Construction and Tuning
While the extended-range bass instruments are built using the same design methods as the more traditional electric bass, some performers view it as an entirely new instrument, since its expanded range permits high-register melodies, four- and five-note chords, and other techniques.
Construction of basses with more than 7 strings has largely been the realm of boutique luthiers, with the exception of several production-run models including Galveston 7- and 8-string basses and the recently discontinued Conklin Groove-Tools line of 7-string basses. Some extended-range basses are tailor-made to a player's specific preferences, including much variation in scale length, appearance, and electronics. Due to the fact that the scale length of a typical bass guitar (34" or 35") produces excessive tension on the highest strings of extended-range basses, many builders opt to use slanted or fanned frets to achieve a variable-scale instrument (such as the instruments by Novax Guitars ) and prevent these strings from breaking.
Usually, extended-range basses are tuned in 4ths, and the most common methods include tuning 7-string bass to F#BEADGC or BEADGCF, an 8-string to F#BEADGCF, a 9-string to F#BEADGCFBb, a 10-string to C#F#BEADGCFBb or F#BEADGCFBbEb, an 11-string to C#F#BEADGCFBbEb or F#BEADGCFBbEbAb, and a 12-string to C#F#BEADGCFBbEbAb or BEADGCFBbEbAbDbGb.
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