The ESP Guitar Company

anything below a low b, regardless of number of strings (6, 7 or 8), stings turns to mush.

i've played the ibanez 8 string and the SC-608, you can only play single note riffs on that F#, no power chords, its sounds like shit.

after playing one, i see no real use of having one.

Wrong.

My band plays in Drop A and it sounds clean and clear. It has almost nothing to do with the guitar itself, but more the amp that you're using. If you're using a Marshall or Line 6 it's definately going to sound like mush, but our guitarist plays a EC 1000 thru a peavey 6550 (and sometimes a mesa triple rec or peavey triple x, it depends on what gear we're loaning out at the time. And he runs a recording studio, that's why he has so many heads. We're not rich assholes. we're actually poor nice guys that spent all our money on gear, haha) and a Mesa 4x12, and it comes out thunderously low and clear.

The only way the guitar could be affecting the tone is the construction, the action of the neck, or too light of a string gauge. And then of course the pickups, but I highly doubt EMG would go thru the trouble of manufacturing an 8-string pickup and let it sound bad.

essentially, an 8 string without good pickups to going to sound like blah. Im almost certain Misha is using Lundgren M8s as does Meshuggah, and that has a lot to do with gettting djent from an 8 string. I played a stock Ibanez 8 through a recotverb and it couldnt keep up with any fast riffing on the F#.
But the style and manner in which you use the F# has a lot to do with the sound as well.

If you get an 8 and dont like the low F#, string it with a high A instead

edit- Periphery is the shit