FORTIN AMPS

The Ultimate Guide to Tightening 7 and 8-String GuitarTone

Name: 33® - Fredrik Thordendal Signature Boost
Brand: Fortin Amps
SKU: 7680
Price: 233.33 USD
Availability: InStock

So, you’ve crossed the threshold. You added a seventh - or maybe even an eighth - string to your arsenal. You’re ready to shake the foundations of the earth, but instead, your amp sounds like a leaf blower struggling with a wet pile of laundry.

When you’re dealing with frequencies that rival a bass guitar, the line between crushing clarity and unintelligible mud is razor-thin. Standard gear often chokes on the massive low-end information of a .074 or .080 gauge string. If you want that percussive, "djenty" snap, you need to stop thinking about adding gain and start thinking about surgical subtraction. In the world of extreme high-gain, Fortin Amplification is the undisputed king of this discipline. Here is how to use our tools to rescue your tone.

BOOSTS

1. The Pre-Gain "Cleanse" - Fortin 33 & Grind

The biggest mistake 8-string players make is sending too much bass into the front of the amp. This causes the preamp tubes to "fart out," losing all note definition. To fix this, you need a specialized frequency boost before the amp.

The Fortin 33: This is the Fredrik Thordendal (Meshuggah) signature "sonic detonation" tool. It provides a massive +22dB boost, but its real magic is the internal fixed EQ. It aggressively cuts the sub-bass frequencies and pushes the high-mids, ensuring your amp only distorts the "tight" part of your signal.
The Fortin Grind: If the 33 is a sledgehammer, the Grind is a scalpel. It’s a one-knob boost that adds incredible "ping" and "air" to your pick attack, making low strings feel piano-like and responsive.

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NOISE GATE

2. Surgical Silence: The Fortin Zuul+

High-gain 8-string riffs require dead silence between notes. Traditional noise gates often "chatter" or cut off your sustain because they can't distinguish between a low-frequency note and background
hiss.

The Fortin Zuul+ solves this with its Key Input. By taking a clean signal from your guitar (via a splitter or the Zuul's own "Through" jack), the gate tracks your actual playing rather than the noisy, distorted signal. This allows for those legendary, staccato "stop-start" riffs that define modern metal.

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THE FUTURE

3. The Digital Frontier

If you are recording at home, you don't need a physical pedalboard to get this sound. The Neural DSP Fortin Nameless Suite and Fortin Cali plugins have these tightening circuits built directly into the software. The "Hexdrive" and "Grind" pedals included in these suites are modeled exactly after their hardware counterparts, giving you that Mike Fortin "modded" sound in your DAW.

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Final Thoughts...

Tightening an 8-string isn't about adding "more" of anything; it's about removing the flub. By using a Fortin 33 to shave off the muddy lows and a Zuul+ to provide surgical silence, you transform a mushy rig into a high-definition weapon. Your drummer (and your audience's ears) will thank you.