Off the top of my head, the compact headstock wouldn't fit the extra tuners and the bridge would be insanity.

[quote="guitarded":hi63l6d3]Hi, Sheldon. I think this has come up before, but would you briefly discuss the hard parts of building a fanned 8 or 10 string (octave) bass? Obviously, the bridge and headstock would be mindbenders for you, if just for a minute,. What other difficulties might there be? I'm starting a 3 piece side project and would like to fill things up a bit, and I would prefer to do it on a Dingwall, of course.



Mark[/quote:hi63l6d3]

I'd need to catch up on Prima Artists and new designs in waiting. The only challenges I can think of at the moment are sourcing the octave strings in appropriate lengths.

I've heard two Hamer 12's live. One 32" and one 34" and it's surprising how similar they sound to a fanned-fret bass.

To be honest, many times I play in power trios (drums, guitar or keyboard, and myself).

The use of chords (full blown octaves, 3rds, 4ths etc) and harmonics, along with the brilliant Dingwall high frequency presence, fills up the room nicely. Never I felt the need to have octave strings, octaver, harmonizer or anything similar as a matter of fact to fill up space

[quote="guitarded":3a4a80f0]Hi, Sheldon. I think this has come up before, but would you briefly discuss the hard parts of building a fanned 8 or 10 string (octave) bass?
Mark[/quote:3a4a80f0]

[quote="Sheldon Dingwall":3a4a80f0]I'd need to catch up on Prima Artists and new designs in waiting. The only challenges I can think of at the moment are sourcing the octave strings in appropriate lengths.[/quote:3a4a80f0]

That's the biggest challenge? Well, OK. Let me know when you are ready.

Mark

That would be a niche bass (8-string) in a niche bass (fanned fret)!

[quote="nastyn8c":3ayegb5k]Off the top of my head, the compact headstock wouldn't fit the extra tuners and the bridge would be insanity.[/quote:3ayegb5k]

A double Hipshot headstock might work. You could also mount them like a Ric 12er, maybe. Yeah, the bridge would seem to be the hard part, but Sheldon's positive/not-negative response suggests that maybe he has already considered it in the past and figured out the bridge. Once you get that settled, the rest is easy.

Mark