing? I see alot of benefit in that. It's cool...don't knock til ya tried it.

I wouldn't play it fretless, but if that's your bag....

 

You do if you don't like the few options available. I don't like GHS strings, and I don't really care for Rotosounds, either.

Currently, I've got TI Jazz Rounds as my bass strings, and Ken Smith Piccolo strings as the octaves. The smaller windings on the Jazz Rounds, in addition to their lower tension, make them feel more similar to the piccolo strings than most ready-made sets I've tried. Also, since they have the silk wrap under the windings, so it softens the overtones of the root strings and lets the octave strings ring more clearly.

Plus, the alternating red and green silk on the headstock makes it Christmas all year.

 

Is it fretless?

 

Tom, go for it! Check out 8stringbass.com and 12stringbass.com + .net for more info. I have played a 8 and 12 string bass, not much harder to play than a 4 string. One of the 12 string players has a fretless, he runs the .net site. I hope to build a 12ver at some point, I already have one of the shaller bridges. Tim

 

Nope, they're both fretted.

-Nate

 

Tom could you share your source for the 10 string bridge? I haven't seen one other than on one of the dean 10 string basses. Tim