Abasi Concepts/Larada Megathread

[HungryGuitarStudent]

It's funny, cause I don't like the Emi, but you mention $1299 and suddenly I genuinely like it enough to think to myself "yeah I'd consider this".

How much was it?

I like it visually. If I could try one and thoroughly inspect the build, then I’d consider it (depending on price obviously).

 

[Alberto7]

How much was it?

I like it visually. If I could try one and thoroughly inspect the build, then I’d consider it (depending on price obviously).

I didn't actually get to see the prices, but I'd assume they sold for the same amount as a Master Series Larada, so around the $5k mark if I'm not wrong?

 

[TheCanadianNews]

New to the thread, and did some reading of bad experiences earlier in the launch of the brand. Save for a few bad products recently, it seems like 90% of the Abasi guitars people receive in 2022 are good? Did they work out QC?

I really want to get one of the J Laradas (when do they release?) but want to not have buyers regret unnecessarily or panic a $3k guitar could have unusual risk for issues.

 

[Alberto7]

New to the thread, and did some reading of bad experiences earlier in the launch of the brand. Save for a few bad products recently, it seems like 90% of the Abasi guitars people receive in 2022 are good? Did they work out QC?

I really want to get one of the J Laradas (when do they release?) but want to not have buyers regret unnecessarily or panic a $3k guitar could have unusual risk for issues.

A 10% chance of letting a lemon out the door is really bad by any industry's standards. Then again, these still seem to hold most of their value, so as long as you get them brand new from Abasi Concepts you won't incur much of a risk, should you not like it and/decide to part with it.

EDIT: idk why I post here so much, I've never even seen one of these in the flesh...

 

[TheCanadianNews]

A 10% chance of letting a lemon out the door is really bad by any industry's standards. Then again, these still seem to hold most of their value, so as long as you get them brand new from Abasi Concepts you won't incur much of a risk, should you not like it and/decide to part with it.

EDIT: idk why I post here so much, I've never even seen one of these in the flesh...

Yeah, no offense but if I said 99% everyone who had a bad experience would pile on, but 90% means everyone says that's unacceptable QC. Neither of us have the actual numbers, so I think you're missing my point.

I'd also like someone who actually owns the guitars, to your point, to weigh in here.

 

[baptizedinblood]

Vocal minority is often the loudest. If the Abasi issues were as widespread as everyone here believes them to be, you'd hear more of it beyond our little echo chamber of a thread.

 

[narad]

Vocal minority is often the loudest. If the Abasi issues were as widespread as everyone here believes them to be, you'd hear more of it beyond our little echo chamber of a thread.

Or, alternative take, the people buying the Abasis are not hung-up on such issues, not able to diagnose such issues, or overlook them because they are Abasi mega fans. Who knows.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

It's probably somewhere in the middle.

I was finally able to track down a couple of these to try out, both USA Grover builds, and they were fine.

No glaring issues, well made, about as solid as anything else in that price range.

But it wasn't anything special either, and while I generally liked them, I don't think I'll ever want to buy one.

Coming from owning a fair amount of high end stuff I wasn't "wowed", but if you're coming from something like a Korean Schecter or Indo Strandberg I could see someone thinking these are amazing.

 

[baptizedinblood]

Or, alternative take, the people buying the Abasis are not hung-up on such issues, not able to diagnose such issues, or overlook them because they are Abasi mega fans. Who knows.

Eh, I've been on quite a few guitar forums over the years. They are prone to becoming echo chambers and forming cults and/or dogpiles on brands. No brand is immune to it.

I'm a big Abasi fan but didn't buy until trying one out in person, and I was genuinely impressed. My overall experience comes from mid/upper guitars though, nothing supremely high end just yet so my frame of reference may not be as refined as others here.

 

[narad]

Eh, I've been on quite a few guitar forums over the years. They are prone to becoming echo chambers and forming cults and/or dogpiles on brands. No brand is immune to it.

I'm a big Abasi fan but didn't buy until trying one out in person, and I was genuinely impressed. My overall experience comes from mid/upper guitars though, nothing supremely high end just yet so my frame of reference may not be as refined as others here.

Sure, but there have also been plenty of shit over-hyped guitars that plowed through collecting more orders on brand power, while people were reluctant to point out problems with them. Especially true when some well known players is pushing them. That's happened so many times, that naturally there's a lot of cynicism. Especially when it has already happened to Abasi Guitars. We went through this whole ordeal already, and the messaging from Abasi was basically identically optimistic and proud of the instruments, and touted their quality, until they didn't.

It's hard to calibrate the truth of things over the entire set of instruments made, but there's no reason to dismiss things as echo chambers just because the account of multiple people post unsatisfactory experiences doesn't fit with your own hands-on experience (otherwise known as a mix of sample bias and anecdotal evidence). I'm not saying they're good or bad, just that the path of reasoning leading you to conclude contradictory experience as forum echo chamber is not very sound.

 

[bassisace]

Vocal minority is often the loudest. If the Abasi issues were as widespread as everyone here believes them to be, you'd hear more of it beyond our little echo chamber of a thread.

Echo chamber? What? There’s a wide spectrum of opinions on the Abasi lines in this thread. Lovers, haters and people in between.

About a dozen buyers have posted pics or did descriptions of QC issues.

A lot of them were with the first Legion line: badly glue nuts, tool marks on body and pickups, bad headstock paint jobs, …

The USA Masters and J Larada lines have gotten good reviews from most in this thread.

I didn’t hear any Emi feedback from anyone in this thread.

Far from an echo chamber. The thread is hundreds of pages long…

 

[getowned7474]

I had one of the Korean made Legion Larada's and it was fine. It wasn't perfect and definitely was a little overpriced for 2k but it was a sig model with some cool features so it was expected. But it was overall a good guitar, better than most to be honest, I've played 2k guitars that were worse. Similar to what MaxOfMetal said about the American made ones, the one I owned was fine IMO. It sounded 95% like the Tosin sound which was cool if you were a fan. I think if they cleaned up their business practices and QC that I've heard complaints about than I don't have any issues with what they are doing. It was better than the Kiesel I owned so that's something I guess?

 

[bassisace]

I had one of the Korean made Legion Larada's and it was fine. It wasn't perfect and definitely was a little overpriced for 2k but it was a sig model with some cool features so it was expected. But it was overall a good guitar, better than most to be honest, I've played 2k guitars that were worse. Similar to what MaxOfMetal said about the American made ones, the one I owned was fine IMO. It sounded 95% like the Tosin sound which was cool if you were a fan. I think if they cleaned up their business practices and QC that I've heard complaints about than I don't have any issues with what they are doing. It was better than the Kiesel I owned so that's something I guess?

I own a Kiesel v7 and an aries 6. The build quality is pristine. Definitely better than the Legion I tried.

It had a badly glued nut and bleeding paint on the headstock. That may be ok for a 500$ guitar, but not at 2k. In that price range I'd go with Kiesel, Ibanez, ...

The J and Masters laradas seem to be way better built. They may be worth the 5k. I haven't tried one yet.

 

[TheCanadianNews]

I had one of the Korean made Legion Larada's and it was fine. It wasn't perfect and definitely was a little overpriced for 2k but it was a sig model with some cool features so it was expected. But it was overall a good guitar, better than most to be honest, I've played 2k guitars that were worse. Similar to what MaxOfMetal said about the American made ones, the one I owned was fine IMO. It sounded 95% like the Tosin sound which was cool if you were a fan. I think if they cleaned up their business practices and QC that I've heard complaints about than I don't have any issues with what they are doing. It was better than the Kiesel I owned so that's something I guess?

This is really helpful to compare to a Kiesel. As far as brands are concerned, I hear a lot about Kiesel, Aristides, besides Abasi on this thread. Those are good comparisons.

 

[getowned7474]

I own a Kiesel v7 and an aries 6. The build quality is pristine. Definitely better than the Legion I tried.

It had a badly glued nut and bleeding paint on the headstock. That may be ok for a 500$ guitar, but not at 2k. In that price range I'd go with Kiesel, Ibanez, ...

The J and Masters laradas seem to be way better built. They may be worth the 5k. I haven't tried one yet.

Maybe they have gotten better more recently? I had a 2016 VM8 I think it was? It was from the first run of VM8's. It's the only one I've owned but the flaws on mine were pretty typical of other builds at the time from what I saw. It was a great guitar for the money, just not exceptional or pristine in any way, definitely not worth getting lots of upgrades and hiking up the price. It had several paint issues with bleeding, runs, and splatter.. The nut was pretty sharp and not perfectly cut if I remember correctly. I think the pickups were badly potted or unpotted they squealed like crazy compared to any guitar I've ever owned. The neck wood didn't fit the locking headpiece part well, it had some raw exposed wood (not a huge deal but it wasn't even sanded and could be an issue with maple in my humid climate). The laminated neck was uneven, some of the wood laminates poked out more than other other pieces so the back of the neck wasn't smooth. The fretwork was ok, couldn't get the action super low but low enough for most people probably, definitely no where near some of the higher end guitars I've owned though. The bridge was hard to turn and the tuning knobs were wiggly and loose, they never would align straight and would grind together. The clamping parts of the head stock would slip all the time and cut strings and waste expensive custom string sets often because of the way the slots were machined. The fret markers were misaligned... that one is the only one I've listed so far that annoyed me to be honest since it's so simple to get right.

But to be honest most of all that was fairly minor for a $1600 headless multiscale 8 string in 2016 when there was less options than now. It was on par with Korean WMI guitars I feel, solid guitar but with a few flaws. Not quite as good as Ibanez Prestiges I had and a noticeable step down from my Musicman guitars. In comparison the Abasi surprised me in that it had great fret work, on par with my Music man and Ibanez prestige guitars. It had some paint minor paint flaws similar to the Kiesel and it was neck heavy since it had a light basswood body and a big headstock. Otherwise not much to complain about other than the balance and minor paint flaws.

This is really helpful to compare to a Kiesel. As far as brands are concerned, I hear a lot about Kiesel, Aristides, besides Abasi on this thread. Those are good comparisons.

If I had to rate my personal experience with those three (I've only have had one of each at this point so take it with a massive grain of salt), Aristides >>> (Legion) Abasi > Kiesel. The fretwork on the Kiesel wasn't quite as good and overall built felt less polished than the Abasi but wasn't too far off in overall quality. The Aristides is sort of in it's own league though. So much that sold most of my guitars and have 2 more on order right now.

 

[jephjacques]

got smartphone, no SS frets, terrible quality for the money

 

[bjjman]

got smartphone, no SS frets, terrible quality for the money

SS frets aren't necessary on a smart phone, you should go vintage style. I just got a custom shop, heavy relic Nokia 5110 1998 reissue and the ringtones sustain for days...

 

[hodorcore]

emi 7 dropping today

 

[jephjacques]

As down on the brand as I've been, I'm actually kinda into the Emi 7. The double cutaway would solve a lot of the ergo and balance issues I had with the Laradas I tried.

 

[SpaceDock]

These prices have really gone crazy.