If You Play 8 String Guitar, Why Not Just Play Bass?

…is a thing that musically ignorant people say on the internet, where no one can smack you in face. Of course that makes no fucking sense – just because an 8 string guitar encroaches on bass territory doesn’t mean you should play a different instrument – that’s why it has 8 strings. A full size 88 key piano covers most of the frequency spectrum of human hearing – why not just play the flute, oboe, hurdy-gurdy, bassoon, baritone saxophone, mandolin…

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Any rational person knows this is folly, but people are perpetually making the same comments. So musical scientist Pete Cottrell decided to take one of his 8 string songs and switch the bass and 8 string guitar parts to see if it was really equivalent. I can’t say that he proved the trolls right, but goddamn did it actually sound pretty awesome. I think we can safely put this line of thinking to rest either way.

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As Editor-in-Chief of Gear Gods, I've been feeding your sick instrument fetishism and trying unsuccessfully to hide my own since 2013. I studied music on both coasts (Berklee and SSU) and now I'm just trying to put my degree to some use. That's a music degree, not an English one. I'm sure you noticed.

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  • Well, I may not be a highly educated music theorist such as yourself, but I believe the comments typically arrive when folks get an 8 string, and then play “djent” using palm muted chuggas on one or two frets. If your Tosin and using the instrument in new, interesting ways, or just using the extra range along with the upper strings, go for it. But when you just play some sweet Motionless in white, you might as well get a baritone 6 string or a bass (which MIW do.)

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