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Schaller used to make an 8-string bridge:

Warmoth also used to have an 8-string neck:


Apparently demand was very low and both companies discontinued them. I get it, it's really niche.

Nate Dort wrote: Mon Jul 28, 2025 1:09 pm Like I said, I'm not talking about Wooten type shit. I'm trying to get my Mike Kunka on.

What is it about 8 strings on a bass that make you wanna play it, let alone write songs on it?

I don't have anything against 8 string basses. I'm genuinely curious. This is a thread about talking you out of or making you justify your purchase. I'm working with the job description.

cakes wrote: Mon Jul 28, 2025 9:26 pm

Nate Dort wrote: Mon Jul 28, 2025 1:09 pm Like I said, I'm not talking about Wooten type shit. I'm trying to get my Mike Kunka on.

What is it about 8 strings on a bass that make you wanna play it, let alone write songs on it?

I don't have anything against 8 string basses. I'm genuinely curious. This is a thread about talking you out of or making you justify your purchase. I'm working with the job description.

But Cakes, you get the 8 string setup right? It's kinda like a 12 string guitar. The extra four strings are just n octave up each from the standard string. So you play two strings every time you fret/pluck. It's not the proggy, huge necked thing.

The harmonic octave chorus from bass with doubled stings at max volume through 2 amps, one with a synth pedal in front of it and the other through god knows what fuzz sounds like a fun Sunday to me.

I don't know what Nate would do, but I'd imagine the venn diagram overlaps.

Which reminds me! I was thinking of godheadsilo the other day and remembered a friend of mine who went to see them - don't know why I didn't go with, we saw shit together most of the time then, but as my friend tells the story, Mike climbed up on one of his speaker cabs at emos with a wash of howling feedback, just as he was about to hit the first chord and jump down, a breaker tripped or someone kicked out a cable and everything just went immediately silent....and Mike just kinda unceremoniously climbed back down and started the set with no further fanfare once they fixed whatever happened.

I wish I'd been there. Alas.

cakes wrote: Mon Jul 28, 2025 9:26 pm

Nate Dort wrote: Mon Jul 28, 2025 1:09 pm Like I said, I'm not talking about Wooten type shit. I'm trying to get my Mike Kunka on.

What is it about 8 strings on a bass that make you wanna play it, let alone write songs on it?

I don't have anything against 8 string basses. I'm genuinely curious. This is a thread about talking you out of or making you justify your purchase. I'm working with the job description.

Like others have said, you seem to be missing what we're talking about. Octave pairs sound nice and full! 8 string basses sound like a goddamn piano and its a fun tool to have.

cakes wrote: Mon Jul 28, 2025 9:26 pm

Nate Dort wrote: Mon Jul 28, 2025 1:09 pm Like I said, I'm not talking about Wooten type shit. I'm trying to get my Mike Kunka on.

What is it about 8 strings on a bass that make you wanna play it, let alone write songs on it?

I don't have anything against 8 string basses. I'm genuinely curious. This is a thread about talking you out of or making you justify your purchase. I'm working with the job description.

Dude, your mind is gonna be BLOWN when you listen to Cheap Trick.

Or King's X.

I guess I missed it.

Why not just get an octave pedal? It would be way cheaper. There's plenty out there where you can choose the octave, or more than one octave for the fraction of the price of an 8 string bass.

Unless you just wanna look cool. Now that's debatable.

cakes wrote: Tue Jul 29, 2025 10:00 am Why not just get an octave pedal? It would be way cheaper. There's plenty out there where you can choose the octave, or more than one octave for the fraction of the price of an 8 string bass.

For the same reason that one might want a 12 string guitar. Modern digital octave pedals are precise at generating perfect octaves. Two strings tuned an octave apart are never perfectly in tune, thus there's a subtle chorusing effect to the sound. Its the same reason a digital piano never sounds the same as a real piano. Both are fine, but they are different sounds.

Plus, Kunka.