oepion
G.A.S. Guzzler
Lots of good advice already given, just wanted to add a couple of things that I don't think anyone has mentioned yet:
The heavier the gauge, the less clear the sound is. Hence the importance of a longer scale length: even if you manage to downtune a 25.5" guitar to have the same range as a 27" guitar, you'll be using quite heavier gauge strings with the 25.5" resulting in a muddier sound than the lighter gauge strings on the 27" would produce. If you're gonna play rhythm then the difference in clarity could become noticeable.
The other thing has to do with playability. If you go the hardware route and you have never played on an 8 string, it will be quite the adjustment coming from a 6 string. You'll need to relearn some of your right hand muting technique, especially when soloing if you don't want to have those low strings adding unwanted noise while you play on the higher strings. This also means it'll be quite harder to do things like sweeps or tapping "cleanly" on an 8 string guitar. Sure some guys like Tosin Abasi have no issues doing that, but very few professional guitarists actually solo on 8 string guitars. Even in the downtuned prog and metalcore world with lots of lead guitar work, many bands like Periphery or Veil of Maya mostly use 6/7 string guitars. That wouldn't be such an issue as you already have 6 strings guitar on which you can continue to solo, but an important consideration for someone who plans to only own an 8 string guitar.
Edit: One more thing about string gauge - I recently switched from 0.74 to 0.80 for my low 8th (on a 27", I found the 0.74 to be a bit sloppy in drop E). I actually had to get the nut widened as the 0.80 wouldn't fit the factory nut. That's obviously a non reversible operation, if I went back to 0.74 I'd need a new nut installed. So my point is pay attention to how the strings are tapered. They only tend to be tapered towards the very end and if your neck is too short the section where it tapers will be past the nut and you'd need to widen the nut. So if you try to use a heavier gauge such as a 0.74 on a 25.5", make sure it tapers right before the nut and not after.
The heavier the gauge, the less clear the sound is. Hence the importance of a longer scale length: even if you manage to downtune a 25.5" guitar to have the same range as a 27" guitar, you'll be using quite heavier gauge strings with the 25.5" resulting in a muddier sound than the lighter gauge strings on the 27" would produce. If you're gonna play rhythm then the difference in clarity could become noticeable.
The other thing has to do with playability. If you go the hardware route and you have never played on an 8 string, it will be quite the adjustment coming from a 6 string. You'll need to relearn some of your right hand muting technique, especially when soloing if you don't want to have those low strings adding unwanted noise while you play on the higher strings. This also means it'll be quite harder to do things like sweeps or tapping "cleanly" on an 8 string guitar. Sure some guys like Tosin Abasi have no issues doing that, but very few professional guitarists actually solo on 8 string guitars. Even in the downtuned prog and metalcore world with lots of lead guitar work, many bands like Periphery or Veil of Maya mostly use 6/7 string guitars. That wouldn't be such an issue as you already have 6 strings guitar on which you can continue to solo, but an important consideration for someone who plans to only own an 8 string guitar.
Edit: One more thing about string gauge - I recently switched from 0.74 to 0.80 for my low 8th (on a 27", I found the 0.74 to be a bit sloppy in drop E). I actually had to get the nut widened as the 0.80 wouldn't fit the factory nut. That's obviously a non reversible operation, if I went back to 0.74 I'd need a new nut installed. So my point is pay attention to how the strings are tapered. They only tend to be tapered towards the very end and if your neck is too short the section where it tapers will be past the nut and you'd need to widen the nut. So if you try to use a heavier gauge such as a 0.74 on a 25.5", make sure it tapers right before the nut and not after.
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