is "8-12" not "few" for you?

Relatively speaking, no. Strength training (as opposed to hypertrophy) calls for fewer reps, around 5 per set.

Many people advise spending about a year doing more sets of fewer (~5) reps to build strength, and then switch to fewer sets of more reps (8-12) when you want to build muscle mass.

Point being, the idea of doing lighter weights until failure is already kind of there in body building wisdom.

3-5 reps per set for powerlifting training. Competition lifts are a single rep.

1-3 is few