Description 7 string: 6 string with an extra string. Description 8 string: 7 string with an extra string. Description 9 string: 8 string with an extra string.
+Liam Zuiderhoek Djent edition 2020: Description 9 string: a guitar. Description 8 string: 9 string without an extra string. Description 7 string: 9 string without 2 extra strings. Description 6 string: 9 string without 3 extra strings, but who wanted that abomination anyway?
"Really clear low end on these pickups" proceeds to chug all three low strings together, no discernible note whatsoever "Super clear low end, notes are separated really well" LOL
Yeah, there's one thing people don't understand. Just try to play a chord in the lowest octave of a piano; even notes that should sound good together as far as music theory is concerned will sound like utter crap - due to all the interferences in the low register. So, guys, STOP PLAYING POWER CHORDS ON THE 9th STRING! Perhaps not even on the 8th string. You wouldn't play chords on a bass either, would you? ;) That's why the clean part he does in this video sounds much better - not because it's clean, but because it consists of single notes and mostly octaves :) .
I am absolutely loving the threads on all of the 8 and 9 string guitar videos out there. People are freaking out about how "WRONG" it is to have any more than 6 strings. It makes me think back to the middle ages, when the clavichord (invented around 1504) was seen as the 6 string guitar of keyed instruments. The Clavichord only had 40-60 keys. Then in 1702, the "modern" piano, as we acknowledge it, was invented. The "modern" piano has 88 keys. Anyone catching a pattern? The Piano was a mockery, until talented writers like Mozart came along. Just saying people.... Don't be so quick to mock it. You'll just go down in history as the ignorant bigot that was too naive and scared to recognize an ingenious invention.
have to agree with you totally, Although Ill never buy a 8 or 9 string guitar, those that can PLAY one should be hailed as genius ! I guess there will always be loads of kids that simply think , going lower makes them sound heavier ... Only reason ill never own one is that I simply cant use the extra low end. a 7 string tuned to A is as low as im keen to explore before picking up a bass guitar and even then Im light years away from exhausting the ideas with that one. Ive played 8 strings and I simply don't see the merit FOR MY PLAYING or interest but LOVE seeing good players exploit the possibilities with 7 8 or 9 string guitars, Tosin Abasi is exactly case and point !
IMO a 9-string is best for clean 2-handed tapping stuff. A number of guitarists use them for that reason. If you search "9 string guitar song" a few clean tapping songs will come up and I think those sound beautiful. I think the reason ERGs get a bad rap is a lot of players only use them for djent chugging and aren't creative enough to exploit the full range of the instrument. I want a 9-string just because I think it would be an excellent writing tool.
I love it, but I doubt I'd use it for the C#. I'd more likely the last string as a second F# or even a second high E string, so as to give myself a chorus/detune effect for one of the strings.
I love the idea of extended range guitars, but I feel like the low end of a guitar can only go so low before it becomes unnecessarily noisy. I used to like dicking around with my 8 string but found that I would cover the same range of notes playing the same riffs on a 6, but that the key of d2 was far clearer (playing mostly in drop d or dadgad)
Drives me nuts seeing people treat these like a guitar with a built in bass. These guitars can sound amazing dialed in right. Getting a good Heavy low end sound at that range is always going to sound muddy if you hit it with a 3 string power chord. A two string chug sounds massive and add a real bass into the mix and you have that doom sound people like. The low end is also great for ambient and classical styles on these guitars as well but you have to know how to dial the amp in and use the right gear.
a guitar amp will work, and is what you are supposed to use for these instruments. just don't expect to get a good tone for these out of a single speaker combo. you need at least 2 12's to sound decent ( as Sam is using in the vid ) but a full cab and separate head is really ideal for these.
Extended range guitars are nothing much new, it was done in the seventies If not before. These type of guitars seem to marketed as broadening you're sonic and musical spectrum, when in reality I find alot of players who use these guitars play the same 6 string riffs on these but just in a much lower register. Harmonically no different from a 6 sting. I have an 8 string and notes become too dense and muddy for chords. Most 8 and 9 strings don't have the scale length to carry the tone anyway. Nice to have the range but many players including myself struggle to create something musical. I still might get one though lol
Ok I don't know anything about building guitars, I only play them, but there is one thing I never understood, why don't they drill the holes where the srings go through to make it longer to the nut for tension instead of having these soon unplayable scale lengths? I have no problem with the scales as I have large hands, but I feel bad for people like my budy who had to sell his 7 string that only was 27" as he could not even play that.
The natural frequency is a function of the tension, the mass of the string, and the scale length. It doesn't actually matter how far the string extends beyond the nut or bridge.
if you are trying to get rid of flubber on low end then string tension is what you are after, lower guage strings do this job nicely, they are harder to play but they will sound clearer on the low register.
I get that Ibanez had to do this as a proof of concept, but i think it's something that's not going to go anywhere. Djent players are already just going back to 7 strings. Ibanez would be better off doing a wider range of 7 strings and 8 strings. The 9 string is just competing to stay relevant with rival companies like Schecter who is doing the same thing lately and competing for the same customers.
Kyle Ganger And they did this as aconcept but people asked to buy it so they released it, so they did not release it on their own account alone but for people that were screaming to get their hands on one, and hey, if in the future I got my 6 strings set up how I want them I will get atleast one 7, 8 and 9 string just for fun
I think it sounds better on a clean channel. On a dirty channel, that C# string sounded too muddy. It would be a cool instrument for Jazz music if you want to have a guitarist but no bassist.
True. In the US, they are $399 new which is like 263 GBP. Years ago I bought a 5 string ESP bass (B-55 i believe) for $200. I saw the same bass in a shop in Cardiff, Wales for like 250 GBP.
People need to stop treating the 9 string like a downtuned guitar and start treating it like a middleground or a combination of a bass and a guitar. If I had one of these I don't think I'd ever have a need to distort it more than a medium crunch/overdrive sound; the cleans are where it really shines through as a unique instrument. When you try to use it like a guitar, and playing distorted riffs down on the C#, it just sounds awful, unless you can manage to dial in a tone that keeps it mud free without sounding thin. Even then you are really gonna have a tough time playing a song with bass, seeing as if your bass player did somehow manage to downtune to a C# an octave below the 9 string, the fundamental would be below the human hearing range.
It's very possible for bass player to play the really low octaves on like 7 or 8 string bass more than likely. Conventional bass... unless it's like 35 scale with fanned frets, the tension would be really tricky to set just right. But, apparently the bass players in bands with guitarists like these use the exact same tuning at that point. Helps to tighten up the low overtones and overall make them sound a bit crisper. For example, if you look up Carthage, they're a band who uses a 9 string tuned an octave below Drop A#. So a couple steps lower from standard 9 and the bass player is identically tuned to his low end. Even thought their tone is somewhat weak, songwriting is mediocre and it seems gimmicky... they at least have a bit of clarity on such low ass notes with their dialed in tone.
IMO a 9-string is best for clean 2-handed tapping stuff. A number of guitarists use them for that reason. If you search "9 string guitar song" a few clean tapping songs will come up and I think those sound beautiful. I think the reason ERGs get a bad rap is a lot of players only use them for djent chugging and aren't creative enough to exploit the full range of the instrument. I want a 9-string just because I think it would be an excellent writing tool.
So cool that you can get guitar and bass tones out of the same axe. Must be a bitch to transition to a 9-string from I standard 6-string I would guess.
Saw Glass Cloud last Monday and Josh Travis was using a Legator nine string. The only use for anything above 7 string is either for super heavy shit that doesn't even need to exist or to prove how big a douche you are. You can't just pick one of these up and start jamming on it, takes a while getting used to. Even a 8 string is too big for my hands. This is basically a bass/guitar combo you could say
When I heard ibanez were working on a 9 string prototype I thought they'd create a multi scale and try accommodate a high A string. This isn't multi scale so for those of you thinking you'd tune it like a regular 8 string plus a high A then you're out of luck. I got to play one of these a few weeks ago and it's the flattest fretboard I've ever played.
lowest ill go is 7 strings......i like to watch people play 8s and 9s but im not gonna go there.....lol.....to many strings for me....i can just about play a 7.
Jesus, this sounds horrible. Just.. don't play a 9 string. 8 is the sensible limit. Unless for some reason you fancy adding random bits that go BLURK BLURK BLURK tunelessly to your songs.
charly88888888 9 strings have their uses, just not for heavy music. Even with 8 strings, a lot of people sound like shit because they don't understand the tonal qualities of those low frequencies on an otherwise standard guitar, much less under heavy gain. I've seen some guys on 9 strings playing jazz stuff with multiple parts, bassline, chords and melody, and it sounded good. But you have to be a moron to think chugging on a low C# is a a good idea. I'm sure someone like Tosin Abasi would still find use for this, but he's a bit of an exception to the rule. I honestly think most people should stick to 7 and never drop it past A, most bands that go lower end up sounding awful.
I can see it working clean if the person playing knows what they're doing. But definitely not dirty, and let's face it, it will be played almost exclusively dirty, and that's what it's been designed for. Just in terms of physics, this is a shitty idea. You've got a string which is tuned lower than the bottom string on a bass, on a shorter scale length, with a string that's too thin - and needs to be, because it doesn't have the room to vibrate like on a bass. It's just generally a terrible badly-designed concept to cater to idiotic djent kiddies who want to be more supermegaextreme than the next guy and clearly the lower the note the cooler it is.
IMO a 9-string is best for clean 2-handed tapping stuff. A number of guitarists use them for that reason. If you search "9 string guitar song" a few clean tapping songs will come up and I think they sound beautiful. I think the reason ERGs get a bad rap is a lot of players only use them for djent chugging and aren't creative enough to exploit the full range of the instrument. I want a 9-string just because I think it would be an excellent writing tool.
well you could say the same thing for a lot of jazz/prg rock bassists who've been rocking 5 and 6+ string basses for many years..its all a matter of musical and tonal tastes
Description 7 string: 6 string with an extra string.
Description 8 string: 7 string with an extra string.
Description 9 string: 8 string with an extra string.
+Liam Zuiderhoek Djent edition 2020:
Description 9 string: a guitar.
Description 8 string: 9 string without an extra string.
Description 7 string: 9 string without 2 extra strings.
Description 6 string: 9 string without 3 extra strings, but who wanted that abomination anyway?
+ToxicTV 2020?
It'd be like
Description 9 string: a guitar without 41 extra strings. Not recommended because it lacks of brown notes.
The 10 string will be described as the future 11 string, minus one string.
@@mtus647 you're not far off
"Really clear low end on these pickups"
proceeds to chug all three low strings together, no discernible note whatsoever
"Super clear low end, notes are separated really well"
LOL
Yeah, there's one thing people don't understand. Just try to play a chord in the lowest octave of a piano; even notes that should sound good together as far as music theory is concerned will sound like utter crap - due to all the interferences in the low register.
So, guys, STOP PLAYING POWER CHORDS ON THE 9th STRING! Perhaps not even on the 8th string. You wouldn't play chords on a bass either, would you? ;)
That's why the clean part he does in this video sounds much better - not because it's clean, but because it consists of single notes and mostly octaves :) .
I play what ever I want!
get better headphones
I am absolutely loving the threads on all of the 8 and 9 string guitar videos out there. People are freaking out about how "WRONG" it is to have any more than 6 strings. It makes me think back to the middle ages, when the clavichord (invented around 1504) was seen as the 6 string guitar of keyed instruments. The Clavichord only had 40-60 keys. Then in 1702, the "modern" piano, as we acknowledge it, was invented. The "modern" piano has 88 keys. Anyone catching a pattern? The Piano was a mockery, until talented writers like Mozart came along. Just saying people.... Don't be so quick to mock it. You'll just go down in history as the ignorant bigot that was too naive and scared to recognize an ingenious invention.
have to agree with you totally, Although Ill never buy a 8 or 9 string guitar, those that can PLAY one should be hailed as genius ! I guess there will always be loads of kids that simply think , going lower makes them sound heavier ... Only reason ill never own one is that I simply cant use the extra low end. a 7 string tuned to A is as low as im keen to explore before picking up a bass guitar and even then Im light years away from exhausting the ideas with that one. Ive played 8 strings and I simply don't see the merit FOR MY PLAYING or interest but LOVE seeing good players exploit the possibilities with 7 8 or 9 string guitars, Tosin Abasi is exactly case and point !
True
IMO a 9-string is best for clean 2-handed tapping stuff. A number of guitarists use them for that reason. If you search "9 string guitar song" a few clean tapping songs will come up and I think those sound beautiful. I think the reason ERGs get a bad rap is a lot of players only use them for djent chugging and aren't creative enough to exploit the full range of the instrument. I want a 9-string just because I think it would be an excellent writing tool.
I wouldn't want a 9 string but I think it's really cool that Ibanez isn't afraid to put out new, interesting models.
I love it, but I doubt I'd use it for the C#. I'd more likely the last string as a second F# or even a second high E string, so as to give myself a chorus/detune effect for one of the strings.
Imagine making an actual 12 string guitar (not the one that has two octaves) that is the ultimate extended range guitar of all.
I love the idea of extended range guitars, but I feel like the low end of a guitar can only go so low before it becomes unnecessarily noisy. I used to like dicking around with my 8 string but found that I would cover the same range of notes playing the same riffs on a 6, but that the key of d2 was far clearer (playing mostly in drop d or dadgad)
id say the 9 string is a bit much but its all for creativity
Sam Bell...... Mikael Akerfeldt's younger cousin...
Oh and I am curious about this guitar ;)
Is that low c# a c#0 by chance? I'm struggling to get my 27" 8 strings to hold a C#0 without some extreme modding!
It's C#1, fundamentally 3 notes lower than a 4-string bass's E1, but with a different tone.
9 strings rule... the blatant hate for another optional instrument is hilarious.
just to the fools who dont have the tonal imagination to play one
"a nice clear low end for playing the lower stuff"
*sounds like diarhea*
Exactly my thoughts
Sam Bell is sick!
Drives me nuts seeing people treat these like a guitar with a built in bass. These guitars can sound amazing dialed in right. Getting a good Heavy low end sound at that range is always going to sound muddy if you hit it with a 3 string power chord. A two string chug sounds massive and add a real bass into the mix and you have that doom sound people like.
The low end is also great for ambient and classical styles on these guitars as well but you have to know how to dial the amp in and use the right gear.
I thought 8 strings sounded bad enough, 9 strings is just too low, the riffs start to sound so flappy and muddy at such a low frequency
8 strings sound bad?..tell that to (animals as leaders) and (meshuggah) just to name a couple
So.. what kind of amp u need to use those brown note machines? Bass or guitar?
a guitar amp will work, and is what you are supposed to use for these instruments. just don't expect to get a good tone for these out of a single speaker combo. you need at least 2 12's to sound decent ( as Sam is using in the vid ) but a full cab and separate head is really ideal for these.
Disgusting amp tone... ruins the otherwise nice tone of the RG9 pickups.
Wouldn't know where to start. Very niche, although suppose they had to make one.......
ima just wait till Tosin gets the custom signature model done and buy that in about a year.
Hey can i ask u? How to tune Ibanez RG9😊
Extended range guitars are nothing much new, it was done in the seventies If not before.
These type of guitars seem to marketed as broadening you're sonic and musical spectrum, when in reality I find alot of players who use these guitars play the same 6 string riffs on these but just in a much lower register. Harmonically no different from a 6 sting.
I have an 8 string and notes become too dense and muddy for chords. Most 8 and 9 strings don't have the scale length to carry the tone anyway.
Nice to have the range but many players including myself struggle to create something musical.
I still might get one though lol
Ok I don't know anything about building guitars, I only play them, but there is one thing I never understood, why don't they drill the holes where the srings go through to make it longer to the nut for tension instead of having these soon unplayable scale lengths? I have no problem with the scales as I have large hands, but I feel bad for people like my budy who had to sell his 7 string that only was 27" as he could not even play that.
The natural frequency is a function of the tension, the mass of the string, and the scale length. It doesn't actually matter how far the string extends beyond the nut or bridge.
Eric Folsom Okay ^^ thanks for clearing that up. :)
if you are trying to get rid of flubber on low end then string tension is what you are after, lower guage strings do this job nicely, they are harder to play but they will sound clearer on the low register.
Anybody else want one just for clean?
Me
+Jonathan Sefcik have you listened to dan james Griffin?
+Rory Green
no
+Jonathan Sefcik check him out on here, his clean stuff is really good
..."It sounds like this (shit)". The only good demo of this guitar I've seen was made by After The Burial dude. You can actually HEAR the 9th string.
The only person authorized to play this guitar is justin lowe from after the burial on neo seoul song
@@bimsalabim8820 too bad he's not around to play it anymore
I get that Ibanez had to do this as a proof of concept, but i think it's something that's not going to go anywhere. Djent players are already just going back to 7 strings. Ibanez would be better off doing a wider range of 7 strings and 8 strings.
The 9 string is just competing to stay relevant with rival companies like Schecter who is doing the same thing lately and competing for the same customers.
They are trying to take hold of a market basically held by Agile/Rondo, since they were the first manufacturer to make production 9 and 10 strings.
Kyle Ganger
And they did this as aconcept but people asked to buy it so they released it, so they did not release it on their own account alone but for people that were screaming to get their hands on one, and hey, if in the future I got my 6 strings set up how I want them I will get atleast one 7, 8 and 9 string just for fun
djent players going back to 7 string?..i dont think so man
I know this guy can play, he should of really wrote something better to demo it.
I understand if it was last minute.
Justin lowe authority
That guitar need some higher output pickups or more distortion with he was playing the distortion sounded weak
I tend to believe he didn't get a lot of times to mess with the amp
I think it sounds better on a clean channel. On a dirty channel, that C# string sounded too muddy. It would be a cool instrument for Jazz music if you want to have a guitarist but no bassist.
689 is a good price for the uk where guitars cost twice as much as everywhere else
if you buy it from thomann in germany you can get it for £602 shipped to the UK
True. In the US, they are $399 new which is like 263 GBP. Years ago I bought a 5 string ESP bass (B-55 i believe) for $200. I saw the same bass in a shop in Cardiff, Wales for like 250 GBP.
Man, 9 strings, that's waaaay too mouch, i'm hoping for ibanez to put some 7 string RG with 27" scale, and tune it down to F#, i don't ask for more
They did.
1077XL, 2077XL, and the RG7421XL I think were the names of them.
Ask for larger hands, this neck can play like 2-3% of total guitar players population
Ironing board with strings!!
impressive sounding evil guitar lol!!!
I can't play for shit but still want to distance myself from other guitar players to "seem" cool. I'll take that 9 string.
I feel sad for the fellas who can't hear power chords while playing 8 and 9.
You must be doing something wrong.
say "nice" one more time, reviewer.
play teen spirit starting on low strings lol
What is the string gauge for this shit?
If you want a bass, buy a bass. If you want a guitar buy guitar. But this is too far... I love you ibanez
And two truss rods, like a Rickenbacker
People need to stop treating the 9 string like a downtuned guitar and start treating it like a middleground or a combination of a bass and a guitar. If I had one of these I don't think I'd ever have a need to distort it more than a medium crunch/overdrive sound; the cleans are where it really shines through as a unique instrument.
When you try to use it like a guitar, and playing distorted riffs down on the C#, it just sounds awful, unless you can manage to dial in a tone that keeps it mud free without sounding thin. Even then you are really gonna have a tough time playing a song with bass, seeing as if your bass player did somehow manage to downtune to a C# an octave below the 9 string, the fundamental would be below the human hearing range.
It's very possible for bass player to play the really low octaves on like 7 or 8 string bass more than likely. Conventional bass... unless it's like 35 scale with fanned frets, the tension would be really tricky to set just right. But, apparently the bass players in bands with guitarists like these use the exact same tuning at that point. Helps to tighten up the low overtones and overall make them sound a bit crisper. For example, if you look up Carthage, they're a band who uses a 9 string tuned an octave below Drop A#. So a couple steps lower from standard 9 and the bass player is identically tuned to his low end. Even thought their tone is somewhat weak, songwriting is mediocre and it seems gimmicky... they at least have a bit of clarity on such low ass notes with their dialed in tone.
IMO a 9-string is best for clean 2-handed tapping stuff. A number of guitarists use them for that reason. If you search "9 string guitar song" a few clean tapping songs will come up and I think those sound beautiful. I think the reason ERGs get a bad rap is a lot of players only use them for djent chugging and aren't creative enough to exploit the full range of the instrument. I want a 9-string just because I think it would be an excellent writing tool.
Just a guitar for guitarist who dream to be bassist ;)
I am one of those XD
ThePcGamer ultimatly, there is already such a thing, the Fender Bass 6 ! ;)
So cool that you can get guitar and bass tones out of the same axe. Must be a bitch to transition to a 9-string from I standard 6-string I would guess.
Except you can't
i have an 8 string and honestly you can get pretty close. i impressed my bassist with the sounds I could get out of it
He looks like a poor mans Guthrie Govan
so does your grandmother ;P
Jesus you don't need a 9 string guitar, 6 is enough!
Nah man. I'm good.
Ewwwww. 6 is normal. 7 is very cool . 8 is for skilled players. 9 is wtf. This has no use only to chug.
Wanting to go high and wanting to go low has no skill requirements.
this is the dumbest shit ive ever read..... Thinking like this is what sets apart pros from diddlers.
SyncopatedFin sure . but we are talking about guitar players that are good
Saw Glass Cloud last Monday and Josh Travis was using a Legator nine string. The only use for anything above 7 string is either for super heavy shit that doesn't even need to exist or to prove how big a douche you are. You can't just pick one of these up and start jamming on it, takes a while getting used to. Even a 8 string is too big for my hands. This is basically a bass/guitar combo you could say
your opinion..but not fact
wotta mess
When I heard ibanez were working on a 9 string prototype I thought they'd create a multi scale and try accommodate a high A string. This isn't multi scale so for those of you thinking you'd tune it like a regular 8 string plus a high A then you're out of luck. I got to play one of these a few weeks ago and it's the flattest fretboard I've ever played.
Get an Agile 92427 and I would look for one that is 24.0 on the high side. Any longer and A4 becomes really prone to breakage.
lowest ill go is 7 strings......i like to watch people play 8s and 9s but im not gonna go there.....lol.....to many strings for me....i can just about play a 7.
Southpaw lives matter!
Wow, that sounded wholly.... mediocre... the best part was the clean bass slapping. I think I'll just buy a proper bass guitar.
No, it definitely sounded like a low, muddy mess.
Very sorry but that tone makes me want to vomit
I suddenly feel far better about my own skill level on guitar... thanks for that Sam.
Irony.
you've obviously never seen any of sams yt videos of his compositions
I'm not commenting on those videos though am I.
Left Past Saturn
well you're criticizing his playing so wtf?
Get over it.
Left Past Saturn
sure.. right after you get UNDER me buttercup ;P
Jesus, this sounds horrible.
Just.. don't play a 9 string. 8 is the sensible limit. Unless for some reason you fancy adding random bits that go BLURK BLURK BLURK tunelessly to your songs.
charly88888888 9 strings have their uses, just not for heavy music. Even with 8 strings, a lot of people sound like shit because they don't understand the tonal qualities of those low frequencies on an otherwise standard guitar, much less under heavy gain. I've seen some guys on 9 strings playing jazz stuff with multiple parts, bassline, chords and melody, and it sounded good. But you have to be a moron to think chugging on a low C# is a a good idea. I'm sure someone like Tosin Abasi would still find use for this, but he's a bit of an exception to the rule. I honestly think most people should stick to 7 and never drop it past A, most bands that go lower end up sounding awful.
I can see it working clean if the person playing knows what they're doing. But definitely not dirty, and let's face it, it will be played almost exclusively dirty, and that's what it's been designed for. Just in terms of physics, this is a shitty idea. You've got a string which is tuned lower than the bottom string on a bass, on a shorter scale length, with a string that's too thin - and needs to be, because it doesn't have the room to vibrate like on a bass. It's just generally a terrible badly-designed concept to cater to idiotic djent kiddies who want to be more supermegaextreme than the next guy and clearly the lower the note the cooler it is.
IMO a 9-string is best for clean 2-handed tapping stuff. A number of guitarists use them for that reason. If you search "9 string guitar song" a few clean tapping songs will come up and I think they sound beautiful. I think the reason ERGs get a bad rap is a lot of players only use them for djent chugging and aren't creative enough to exploit the full range of the instrument. I want a 9-string just because I think it would be an excellent writing tool.
well you could say the same thing for a lot of jazz/prg rock bassists who've been rocking 5 and 6+ string basses for many years..its all a matter of musical and tonal tastes
i cant.
This is too much.
this man can't play this guitar, WTF
Sounds terrible..awful muddy garbage..
That is a plank! Sounds terrible and looks ridicules.
Haha
and for the people buying them:
Ahhhahahahaha