Tosin Abasi and his 8-string Guitar
Animals as Leaders is one of my new favorite bands in the world. Very cool, ethereal shred rock. Pretty much what Steve Vai wishes he could be. One of the really cool things is it’s the first time I’ve heard something really worthwhile being done with the eighth string on a guitar.
Meshuggah play 8-strings, but they really only do that for the sake of having a really low string. They’d do better to just play sevens tuned down a fifth. Ihsahn has started playing an 8 recently, and his new album is totally fantastic. Abasi, on the other hand, is a serious guitar player using every single one of those strings.
I demoed an 8-string once myself. Really, good on anyone who can comfortably play one at all, says I.
