Hi all,
Well I do hope not to cause a negative controversy here, but I can't see *where* any 8-string bass was used on Fortune Seller.
The octave sound comes from an octaver effect (again - this is IMHO). What my ears tell me is that the octave effect is used with a flanger. Futhermore, and assuming that the spector bass is a regular 8-string, it wouldn't even reproduce the notes played on Fortune Seller as the main riff low octave goes to low D and the other part goes even lower to an almost subsonic low A. My ears also detect the usual (mis)tracking of the fundamental that occours when using this kind of effects.
Here's a little excerpt of a past discussion about this subject that went on alt.music.yes on January 1998.
me : "Is it a 5 string? Mind you, I just *heard* the cd and I always imagine
it's the "ugly" Electra with the Flange and Octave fx. "
Greg Young: "I think on Fortune Seller Chris plays through an octave pedal. Listen
closely, a Roland octave pedal will 'give out' if it gets more than one note
going through it, the signal can't decide which note to divide so it 'vibrates'
and you can hear Chris' bass doing that. Listen to it with headphones on."
me "Furthermore, he uses another effect which seems like a flanger to me.
That's why I thought about the Electra bass with the built-in octave and
flanger... Listen to other tunes with that bass (City of LOve, Cinema,
Leave It, Lift me UP, Tempus Fugit) and you can compare the sounds.
I also tried an Octave with Flanger using my 4001CS and the sound is
really close... so it may be the old Rick... remenber Chris also uses a
Flanger with the Rick on OYE (track) ... the little riff just before
steve's solo...
Wonderlove also has flanging on the bass, btw. Chris must have liked a
lot to use the effect... it gives sometimes that oriental feeling like
steve's Coral sitar..."
So, I still mantain my idea... maybe it was used on some overdub, or it was indeed tried out and didn't make it to the final mix...
But, again, and sorry if I'm being picky, I would swear it's the Ricky on octave, flanger with a big deal of compression to start with, being the Elektra with built-in FX as a second guess. If I'm wrong... well I'm wrong

Nevertheless and most of all - great bassline!
so there... peace and greetings to all of you
Miguel