Abasi Concepts/Larada Megathread

I haven't found one to try in the wild, and I'm not into it enough to buy sight unseen.

But I've bought and either quickly resold or returned half a dozen Indo models. They'd be decent at ~$900 and a deal at ~$750, but $2k+ is a fucking joke. Just so little care taken for final assembly, fit & finish, etc. After being rebuilt entirely, and doing some fretwork you're left with a fairly junky, ill-conceived bridge and, to me, a not very inspiring guitar to play.

But, plenty of folks love theirs, so perhaps I'm just super unlucky or incredibly picky.

 

I have a Per Nilsson sig. It's an incredible guitar. Built very well, no real flaws. The fit and finish is pretty damn good. The pickups have a very 'paf' old, kinda squishy vibe to them which isn't to my taste but I plan on throwing some Aftermaths in it and then it's the perfect guitar for me.

 

The bridge is definitely my main gripe with the instrument. They also don’t sand the insides before painting, but that’s about all the issues I’ve been able to find with mine. Hopefully they’ll have some cool new stuff at their big upcoming announcement.

 

Yeah no, salary inflation has not caught up to price inflation for me to consider dropping $2k on MII. That’s “MIA/MIJ or equivalent” pricing and I don’t budge on that.

 

I don't think they're "meh" because they're made in Indonesia or wherever, they're not great because no one cares. They sell well enough that improvement isn't high on the priority list.

Sound familiar?

 

Yep it does. It’s the hype/drop loop and I get it from a business perspective. And that’s why my point stands that I’m not going to gamble with MII/MIK at that price point without others already confirming superior QC. Whereas with with “flagship” MIA/MIJ there is an established baseline level of QC that can be expected.

I’ll happily excuse country of origin if the product is good (like a LOT of epiphones in recent years - seriously guys).

 

There have been plenty of issues with the MIA stuff thus far, and supposedly the MIJ hasn't been perfect either.

 

“Forums like this one are important, because we can look out for each other as a community. As unfortunate as this story is, it is not new – we’ve all seen it before. We’re warning you, because we wished somebody had warned us.” - Abasi

 

That didn't age well....

 

I had one that I sold a month ago. It was my main 7-string for 2 years, then I got the J7.

I liked the thinner Endureneck of the Singularity, but I disliked the stock pickups and the nickel frets. I had it modified with 57110 Jescar SS frets and Fluence Abasi pickups with a rechargeable battery pack.

My main reason for selling it was that, although I place my thumb behind the neck, the edges of the endureneck were annoying, especially while doing stretches that require moving the thumb a bit.

To echo what @bassisace said, the Endureneck is not ergonomic. After the long back and forth on ergonomics that I had with @MaxOfMetal in this thread a few months ago, I talked to my physio (specializes in musicians) and to a new friend who is a guitarist and an ergonomist.

The fact that the Endureneck is three planes with two edges, means it hampers a lot of player adaptations in hand/wrist/thumb placement. To my understanding, an ergonomic object is not built to cater to a certain type of playability, but rather to offer a spectrum of adaptability so that each individual can find his comfort zone. In that respect, the Endureneck is far from ergonomic. If someone likes it, then great, I've decided to try something else.

 

My guitar arrived at Abasi this morning and my refund is already processed. I’m happy with how quick that was!

 

This thread makes me happy that I just went with the "get a used prestige"-route
Zero issues and killed my gas for anything else. It works, it's perfect and is a joy to play.
A prestige Larada would've been such a cool thing but I hope those guys get the problems sorted out soon

 

And this is why I always wait for reviews.

 

I haven’t played any USA models but having seen how rough that “b-stock” model looked, I’m a bit concerned they would rather sell that with a jacked up nut, nut shelf, and paint blems galore than actually fix the issues and send out a decent-looking flagship piece.

I’m not sure what issues you’ve seen with the Japanese builds, my Larada J7 is actually very well-built and I haven’t had any issues with it. I’d be curious to hear what you’ve seen wrong on the J-series with your reference above, Max?

 

A few folks in here said they handled Js with issues. Hence the "supposedly".

 

My Aristides arrived yesterday.
Spoiler: It's much higher quality / plays better than the Abasi.
Also, my refund was processed yesterday from Abasi Concepts.
On to better guitars!

 

Great to hear. My 080 is my baby. My legion comes in today so we shall see it goes.

 

Weird, it's like we went in opposite directions. Lol. Let me know how you like it. As stated earlier, I actually really enjoyed how the legion played; I just refused to keep it with the glaring flaws it had for the price.

 

Some J7s have less bridge pickup output on the high e compared to high b and other strings. I guess that's a pickup alignment/pickup design problem. I think @HungryGuitarStudent reported this issue to Ivan and they're working with Fishman on a new version of the pickups specifically for multiscale. Pickup alignement on Legions 7s is not the same as on the J7s, possibly for that reason.

 

I am cautiously optimistic about it. Mostly just want it to try the body. Don't be surprised if y'all see a black burl 8 on Reverb LOL