Abasi Concepts/Larada Megathread

[r3tr0sp3ct1v3]

I would like to try one of these, but I will hold out for a used 8 in the 1500 range.

Give it time.

 

[HellaSickTight]

Everyone’s mad at the hype and drop but I’m sitting here with a guitar in my hands, that delivered to me literally 3 days after hitting the purchase button. So much cooler than putting in an order with Ormsby and having to wait half a year etc. I was originally thinking of getting a Solar but the 8 I was looking at ships in spring/summer 2021 and it of course only came in black. I hate seeing cool guitars ship then realize I would have had to get in on a run literally a year prior. I get the wait if you’re going custom like Aristides or Kiesel, but I’m so glad I’m not waiting months and months for a production instrument to get built. I’m honestly tired of companies who won’t take the risk of just building a bunch of guitars and marketing them. Many companies have to do slow runs, and let all the slots fill up or not so they don’t waste a single penny or build a guitar that doesn’t have a buyer. I get it, but it adds half a year to the process. IMO that’s just shoveling your problems onto the consumer and making them pay for it with time.

 

[Daniel Leu]

That's fair. On the other side of the spectrum, I ordered a Legion 7 in Overcast on the 15th with the impression that it would ship that same day (or the next). It didn't ship until yesterday which is more than a week after advertised. ETA now is the 28th. I think hype and limited drops are fine, but you need to make sure you can fulfill what you're promising people. Weirdly enough I feel more comfortable allowing for some cosmetic flaws in a guitar's finish than I do unexplained delays. There are a lot of kinks to work out in production of a brand new type of guitar, but keeping ahold of your shipping and inventory are Business 101. I wanted to support a small business, and I really hope I like this guitar but I won't feel too bad if I have to sell it.

 

[HellaSickTight]

That's fair. On the other side of the spectrum, I ordered a Legion 7 in Overcast on the 15th with the impression that it would ship that same day (or the next). It didn't ship until yesterday which is more than a week after advertised. ETA now is the 28th. I think hype and limited drops are fine, but you need to make sure you can fulfill what you're promising people. Weirdly enough I feel more comfortable allowing for some cosmetic flaws in a guitar's finish than I do unexplained delays. There are a lot of kinks to work out in production of a brand new type of guitar, but keeping ahold of your shipping and inventory are Business 101. I wanted to support a small business, and I really hope I like this guitar but I won't feel too bad if I have to sell it.

Sorry to hear about your delays man! I feel like they just couldn’t get enough trucks to come pick up all 200 quick enough. All the labels seemed to have been created on Thursday meaning the shipments were ready to go, but just didn’t get on the trucks. I don’t know anything about shipping logistics but they seem like they’ve been quite busy trying to get everyone their guitars. QC and shipping are all growing pains. I get to vote with my wallet only a few times when it comes to guitars and I feel like I’m less paying for the name, and more voting for innovation and new body shapes with my money. We’ll only get more space guitars now from every company because of how successful this run was. And to me that’s great! I hope you like yours and it ends up being worth the wait!

 

[Vroth88]

I dont know much about the details on the covid situation in the US, but that might also have added some delay to shipping. Mine is being shipped overseas so I'll be chill anyway, but I guess I got lucky since it is already on it's way

 

[2wheel_Ted]

That's fair. On the other side of the spectrum, I ordered a Legion 7 in Overcast on the 15th with the impression that it would ship that same day (or the next). It didn't ship until yesterday which is more than a week after advertised. ETA now is the 28th. I think hype and limited drops are fine, but you need to make sure you can fulfill what you're promising people. Weirdly enough I feel more comfortable allowing for some cosmetic flaws in a guitar's finish than I do unexplained delays. There are a lot of kinks to work out in production of a brand new type of guitar, but keeping ahold of your shipping and inventory are Business 101. I wanted to support a small business, and I really hope I like this guitar but I won't feel too bad if I have to sell it.

I sympathize. I ordered mine on the 15th and it arrived yesterday the 23rd. Then again, I live in the Los Angeles area, so if the distribution warehouse is actually in L.A., then it makes sense that I got it as soon as I did.

However, even though I got an update from UPS the day I ordered about a shipping label being created, the status didn’t change until the 22nd. I think you hit all the right points, but I’d add another basic point: communication. In the spirit of good business practice and customer relations, they should have let you and everyone else know in a timely manner (at least a couple business days later) about any possible delays. Getting a notification from UPS about a label being created sets up a false expectation, especially when there’s no feedback from the seller/manufacturer.

I can’t speak for Abasi Concepts operations, and I’m sure because of Covid, like many other things, operating a business has a extra challenges. Still, a simple email saying something like, “Sorry for the delay. Our folks are working as fast as possible to get your guitar to you”, isn’t a big ask. It would probably go a long way.

 

[HellaSickTight]

I sympathize. I ordered mine on the 15th and it arrived yesterday the 23rd. Then again, I live in the Los Angeles area, so if the distribution warehouse is actually in L.A., then it makes sense that I got it as soon as I did.

However, even though I got an update from UPS the day I ordered about a shipping label being created, the status didn’t change until the 22nd. I think you hit all the right points, but I’d add another basic point: communication. In the spirit of good business practice and customer relations, they should have let you and everyone else know in a timely manner (at least a couple business days later) about any possible delays. Getting a notification from UPS about a label being created sets up a false expectation, especially when there’s no feedback from the seller/manufacturer.

I can’t speak for Abasi Concepts operations, and I’m sure because of Covid, like many other things, operating a business has a extra challenges. Still, a simple email saying something like, “Sorry for the delay. Our folks are working as fast as possible to get your guitar to you”, isn’t a big ask. It would probably go a long way.

They said just that about three times so far on all their socials, but they didn’t email anyone. I agree with you that they should have emailed people, but this company seems to be literally only Ivan and Tosin right now. So that’s 1-2 guys managing 200 orders. All my emails are coming straight from Ivan. I bet the dude is stressed.

 

[2wheel_Ted]

They said just that about three times so far on all their socials, but they didn’t email anyone. I agree with you that they should have emailed people, but this company seems to be literally only Ivan and Tosin right now. So that’s 1-2 guys managing 200 orders. All my emails are coming straight from Ivan. I bet the dude is stressed.

No doubt. I don’t pretend to understand how challenging things are for those guys. I’m also not one who’s present on their “socials”, so a good old fashioned canned email is my go to option.

Regardless, I can’t complain. So far, I’m a happy customer.

 

[jephjacques]

As someone who used to manage their own store/orders, I know how time consuming that shit is. Even managing those emails is a lot.

 

[Jonathan20022]

Delivered! Gonna have to wait til tomorrow, but just got the notification that it was dropped off.

Pretty excited to check it out, might actually open it up tonight and snap some pics.

 

[Hollowway]

Everyone’s mad at the hype and drop but I’m sitting here with a guitar in my hands, that delivered to me literally 3 days after hitting the purchase button. So much cooler than putting in an order with Ormsby and having to wait half a year etc. I was originally thinking of getting a Solar but the 8 I was looking at ships in spring/summer 2021 and it of course only came in black. I hate seeing cool guitars ship then realize I would have had to get in on a run literally a year prior. I get the wait if you’re going custom like Aristides or Kiesel, but I’m so glad I’m not waiting months and months for a production instrument to get built. I’m honestly tired of companies who won’t take the risk of just building a bunch of guitars and marketing them. Many companies have to do slow runs, and let all the slots fill up or not so they don’t waste a single penny or build a guitar that doesn’t have a buyer. I get it, but it adds half a year to the process. IMO that’s just shoveling your problems onto the consumer and making them pay for it with time.

I 100% agree about the benefit of having a stock instrument for purchase. I don’t know why more companies don’t do it. I mean, I get that they don’t want to be stuck with inventory, but it’s safer for the buyer, and that can bring more customers. I won’t order a custom that takes more than 6 months to build (basically all customs) because that’s the PayPal window. I’ve ordered 3 guitars and and amp that never got delivered, so I’m done with customs. I know others are, too. In stocks like these are a great solution.

 

[Jonathan20022]

Unfortunately not 100% there boys, I won't go into like super insane detail yet because I just shot Ivan an email about the guitar, and I want to give them a chance to hit me back.

Long story short, it's about what you'd expect from an instrument from WMI. The confusing thing for me, is that my KM7 MkIII and Ormsby Metal X were and are (respectively) super refined and free of any of the issues I've run into on the Larada.

The KM7 was returned due to a very finnicky neck, perfectly built but went out of whack with the tuning extremely fast if anyone was wondering. Can go into more detail about that one in the KM thread.

But I'll harp on a few points about the Larada -
1) The action - it's set up pretty nicely from the box and it features almost 0 buzzing across the board. But a few people are talking about it in this Legion NGD:

https://www.sevenstring.org/threads/ngd-abasi-concepts-legion-8-sage-blue-babyyyyy.344545/

The action simply can't get much lower than 1.1 - 1.2mm high on the highest string, the saddle is completely bottomed out. This is of course a player to player preference and I am 100% spoiled by some of my current guitars (Pics of my Aristides Action, 0.5mm/0.9mm respectively at the 12th Fret for reference). But this is giving me the same vibe my Suhr 7 had, where the baseplate was so thick and non-recessed that the string saddles bottomed out so without modification it simply couldn't be setup very low without buzzing. If having action lower than that is a must, just keep in mind that you'll need to modify the high e saddle and others if they arrive bottomed out set at this action.




2) The Neck Shape - I know we said these aren't getting the teardrop neck shape, and this might just be me being delirious at 1am noodling on this thing. But is the bass side of the neck thicker than the higher side? I don't have calipers to 100% confirm but the neck profile feels absolutely like some sort of tear drop shape (Thicker bass side, thinner treble side). Definitely a welcome surprise, but pretty confusing since the J Laradas seem to offer the opposite (Thinner bass side, thicker treble side).

3) The Overcast Color - It's absolutely gorgeous, it's not white at all and it's definitely some kind of off white/greyer shade of white. I don't regret getting this finish at all over the sage blue/burl top options. I think anyone who was on the fence but bought this finish will be pleasantly surprised unless they're expecting #ffffff on their guitar



But yeah, unfortunately it has it's issues and I hope people can respect that I'm giving them their time to get back to me first. If you've owned a guitar from WMI that had some issues, it's in that ballpark, and for the price this runs I'm a tad uncomfortable just stomaching it.

 

[bassisace]

Unfortunately not 100% there boys, I won't go into like super insane detail yet because I just shot Ivan an email about the guitar, and I want to give them a chance to hit me back.

Long story short, it's about what you'd expect from an instrument from WMI. The confusing thing for me, is that my KM7 MkIII and Ormsby Metal X were and are (respectively) super refined and free of any of the issues I've run into on the Larada.

The KM7 was returned due to a very finnicky neck, perfectly built but went out of whack with the tuning extremely fast if anyone was wondering. Can go into more detail about that one in the KM thread.

But I'll harp on a few points about the Larada -
1) The action - it's set up pretty nicely from the box and it features almost 0 buzzing across the board. But a few people are talking about it in this Legion NGD:

https://www.sevenstring.org/threads/ngd-abasi-concepts-legion-8-sage-blue-babyyyyy.344545/

The action simply can't get much lower than 1.1 - 1.2mm high on the highest string, the saddle is completely bottomed out. This is of course a player to player preference and I am 100% spoiled by some of my current guitars (Pics of my Aristides Action, 0.5mm/0.9mm respectively at the 12th Fret for reference). But this is giving me the same vibe my Suhr 7 had, where the baseplate was so thick and non-recessed that the string saddles bottomed out so without modification it simply couldn't be setup very low without buzzing. If having action lower than that is a must, just keep in mind that you'll need to modify the high e saddle and others if they arrive bottomed out set at this action.

View attachment 86359
View attachment 86360

2) The Neck Shape - I know we said these aren't getting the teardrop neck shape, and this might just be me being delirious at 1am noodling on this thing. But is the bass side of the neck thicker than the higher side? I don't have calipers to 100% confirm but the neck profile feels absolutely like some sort of tear drop shape (Thicker bass side, thinner treble side). Definitely a welcome surprise, but pretty confusing since the J Laradas seem to offer the opposite (Thinner bass side, thicker treble side).

3) The Overcast Color - It's absolutely gorgeous, it's not white at all and it's definitely some kind of off white/greyer shade of white. I don't regret getting this finish at all over the sage blue/burl top options. I think anyone who was on the fence but bought this finish will be pleasantly surprised unless they're expecting #ffffff on their guitar

View attachment 86364

But yeah, unfortunately it has it's issues and I hope people can respect that I'm giving them their time to get back to me first. If you've owned a guitar from WMI that had some issues, it's in that ballpark, and for the price this runs I'm a tad uncomfortable just stomaching it.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to write all this. I was on the fence buying an Abasi guitar and all reviews make me want to wait until their QC gets better.

Other than their design decision to put saddles that don’t permit lower than 1mm action, are there any other problems with the build (finish, fret work, etc.) ?

Is playing the higher frets a pain with that horn on the body?

 

[Meh]

I haven’t had a problem with playing higher frets. I’m used to my thumb going over the neck sometimes so it’s forced me to correct that lol

 

[Meh]

Double post, but I’m happy to try and answer and questions you guys might have about a legion 8 string.

 

[Bdtunn]

Unfortunately not 100% there boys, I won't go into like super insane detail yet because I just shot Ivan an email about the guitar, and I want to give them a chance to hit me back.

Long story short, it's about what you'd expect from an instrument from WMI. The confusing thing for me, is that my KM7 MkIII and Ormsby Metal X were and are (respectively) super refined and free of any of the issues I've run into on the Larada.

The KM7 was returned due to a very finnicky neck, perfectly built but went out of whack with the tuning extremely fast if anyone was wondering. Can go into more detail about that one in the KM thread.

But I'll harp on a few points about the Larada -
1) The action - it's set up pretty nicely from the box and it features almost 0 buzzing across the board. But a few people are talking about it in this Legion NGD:

https://www.sevenstring.org/threads/ngd-abasi-concepts-legion-8-sage-blue-babyyyyy.344545/

The action simply can't get much lower than 1.1 - 1.2mm high on the highest string, the saddle is completely bottomed out. This is of course a player to player preference and I am 100% spoiled by some of my current guitars (Pics of my Aristides Action, 0.5mm/0.9mm respectively at the 12th Fret for reference). But this is giving me the same vibe my Suhr 7 had, where the baseplate was so thick and non-recessed that the string saddles bottomed out so without modification it simply couldn't be setup very low without buzzing. If having action lower than that is a must, just keep in mind that you'll need to modify the high e saddle and others if they arrive bottomed out set at this action.

View attachment 86359
View attachment 86360

2) The Neck Shape - I know we said these aren't getting the teardrop neck shape, and this might just be me being delirious at 1am noodling on this thing. But is the bass side of the neck thicker than the higher side? I don't have calipers to 100% confirm but the neck profile feels absolutely like some sort of tear drop shape (Thicker bass side, thinner treble side). Definitely a welcome surprise, but pretty confusing since the J Laradas seem to offer the opposite (Thinner bass side, thicker treble side).

3) The Overcast Color - It's absolutely gorgeous, it's not white at all and it's definitely some kind of off white/greyer shade of white. I don't regret getting this finish at all over the sage blue/burl top options. I think anyone who was on the fence but bought this finish will be pleasantly surprised unless they're expecting #ffffff on their guitar

View attachment 86364

But yeah, unfortunately it has it's issues and I hope people can respect that I'm giving them their time to get back to me first. If you've owned a guitar from WMI that had some issues, it's in that ballpark, and for the price this runs I'm a tad uncomfortable just stomaching it.

good to know on the action and thanks for bringing that up! I too am a low action junkie and all of mine are set up below 1mm as well. Hope that can be resolved.

 

[jephjacques]

I legit don't know how y'all play with such low action, I must have caveman paws

 

[sym30l1c]

One of the Sage Blue 7s is already on Reverb.

https://reverb.com/item/36544080-abasi-concepts-larada-7-legion-2020-sage-blue

 

[Frostbite]

I legit don't know how y'all play with such low action, I must have caveman paws

same dude. The lowest I set my action is 1.5 across the whole thing and even then I can make almost any guitar buzz no matter how good it is or how high the action is

 

[CW7]

I legit don't know how y'all play with such low action, I must have caveman paws

I’ve grown accustomed to it over the years and adjusted my technique accordingly; while I haven’t personally touched Tosin’s, from watching and listening to his YT stuff it’s pretty obvious to me his action is also slammed- my J Larada 7 also had this same issue and I had to have the saddle filed down to get it under 1mm . (I run my live guitars slightly higher as I get more heavy Handed at shows).