8-String Guitar TUNING - Which Should I Use? 

For practicing , I keep it in standard F#. But, an interesting tuning I started trying is Drop E w/ Drop A, so EAEADGBe. If you know your scales for a 6, they'll instantly adapt.

I prefer f standard because I love meshuggah and already used half step down tunings on six and seven strings.

Good god I’m thankful I was meant to watch this! Love this channel I have pride in my 8 string guitar and continue to relearn and learn and unlearn things from guitar! So informative!

I'm fascinated that there aren't more people who tune an 8 string like its a 6 string baritone with an extra high and low string, so F#BEADF#BE, most of the standard shapes are still available, and there is symmetry between the top and bottom 3 strings. I don't own an 8 string, but I tune to that on a 7 string pretty often (missing the low F#), and chords on it sound amazing, it feels like cheating.

Oh man, thank you so much for that. I've wondered whether people could actually play my music. Now I know that it's possible :D

Before getting an 8 string guitar i played a baritone guitar which is tuned in B standard ( B - B ). When i got my 8 string i have immediately changed the tuning of G string to F#. In this way my middle six strings are tuned in B standard ( getting all the shapes from Baritone), getting a low F# on 8th string and a high E on 1st string..

One of my favorite tunings to use on both 7 and (hopefully in the future) 8 strings is to keep the guitar in standard but tune the G string down a half step to F#. Not only does this shift the tuning of your strings from E & e to B & b as well as giving you an entirely new tuning to play with from the 6th to the 1st string, but it also gives you two whole octaves for power chords on both the low and high strings on an 8 string, so you wind up gaining a sense of familiarity on the higher strings for clean playing.

Nice one 👍 I alternate between Drop E and F# all 4ths (F# B E A D G C F). I either want lots of E’s, or only one, lol 4ths tuning is great for improv, but I lose a lot of my standard vocabulary. So I tend to alternate as of late.

I am mostly a 8 and 9 string guitar player and I use two main tunings, these would be B E B E A D F# B E F A# F A# D# F A# D# My main 9 string tuning is based around 2 ideas I found online that I really liked. The first is dropping the G string down a half step to “move” where the 6 string is on the guitar, so instead of having a standard 6 string guitar with 2 or 3 extra low strings you’d get a baritone B to B guitar with an extra high string and an extra 1 or 2 low strings, it’s like the tuning mentioned at 2:37 but lower. The other principle is the double drop tuning that’s fairly common where players will drop the 7th and 8th string, bands like Sleep Token and Archspire’s main tunings is this double drop tuning. SO, when you combine the two concepts you get a B to B baritone, the double drop tuning giving you access to an extra low E and B, and an extra high E for leads or whatever you may want. All in all it’s a low of fun and I recommend that you try it if you have the chance! Then, my 8 string tuning is something I straight up ripped from John Browne and the band Monuments. It’s based around a DADGAD style tuning, but instead of being an open Dsus4 it’s an open A#sus4, then again just like the tuning mentioned at 2:37 you get an extra low F and a extra high D#. If you want to get used to the tuning I highly recommend learning the Monuments song “Origin of Escape”, it’s how I learned to play in the tuning and the riff is really fun so that’s a major boon! All in all I really thought this was a great video and I can’t wait to go back and watch all of your video and see what you release in the future! If you ever made an Instagram I know I’d follow it in an instant! And if you ever release some sort of book I know I’d buy it in a heartbeat! The 8 and 9 strings are such amazing instruments and with bands like Sleep Token becoming popular and mainstream I look forward to them (hopefully) becoming more common in music!

I use strange tuning F# B F# B E G# C# E. So it's basically Drop B on 7 to 2 strings, then standard F# 8 string and standard E 1st string. Allows me to play some Veil of Maya stuff, and i just kinda like those intervals on drop B+dropped F#

I do F# standard on my multi scale Agile Chiral and E standard on my 28" Schecter Hellraiser. In a way I like the later better simply because I'm an obsessive compulsive lunatic and the fact that it has no sharps makes me have the feels! I would also tune the other one down, but I see no reason to have them the same. When I first got my Hellraiser though, I went a little nuts experimenting. Though I had some fun, I concluded that most alternate intervals, including drop were kind of pointless. One I actually stuck with for a bit was I tuned the top 7 like drop G and then tuned the bottom to D. Maybe I should give it another go! Another pure novelty one I kind of liked but only for about 10 minutes at a time was top 7 B standard and then an octave down B on the bottom.

Gotta say, Sleep Token and Spiritbox reawakened my passion for music. Not long after I picked the guitar back up I invested in a Schecter multiscale 8 string and I tune that based around the drop Eb/D# tuning Sleep Token uses. Sometimes I play like it is a 7 string in drop G# followed by the low D#, sometimes I use 2 5ths at the bottom with a low C# followed by G#. I've also got a 7 string tuned to drop F# for Spiritbox style riffs, of course. Something about half step tunings sounds haunting in the best way.

Keep up the 8 string content brother! Very under-utilized instrument and we have yet to see the creativity of the future pioneers of it. Even outside of metal, imagine some math rock guy throwing 8-string facgce on there and riffing away -- could be any genre but you get what i mean hopefully.

got my first 8string yesterday, and because i play in D standard on all my 6string guitars, f# standard confused me a little bit, so i now tune to E standard (EADGCFAd)

My favorite tuning is unique. I made it up, lol It's basically dropped C Or D standard The minor adjustments i use, I detune the 3rd and 4th string by a half step or one fret. It makes solos a little easier for me because because the movements between the 3rd and 2nd string I no longer have to skip a fret to continue scale patterns It flips the guitar fret board so that minor movement to the next fret happens on the 5th string So power chords on 5th and 4th I use my pinky to reach it I love this tuning not just for easy solos and scales but the diminished tones and dissonance within the new tuning while playing more traditional chords and the chords feel better to play.. Even if I have to use my index finger to bar a chord I still need my middle on the 4th to create a traditional Dropped C bar chord Try it out I wanna see what you think

I have never played an extended range guitar, but often wondered how they are tuned. Great introduction to the topic!

I use drop D most of the time on a 6 string. On the 8 string, I use the middle 6 strings as a drop A tuned baritone, and add low E on the lowest string, and high E on the highest string. So, from lowest to highest E A E A D F# B E. This lets me use the same shapes of a drop D tuned guitar but tuned down a 4th, and add a higher and a lower string (both tuned to E), so an extended range baritone guitar. Also, tuning the F# to G, it gives me the Charlie Hunter tuning, great for thinking of the instrument as a bass + guitar. I play chords and bass line+chords, not metal.

I use the Charlie one but the D stays as an E basically 2 bass strings and a normal 6 string guitar. I frequently change between that and regular drop E

EADGCead. Try it! You will want at least 28" scale on the bass side with a .90 (stringjoy). This tuning gives you a 5 string bass E to C on the bottom. Then baritone guitar tuning in A standard on the middle. With an extra high string on top. Very intuitive and the chording is perfect. Play like a bass with guitar chord on top. Try it.

A healthy mix of F# and Drop E I mess with the low string a lot

I really like TesseracT's tuning on 7-string (usually AEADEAD or a semitone higher on their earlier stuff) and I guess extended to 8 that would be something like EBEABEAE (the TesseracT original is just 7-string DADGAD)

You're like the marty schwartz of 8 string, great stuff

I used to have a 26.5" scale schecter blackjack atx 8 string back in 2007 that I tuned to DADADGBE. I sold it because even in standard tuning, it just sounded like fart noises when I played the 8th string (even through a 6505). Tech has come a long way since then, and I'll bet it would absolutely crush through something like an ii ii ii ii.

Fun tuning I started doing on my 7 string. Our band plays in c# standard but I love my baritone 7 string. So I tuned it C# c# f# B E g# c# Allows for a digitech drop pedal effect but more natural sounding. Or even an octave pedal sound. When you wanna drop something stupid low but don't want a million pedals in front or in the loop just clamping down on what your guitar should sound like

You could also use EADGCFAd, just D Standard but with a low E and A

I use a E on the 8th string instead of F# But mostly use Drop D or C tuning because I like the sound

I personally use drop F. I bought a schecter omen 8 months ago as my first 8 string guitar and I like to use drop tunings but every time you play in something that's not F# standard tuning, everything sounds muddy and poor quality, probably because of the short scale (26.5). Using drop F fixed this. I don't know if this is even a good idea but at least sounds correctly now

I keep mine in standard F#. I still get beefy riffs without losing clarity. Like i want to hit an F#5 and have it not sound like mush, but still rattle the nut sack

I have my 8 string tuned to Eb1 standard. It used to be in F Standard but after I got my 9 string and tuned down a half step I decided to go lower on my 8 to have C# Standard on strings 1 to 6.

Thanks, man for sharing this. Very interesting video. Willing to test new tunings and crossing my fingers that my poor Harley Benton stays in tune. You just own a new subscriber. Cheers.

Hey! Thanks....you've gained another Subscriber! I've settled into dropped E tuning....and use my 8 string for some Ambient Guitar backing for the Music I create. Take Care.

I usually have my 8 strings in drop E, but I spent some time messing around with the Monuments tuning because I was learning some of their 8 string songs and it is super fun to play with as well. It is a variation of DADGAD but adapted to the 8 string range F Bb F Bb Eb F Bb Eb

Awesome video, great information, but I have a small... caveat for it. I don't think that F# Standard tuning should throw a wrench into things, since we already have a B and those notes are an octave or two apart and the F# is up a tone from E so just think about playing from the 2nd fret on the E string upwards. That's how I learned to play an 8 string in... a day :)

I want an 8 string that goes A E A D G B E A. I want that high A instead of a low F# because the F# competes with the kick drum and the bass in the mix, especially once something is in the 1 and 0 octaves. A high A is much more usable. The ear does not expect it and it surprises the listener to hear a note a 4th above high E. The problem is I also want this in a Floyd Rose bridge. I would need a multiscale Floyd Rose bridge with the high A shorter than 23.5". The Rusty Cooley signature Dean had a high A with a fixed bridge and it was 23.5". If a Floyd Rose can pull the high A to C/C# without breaking, the scale length would have to be short and the string gauge thin. The low F# string would stay at 25.5". Even then I am guessing the slant would be pretty extreme. The guitar keeps going lower, needlessly stepping on the bass which has a more pleasing timbre than an 8 string guitar and can do more independent voice leading in jazz and classical counterpoint than an 8 string guitarist's hand can do. Drone notes are not enough of a reason to invest in an 8 string when a bass or another guitar can do those too. Numerous guitars weaving in and out of each other with independent lines will always do more than a single 8 string guitarist can do. Putting more strings onto a guitar and tapping like many do in Tosin Abasi inspired videos does not make it a piano because you cannot hit every possible interval with the fretting hand like you can with two hands on a keyboard. The guitar needs to match the range of a grand piano (88 keys) by reaching into the 7th octave to add sweeter notes on top of sweep arpeggios, taps, and other flourishes that come with good technique. At the same time, the guitar needs to retain the ability to bend those extremely high notes sharp without breaking the string so that notes retain a more legato and vocal quality--like a pitch wheel on a synthesizer. Some have said adding on an extra octave to the fretboard would work (I have seen Michael Angelo Batio's old guitars do this), but it is not as convenient as being able to transition to another string a 4th higher. Additionally, with an extra fretboard octave scale length and tension would increase and the frets in the upper third octave would become very close together, requiring excellent technique. Edit: Why not a Digitech Whammy pedal to pitch shift up a 4th? Turning it on and off and sweeping the pedal to just the right place for just a few fast notes is awkward, and a digitally raised pitch sounds different than a physical string tuned to that pitch in the same way that two guitars playing in harmony sound different than a single guitar with a harmonizer effect.

I used an open D tuning so I just extend that tuning for 7 or 8 strings. Its not really a "metal" tuning but it can me heavy if you want it to be. F#ADADF#AD

Double drop d is a good one that I use for deathcore

It seams like many deathcore bands tune in E A E A D G B E, which is a drop A with a bottom E

I use eaeadgbe cause I like how it sounds

I use the “Drop E” tuning on mine. It makes for easy one-finger power chords using strings 6-8. With the “A” tuning, doesn’t that put too much tension on the neck, and what gauge string would use use for the high A?

On a regular fretted 27" scale with a super light gauge (9 to 65), the G# standard tuning sounds cleanest to me due to the increased string tension. Weird construction this 170€ Harley

What do you think of Drop E with a Drop A on the 7th String? So basically 7String Drop A with a low E above?

hey thomas, what about a drop tuning on a 8 string like d-a-d-a-d-g-b-e ? for me, it makes sense but maybe there are points against it

Ok but why the ugly guitar?

I like to keep my 8 string in drop E for the most part. I'm a bass player too, but I don't have a bass that can tune an octave down, and trying to play bass riffs in F# standard is kind of a pain, so I like keeping my 8 string in drop E so I can more easily arrange bass lines to go with my 8 string riffs. I also like drop E because my favorite band, and the band that got me to buy an 8 string, Haken play in drop E a lot. They do use F# standard a fair amount too, but most of my favorite 8 string riffs of theirs are in drop E. An amalgamation of the first point and that I play 7 string more than 8 string, especially in drop A, I've been experimenting with a drop A/E tuning, so EAEADGBE. It makes it even easier to arrange bass lines in that tuning, and I get access to 7 string drop A along with the low E string. I just discovered your channel with this video, and I'm super excited to drive into more of your stuff! I think there's a definite lack of 8 string guitar educational content which, at least for me, can sometimes make exploring the 8 string a little daunting and overwhelming when I don't have much of a framework on where to start haha

Double Drop C# Tuning =/= Drop C#1 (Drop C# an octave below) Double Drop C# Tuning = C# G# C# G# C# F# A# D# Another example of this is the tuning that Rings of Saturn uses: AEAEADGBE (Double Drop A)