Eight-string standard tuning (F♯ standard)

F#1 · B1 · E2 · A2 · D3 · G3 · B3 · E4

An eight-string adds a low F♯ below the seven-string's B, reaching 46.2 Hz — below the lowest note of a standard four-string bass. Like the seven-string, the tuning is purely additive: the six strings you know stay exactly where they are, and the two extra ones sit underneath. It is the instrument of progressive and extended-range metal, and it is genuinely a different thing to play rather than a guitar with more of the same.

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Strings

  • 8F#1
  • 7B1
  • 6E2
  • 5A2
  • 4D3
  • 3G3
  • 2B3
  • 1E4

Last few seconds

Harmonics

How far each overtone sits above its ideal position. A stiff, wound string rises to the right.

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What to aim at

Matches what it hears to the nearest string of the tuning.

What it does to your playing

Two extra strings extend the range down by a minor seventh, which is enough that the instrument overlaps most of a bass guitar's territory. That is the real compositional question the eight-string poses — down there you are either replacing the bass or fighting it, and the writing has to decide which. Chord voicings that work beautifully in the middle of the neck become unusable across the low strings, for the same critical-band reason that makes Drop B muddy. Most eight-string playing keeps the bottom strings monophonic.

Strings and setup

A long scale is effectively required; 27" or a fanned multi-scale is typical, because an F♯ on a 25.5" scale is slack whatever gauge you fit. The eighth string runs .070 or heavier. At 46 Hz a single waveform period is over a thousand samples long, and measuring it needs an analysis window most tuners simply do not use — this one derives its window from the instrument you selected, which is why picking "8-string guitar" here matters rather than tuning it as a guitar.

Other tunings

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