Man, I totally forgot about this thread !!
I did get that Railboard 8, and well... once I got it, I was kind of second guessing if that was a wise move or not.
I eventually tried no less than three different string arrangements, to see if I could some how make it work for me, but then once I saw how the frets were factory machined down, I realized I was stuck with what I ordered, which I still defend - Crafty tuning - so I put it back to the arrangement and set up as it was received.
What was the problem ??
The huge space running down the middle, which is much bigger in real life than what the pictures show.
At one point, Emmett was giving me a good well deserved teasing as to my complete inability to decide if I wanted the headstock to have the extra 2 holes plugged or left open - should I desire to convert it to a 10 string.
This caused great anexiety and in the end, I went with plugged because that's the only way I knew the instrrument.
It's a phenominal instrument, but the space still bothers me.
Funny, the space on the Megatars and Warr Phalanx don't bother me, but I guess I assumed the Railboard space would have been tighter.
Now - if this was a Krappy, easy... I'd convert it into a 9 string.
But it's a Stick Enterprises instrument, and I feel very funny about doing such a mod, almost like committing a major sin - but on the other hand, the mod would not be all that hard for me to do, and as far as tuning, I'd have the new middle string tuned somewhere between the strings on either side of it, so nothing else would change.
Again, I'm a huge fan of instruments others consider garbage, because of the ease of making modifications without feeling guilty of doing something that changes the instrument.
So, decisions decisions.......
One thing is for sure - if I do decide to convert my RB 8 to an RB 9 so all strings are more or less equally spaced, I will not do anything that would cause damage to the RB, other than remove one of the plugs on the headstock - everything else would be designed to pick up existing hardware, inserts etc.
Of course, now - which plug do I knock out ???
Cheers Everybody !!
This is a real good thread, with a lot of good info for me anyway through out.
If I do decide to go though with my plans, I will post pictures as I go along, as the parts come together and are fabricated, and I promise I will consult with Emmett before I actually assemble this, because if this works, there will be nothing like it out there