Eight-string Guitar - Electric Guitar

Electric Guitar

The 8-string electric guitars are most often tuned in regular 4ths, with two extra basses (Low to High) F♯+B+E-A-D-G-B-E. Fredrik Thordendal and Marten Hagstrom of Meshuggah tune their 8-string guitars F+B♭+E♭-A♭-D♭-G♭-B♭-E♭, and occasionally drop it to E♭+B♭+E♭-A♭-D♭-G♭-B♭-E♭, and even five semitones below this tuning, for the song Spasm. Rusty Cooley and Chris Letchford from Scale the Summit have been seen using one extra bass and one extra treble string (tuned B-E-A-D-G-B-E-A or B-E-A-D-G-B-E-G). Several smaller luthier companies now offer 8-string models such as BlackMachine, Hufschmid Guitars Switzerland, Oni and Mike Shermann.

8-string pickup makers include Kent ArmstrongEMG, DiMarzio, Häussel, Bareknuckle, Lundgren, Siggery, Hufschmid, SP custom pickups France, Nordstrand, Seymour Duncan Custom Shop, and Swineshead.

Ibanez was first to offer a production 8-string guitar, the RG2228 in March 2007. It was introduced at the Winter NAMM show of 2007 and features a 27" baritone scale bolt on neck. This first mass produced solid body 8-string electric guitar is played by Stations' frontman Dave Kavanagh and Divine Heresy guitarist Dino Cazares. Ibanez added a more affordable 8-string model RGA8 in 2010. At the Winter NAMM of 2008, ESP Guitars unveiled three new 8-string guitars: two of them, part of Stephen Carpenter's signature line, are in 27" baritone scale, and an LTD version, the FM-408, in 25.5" standard scale; both versions are of neck-through-body construction. Like the Ibanez's RG2228, they utilize the same EMG 808 active pickups.

In 2007 Octave4plus introduced an effective high A440Hz string for guitar scales up to 30" without the need for a multi-scale fingerboard(or fanned frets) giving the 7, 8, and 9 string guitars another viable tuning option. These strings tune as high as B4 (493.88 Hz) at the 28" scale.

British manufacturer Blackmachine also offers some 8 string guitars. The 8 and the F8 (multi-scale) models. These were originally an experiment by their producer, and are now a regular part of the company's product line. One notable user of these instruments is Clive Jevons of the German band Bludgeoned who also plays on Swiss-made Hufschmid Guitars.

In addition, the guitar manufacturer Schecter Guitar Research produced a short run of 100 custom shop C-8 Hellraiser Guitars. These guitars feature a 26.5" scale. They were not included in the company's official line up for 2009, but were a special limited release for that year. As of now, there is no news as to whether or not this will be added to the Hellraiser series of guitars as a regular part of the Schecter line up. They also released 100 (50 white/50 black) Blackjack 8-string guitars with Seymour Duncan Blackouts pickups, which also feature a 26.5" scale. Currently the Schecter 8 string guitars being produced are the Damien Elite 8,Omen 8, Hellraiser 8, all of which have a 26½" scale and EMG 808 pickups apart from the Omen which uses Schecters own 8 string humbuckers.

Since the spring of 2008, American importer-distributor Rondo Music has been accepting pre-orders for a limited-run Korean made budget 8-string electric guitar model named Agile Intrepid. This guitar features a 28.625" scale neck with 24 jumbo frets and a graphite nut. All models utilize a fixed string-through-body bridge and Grover die cast tuners unless noted otherwise. Pro models have a 5 piece neck-through-body maple/walnut neck with mahogany wing construction. Standard models have a bolt-on 3 piece maple neck with an ash body construction. Most guitars feature a maple fretboard and a single passive humbucker or single EMG 808 pickup, however a 30” scale neck option, rosewood and ebony fretboard option, fretless option, and dual humbucker option are sometimes offered. The Agile Intrepid is also available in right and left handed. As of 2012, Agile features eight string guitars in 3 different series besides the Intrepid. These are the Interceptor, Septor and Pendulum models.

Left handed guitar manufacturer Gaskell Guitars, from Australia announced in March 2009, that they will be adding an 8 string guitar to their line up of left handed guitars and basses, but this is on hold due to the popularity of other manufacturers in making 8 string guitars, including left handed models.