Fredrik Thordendal's guitar strings: the Meshuggah 8-string rig, sourced

What's on the guitar

Fredrik Thordendal's rig has shifted across Meshuggah's catalog, but the core elements have been consistent:

• Guitars: Nevborn custom 8-string (29.4-inch scale), Ibanez M80M and other Ibanez 8-string signatures, Strandberg 8-strings in recent touring.
• Strings: Custom heavy 8-string sets, low string typically .080+. Brand affiliation flagged uncited as of this page's review.
• Tuning: 8-string in F or E on the low string, varying by album cycle.
• Pickups: Lundgren M8, the band's signature 8-string humbucker.
• Amps: Various tube and modeling rigs across the catalog. Fractal Audio rigs have been part of recent tours.

Meshuggah is the band that defined what 8-string metal could be at the highest level. Their commitment to 8-string starting with Catch Thirtythree in 2005 made the instrument viable for mainstream metal in a way that earlier isolated 8-string usage hadn't. Tosin Abasi, the Animals as Leaders / Abasi Concepts founder, has cited Meshuggah as a primary influence on his decision to commit to 8-string.

Endorsed vs. verified use

Thordendal's gear is documented through Meshuggah's recording and touring footprint rather than through traditional artist-endorsement channels. The Lundgren M8 pickup is widely confirmed as Meshuggah's signature 8-string pickup. Specific string brand and gauge are uncited as of this page's review, Meshuggah's gear documentation is sparser than the djent-lane bands they influenced, and current primary-source quotes on string choice are limited.

Why long scale length matters for this rig

Meshuggah's polyrhythmic rhythm guitar work depends on the low string's ability to produce a defined, articulate attack at speed under heavy palm muting. Tuning the low string to F or E (a half-step or whole step below F# standard) means the string is operating at a pitch that conventional 27-inch 8-string scale handles only with extreme low-string gauges (.084+), and extreme gauges produce their own articulation problems.

The 29.4-inch Nevborn scale lets a more moderate gauge (perhaps .074 or .080 for low E) hold the pitch at meaningful tension with cleaner articulation. The trade-off is unconventional ergonomics, 29.4 inches is significantly longer than the 27- and 28.625-inch production 8-string standards, and bend feel on the upper strings is correspondingly different.

On Meshuggah's polyrhythmic vocabulary

Thordendal and Mårten Hagström's locked-in polyrhythmic rhythm work is the defining sound of Meshuggah and the conceptual ancestor of djent. Their compositions construct riff cycles where the rhythm guitar's accent pattern moves against a fixed 4/4 drum pulse, creating a perceived disorientation that resolves periodically to downbeat. Executing this style at performance speed requires string articulation that survives polyrhythmic palm-mute density, which is the engineering rationale for the long-scale, custom-gauge, Lundgren-pickup signal chain.

Sources

• Meshuggah Premier Guitar Rig Rundown coverage (multiple, across albums).
• Lundgren Pickups M8 product documentation.
• Nevborn Guitars custom 8-string catalog.
• Strandberg artist roster (recent inclusion).

Re-dated on each Meshuggah album cycle or major rig change.

If you want this rig

Next steps

• Full 8-string lane: 8-string gauge guide, Top 10 8-string players.
• Adjacent 8-string rigs: Tosin Abasi (cites Meshuggah as influence), Stephen Carpenter (Deftones), Wes Hauch.
• Tuning guides: F# standard, Drop E.
• Producer context: Ermin Hamidovic (prog-metal mix lane that descends from Meshuggah's influence).