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Short scale 8 string
- Thread starter farfadet
- Start date
- Jul 1, 2005
- 4,291
- 21,932
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- CataldoBasses: Designer/Builder ThunderBuckerPickups:Consultant
Bass string on the bottom works for me. I play 'standard' basses mainly fingerstyle. Multis with a pick, biamped to accent frequencies if I'm really serious. Mono signal with a simple splitter for biamping.
With a multi if I really want to accent bass I play upstrokes but usually it's downstrokes to get the sound I want. Slight bit of overdrive and/or chorus can be nice.
To me fingerstyle playing on a Multi is upstrokes. YMMV depending on technique, which string do you want to hit first?
With a multi if I really want to accent bass I play upstrokes but usually it's downstrokes to get the sound I want. Slight bit of overdrive and/or chorus can be nice.
To me fingerstyle playing on a Multi is upstrokes. YMMV depending on technique, which string do you want to hit first?
I lamented over this when I built my multistring, I settled on bass strings on the bottom. It seems to work well with fingerstyle, which is how I play most of the time. If I was a pick player I'd probably put the bass strings on top.
The other thing you have to consider on an octave bass is the relative height of the two strings in a pair, because of their different diameters. On the 10-string bass project, Keith & I experimented with this. We ended up putting the bottoms of the strings even at the nut. That seemed to feel and work best for fretting.
At the bridge, we tried several things and ended up putting the centers of the strings even. With the tops even, the bass sounds more jangly; the octave strings get hit harder and emphasized when playing with a pick. Maybe you want that? With the bottoms even, the octaves were barely brushed, and were more subdued. Lining the centers up seemed to be the best compromise; an even output of the octaves and mains.
We made our 10-strings with the mains low/octaves high and a 0.060" gap between each pair. Or main customer, Jeff Pilsen, always plays his 10-strings with a pick.
At the bridge, we tried several things and ended up putting the centers of the strings even. With the tops even, the bass sounds more jangly; the octave strings get hit harder and emphasized when playing with a pick. Maybe you want that? With the bottoms even, the octaves were barely brushed, and were more subdued. Lining the centers up seemed to be the best compromise; an even output of the octaves and mains.
We made our 10-strings with the mains low/octaves high and a 0.060" gap between each pair. Or main customer, Jeff Pilsen, always plays his 10-strings with a pick.
Great insight. I was thinking about this at work today and figured that lining up the string bottoms made sense, because that way you have to push them the same distance to the board and you can rely on the squidginess of your finger to account for the string diameters.
I would have never even thought of doing anything different at the bridge, so great food for thought.
I’ve been inspired by @Dadagoboi ’s amazing multi-course instruments, if I ever pluck up the courage to attempt one I guess I’ll have to do some experimenting and see what works for my playing style.
Yes, there are a lot of little extra details involved in building an octave bass. And also, there are different ways to design and set them up, depending on how the customer wants to play it. Those are the reasons why the bigger companies don't make many octave basses. Too expensive, too many quality control problems, and customers all want them custom-fitted. Not worth the trouble for a small market.
- Jul 1, 2005
- 4,291
- 21,932
- 80
- Disclosures
- CataldoBasses: Designer/Builder ThunderBuckerPickups:Consultant
this build is moving towards completion.
Fashioning the string holder out of a bar of aluminium:
Threading the brass saddles and installing them:
And making the nut out of Brass:
I chose to put the bottom even at the nut and the bridge. I might lower the octave strings a bit at the bridge in the future so they are more prominent
And here is the end result:
I am relatively happy with how it turned out. If I had to do it again I'll make a stiffer neck with 2 truss rods to better counteract/adjust all that tension. Also I didn't enjoy spraying Nitro, I'll try a water based wipe-on Poly next time.
And I found out metalworking is fun! I wish I had a lathe and a mill to experiment now. I think I'll try to build my own bridge on my next build.
Thank you all for following this thread and for your insightful pieces of advice.
- Julien -
Fashioning the string holder out of a bar of aluminium:
Threading the brass saddles and installing them:
And making the nut out of Brass:
I chose to put the bottom even at the nut and the bridge. I might lower the octave strings a bit at the bridge in the future so they are more prominent
And here is the end result:
I am relatively happy with how it turned out. If I had to do it again I'll make a stiffer neck with 2 truss rods to better counteract/adjust all that tension. Also I didn't enjoy spraying Nitro, I'll try a water based wipe-on Poly next time.
And I found out metalworking is fun! I wish I had a lathe and a mill to experiment now. I think I'll try to build my own bridge on my next build.
Thank you all for following this thread and for your insightful pieces of advice.
- Julien -
Nice work!
Please consider entering the Winter Build Off this December...its lots of fun!
Please consider entering the Winter Build Off this December...its lots of fun!
Nice work!
Please consider entering the Winter Build Off this December...its lots of fun!
Thank you. If I have some free time why not. I'll check the threads to see what's the theme this year.
Airspace: hollow body or chambered. We're discussing it on the Voting thread fom last year.
