I’ve always enjoyed bands that use 7 string guitars, but I never really had the desire to pick up a 7 string guitar. My recent discovery and enjoyment of bands like Meshuggah and Animals As Leaders piqued my interest and curiosity got the best of me. I bought this lovely Ibanez RG8 from Salmeen Music who were gracious enough to bring one into Kuwait for me.
The neck is a bit thinner compared to Ibanez Prestige guitars, and it’s very wide. It took some getting used to the girth of the neck, and adjusting to where the strings were also took some time, but now I can play it just the same as any regular guitar. The quality is okay, with the fret work being okay to bad, but hey, its one of the best priced cheap 8 strings in the entire world right now, so I’m not going to complain that much.
I did some upgrade to the guitar. First I switched out the extremely bad stock pickups with Dimarzio Ionizer pickups in white. The sound dramatically changed from being crappy to being amazing. These pickups are very tight and resonate the 7 and 8th string very well. I also changed out the tuners to Hipshot locking tuners which gave it a lot more tuning stability. Finally, I threw in a Bourns push/pull pot to allow pickup coil tapping for nicer clean tones.
Now that I’ve had the guitar for a couple weeks, is 8 strings for me? I’m not sure yet to be honest. A lot of times I find myself utilizing the two heavier strings to make heavier riffs, but aside from that I can accomplish the same things on both 6 and 8 string guitars. One thing I do like is the extended range of the instrument which makes fret distances a bit bigger, and therefore, easier to play. It matches my large hands. I’m having fun with this new instrument and recommend trying an 8 string out if you want something new when it comes to guitars.
