And the first thing I found:
I originally bought my Ibanez 7 String for the metal low end, but found down tuning my 6 strings gave better results much of the time. And that is what Mattias IA Eklundh had said, and he didn't think 7 strings were worth the trouble. But he did fall in love with the 8 string.
I thought about that quite a bit, but couldn't justify the 748,000円 ( which is some 16 times more than I paid for my best Ibanez RG 6 string) for his Caparison Apple Horn 8 or a similar amount for his new ULV8 above. I don't think of my self as a Guitarist, but just a guy mucking around making my own silly music in my studio. I didn't think some 188,000円 for an Ibanez RGMS8 \ RGD8 was for me either. The other thing was that 8 string guitars are rather rare around these parts. Went to the main guitar stores in Osaka and no one had any to try. For me, Multiscale is they way to keep an 8 string guitar playable.
I started hearing about this Really Cheap/ Incredible value Thomann Music Harley Benton R-458MN WH MultiScale 8 String Guitar. Problem was that with the current Yen exchange rate in June 2024, it isn't a cheap guitar any more if I paid Japanese Yen and bought it online from Germany.
Then I did an illustration job for USD$ and that exchange rate problem vanished. 😁
So I ordered one. I paid USD $251.87 via PayPal for it. Took 13 days to arrive, and then had to pay 1,652円 import duty to the Postman when he delivered it to my door. Not expensive at all.
And in my studio it looks like this:
And comparing to my Ibanez RG, shows the fan frets, bridge slant, and neck width differences from a standard guitar.
Before it arrived I had seen that UGRITONE were closing and going out of business and so picked up their AMPENSTEIN Amp/cabinet/effects/eq VST for USD$10. What PayPal is useful for when you live in Japan.
Up until now I mostly used Boogex amp sim vst with GOD CABINET IRs with a real Metal Zone Distortion Pedal. At the moment AMPENSTEIN EQ and IR Loader seem to be best in my Reaper DAW way of recording guitar the 8 string. Can cut and boost multiple frequencies as needed.
It has only been a few days so far, so along way from learning all I need to.
I found my guitar didn't have any of the QC problems some had reported. It is all good, for a cheap guitar. Tuning is similar to my Ibanez GIO 7 string in that the nut is sticky, and the tuners not mechanically so precise.
I have the 8 string set up like my other guitars. Instead of E standard, they are down tuned to D# and the lower 7 strings are thus in DROP G#. The 1 finger power chords are more defined than in my 7 string, probably due to the longer strings there. I had to redo the intonation on the 7th and 8th strings in this tuning, and the 8th string "almost" didn't allow the saddle to move back enough, without replacing the saddle screw with a shorter one.
I currently have the 8th string as D#, the lower D# than the D# 6th string. Finding that very undefined though, and think it needs to be higher instead. The fret 1~ 5 spacing on the low strings is a bit of a stretch. But I don't notice it most of the time.
It feels very much like my Fender Squire, but with 8 strings. Except the bridge pickup in that is a DiMarzio HS-3 that is worth as much as the whole 8 string guitar!
I still need to work with the 8 string more. There isn't anything wrong with the fretwork or anything, but I normally do pinch harmonics all the time, but they just don't happen on this. Need to work out why that is. The 7 String doesn't stop me playing pinch harmonics. Curious. May be related to the way the bridge is slanted and the way I have to hold my right hand with a Multiscale.
The guitar has Active pickups. Have noticed, with the Metal Zone on with my extreme distortion/gain s settings, they seem to generate a midrange tone (a very low level oscillation in the opamp circuit maybe?) some -30db down. Not anything to worry me though, taken care of with a noise gate if need be.
So far a very interesting experience, but I am still treating it pretty much like a 7 string, and still to work out how I deal with that 8th string for what I do. Meshuggah math metal or the DOOM soundtrack isn't what I do. I have seen Mattias play now, and is all over Freak Kitchen's Every Body Gets Bloody Album, but have no idea how often he actually touches that 8th string.
Will update this in the coming week or so with new thoughts or findings...
Seems I need to bring my right hand more over the bridge pickup to get the pitch harmonics. The multiscale looks deceptively similar, but seems it isn't.
Main thing now is, what do I want to do with it? I haven't done anything much different from my 7 string, so that is I need to learn something new to use it.
There really is nothing to complain about this guitar for what you pay for it. I would be in exactly the same position now if I had paid 4 times more for a locally available Ibanez.
I changed the 7th and 8th string tuning again. Not a drop tuning though, like the rest of my guitars are at the moment. High, to Low, they are now D#, A#, F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, F . This makes 8th string to not be floppy, like it is if D#.
I need some washers in the 8th & 7th string bridges to get better intonation, but no rush. Needs to move back a bit more and the screw length means it hits the string. Washers, rather than a shorter screw is the simpler solution.
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