Yesterday I braced the back of John's Sitka Spruce and Pau Ferro 8-String Guitar/Bass and closed up the soundbox. As you can see, the fingerboard is enormous and has a big variation in scale length. This is so that the bass strings can have a proper length to support a solid note with good sustain. I was extremely happy with the first 8-string guitar bass I built for Jim Saxa, so I kept the soundboard bracing pattern very much the same.