Yesterday I drove up to Oakland to deliver Mark's Sitka Spruce and Brazilian Rosewood 8-String Guitar-Bass. I am absolutely thrilled with this instrument and I'm so excited to have a chance to show it off at the upcoming Healdsburg Guitar Festival in a couple weeks in Santa Rosa, California. The eighth string plays a low D, that's an octave and a whole step lower than the 6th string on a normal guitar! To my delight, the note is full and clear, with a very strong fundamental. Mark's a real fine musician, so I cannot wait to hear how this instrument will be put to use. Take a few minutes to check out Mark's website Glass House Music, where you'll hear some fantastic recordings.
4 comments:
Matt, even by your standards, that's a pretty amazing instrument.
I'd love to hear a sound clip or two which demonstrate its full range of capabilities.
Thanks, Peter! Mark's a great player, so I anticipate that we'll have be hearing some very nice music recorded on this instrument. :)
Matt, sorry to trouble you again! What's the deal with the bridge pins? I just noticed there isn't one for that big fat 8th string.
On an unrelated topic, I'm scratching my head over how you would go about cutting the fret slots for this or any other multi-scale fretboard. Can you provide any clues?
Hi Peter, :)
The 8th string is a .100 gauge acoustic bass string. Acoustic bass strings have a much larger ball-end, large enough that it just lodges under the bridge plate without having to be pinned. To install it you feed it tuner-end-first through the soundhole and up through the bridge.
The fret slots are CNC-milled. Drop me an email for details on that.
Cheers,
Matt
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