A little more than 6 years ago, I got an 8-string guitar from a metal-playing acquaintance, and to see if I'd end up using this kind of guitar or not.
After all these years, this poor guitar has lived mostly on its stand or in the gigbag, only taken out once in a while to tinker on it (wiring, setup, new strings, stickers..) but never really used, so I figured I'd put it in the local classifieds and see what people would offer me for it.
Fast forward a few months, and someone offered me a straight trade, saying he had either a bass or a guitar. He brought the instruments at my place to do some playing, trying out everything etc.. And then the guy was so excited about playing the 8-string that he insisted I take both instruments, saying they took up too much space for him, etc etc.
So I basically got a normal trade + a free instrument, not going to complain !
The NGD first :
![Image](https://i.ibb.co/8xvS1fC/PXL-20210303-214748815.jpg)
Squier Affinity Strat.
When I was in high school I somewhat hated strats, associating them with late period Clapton, old guys in cover bands, and cheesy 80s pop. Now I'm over 30 and love the sound of many strat users, so I was pretty excited about owning a strat for the first time, even if it's a cheap copy.
It plays nicely, the neck and middle pickups sound OK to me, but something needs to be done about the bridge pickup. I have a hot rail style pickup in my parts bin, I might also try to put a tele bridge pickup there but it's a bit soon to already enlarge the pickguard holes, etc..
It also needs new tone pots, and maybe an upgrade of the switch. I don't really like the modern tuners on fender headstocks, but they work, I'm not gonna complain here !
I also managed to set the trem to floating on the first try, not the most stable of things but very fun to use ! Now to do all these Belew-style Talking Heads leads...
A small downside is a weird cardboardy-feeling when you play it, I don't know what causes it but I've encountered it on some cheap guitars before..
I'm already loving the internet-famous fourth position.
And the second part, the NBD :
![Image](https://i.ibb.co/VMrX4bX/PXL-20210304-113220207-crop.jpg)
A Stagg Jazz Bass copy. If you're unfamiliar with the brand, Stagg makes very entry level instruments, you might often see them in second-hand stores, and the quality varies wildly.
This particular bass is pretty nicely finished, the neck is straight and the body has no visible blemishes, but : it's very heavy.
At some point someone changed the nut for something that's too narrow, I suspect they ordered a jazz bass width but this seems to be more in the ballpark of a precision size -I already ordered a correctly-sized nut.
The electronics sound fine, I don't really have a bass rig to judge but its good enough for what I do. Also never had a bass with flatwounds, it's pretty fun !
The only upgrades/maintenance really needed now are putting some new foam under the pickups, as they wont stay up, and probably shimming the neck very lightly.
The funny thing is that the only bass I played for the last ten years is an half DIY job, also with a Stagg neck. I was complaining that it was too big and too heavy, as I have a bad back and I recently joined a band as a bass player, but now I have a standard-sized bass and it's the same size, and waaaay heavier... I will try to find a way to weigh it to see if it's really overweight or if I'm just a tall weakling
![Grin ;D](./images/smilies/grin.gif)
For fun, my old DIY "too cumbersome and heavy" bass next to the new one, that's exactly the same kind of unwieldly but also heavier :
![Image](https://i.ibb.co/N2cnbBv/PXL-20210304-140709338.jpg)