Abasi Concepts/Larada Megathread

[jephjacques]

Oof yeah that is a sloppy guitar.

 

[r3tr0sp3ct1v3]

The real question though is how many fanboys will not report issues?

Bet we won’t see any YouTube reviews talking about these issues. I guarantee influences got the ones with no flaws

 

[HungryGuitarStudent]

After my inspection and my tech's inspection, I unfortunately returned my Spartan 6 tundra last week to get a refund.

Reasons:
- marks on body under the paint. Ivan thinks they may be wood pores but my tech and I think otherwise since they seem awfully regular. Regardless, they looked weird to our eyes.
- a ding on the back of the body;
- faulty tuners (D string tuner becomes super hard to turn, G string tuner sometimes does nothing for while then does a super quick tension change);
- some string scratches on the pickups (they were not covered by plastic for shipping);
- most importantly: upper neck access is just not what I expected. More precisely, the slope of the neck-body interface is kinda weird for thumb placement for my way of playing (I don't have that problem with the J7), notably for bends. That’s super personal and not a knock on the Spartan. It just doesn’t suit my playing style.

I've also cancelled my Legion order last week because I cannot take the risk of having a faulty build for 2000$.

Ivan gives great customer service and I wish them the best of success. I hope they rectify the situation with future runs.

And again, I love my J7, so they can most definitely make great instruments.

I debated not posting this because I dont want to harm a company that is starting out, but I think customer testimonials can help future customers.

 

[bassisace]

Some companies and stores keep saying they do QC, but they probably should do QC on their QC.

 

[BlackMastodon]

Now I feel incredibly lucky that my one only has like 10 cosmetic blemishes that are relatively minor, and hard to pay attention to since most of them are on the back of the guitar.

I'm sorry, only 10 blemishes? On a brand new guitar?! I get if they're cosmetic issues and they don't bother you, even Jonathan's build probably played as well as any of the other guitars, but those levels of cosmetic problems on a new $2k guitar are outrageous to me. The tip of the headstock of Jonathan's looks like the side of a screw was hammered against it.

Yeesh, my $500 PRS SE-7 from WMI had way better QC than these.

 

[den_3k]

https://reverb.com/item/36501637-abasi-larada-8-legion-2020-charcoal-burl

Scalpers gonna scalp...

 

[MaxOfMetal]

https://reverb.com/item/36501637-abasi-larada-8-legion-2020-charcoal-burl

Scalpers gonna scalp...

Garbage pics and zero feedback, I'm sure some rube will grab it before I even post.

 

[HellaSickTight]

Can anyone recommended what string brand and tensions to use going forward for this?

THE STRING SOURCE!
Get yourself into tension calculations that match your desired tunings. Also try String Joy.

 

[HellaSickTight]

Garbage pics and zero feedback, I'm sure some rube will grab it before I even post.

Haha This is the SAME GUY from reverb a few days ago. “Neko’s gear” in San Luis Obispo

 

[r3tr0sp3ct1v3]

He has priced it lower. With his fees it comes out to about what he paid for it. I can understand with reverb fees being as bad. Not as bad when he first posted it at 2300

 

[Meh]

THE STRING SOURCE!
Get yourself into tension calculations that match your desired tunings. Also try String Joy.

Thanks!!

 

[2wheel_Ted]

The real question though is how many fanboys will not report issues?

Bet we won’t see any YouTube reviews talking about these issues. I guarantee influences got the ones with no flaws

I’m no influencer, but somehow, I seem to have scored a cosmetically flawless charcoal burl 8 model. So far, the flawed examples seem to be painted models. I wonder if it’s specific to those.

 

[Jonathan20022]

After my inspection and my tech's inspection, I unfortunately returned my Spartan 6 tundra last week to get a refund.

Reasons:
- marks on body under the paint. Ivan thinks they may be wood pores but my tech and I think otherwise since they seem awfully regular. Regardless, they looked weird to our eyes.
- a ding on the back of the body;
- faulty tuners (D string tuner becomes super hard to turn, G string tuner sometimes does nothing for while then does a super quick tension change);
- some string scratches on the pickups (they were not covered by plastic for shipping);
- most importantly: upper neck access is just not what I expected. More precisely, the slope of the neck-body interface is kinda weird for thumb placement for my way of playing (I don't have that problem with the J7), notably for bends. That’s super personal and not a knock on the Spartan. It just doesn’t suit my playing style.

I've also cancelled my Legion order last week because I cannot take the risk of having a faulty build for 2000$.

Ivan gives great customer service and I wish them the best of success. I hope they rectify the situation with future runs.

And again, I love my J7, so they can most definitely make great instruments.

I debated not posting this because I dont want to harm a company that is starting out, but I think customer testimonials can help future customers.

I decided to post the pics and be transparent about my guitar, because over the weekend I saw them just posting 5 star reviews left on their site to their Instagram Stories. I full heartedly believe that there are customers who may contact Abasi like HellaSickTight did, and just deal with whatever minor cosmetic issues they have because they like the guitar too much not to.

Especially since there's no immediate option for replacement which I'd give a shot, if you had to wait 3 - 4 months for another Larada Legion I doubt many would take that route. Being honest about these issues and documenting them is the only way to give a business the feedback that they need to improve their process.

These should be honestly priced around what the Keith Merrow MkIII Hybrids are priced at. 1500ish new, and 1200ish for Blems like mine.

 

[HungryGuitarStudent]

@Jonathan20022 Here are some pics (white on white may be difficult to see).

 

[TheInvisibleHand]

@Jonathan20022 Here are some pics (white on white may be difficult to see).

I mean, maybe I'm less critical but I don't think I would have even noticed these had I not been looking for them?

That being said, I am also the guy always looking at "demo" and "blem" models to save a couple hundred here and there. I usually forget the flaws are even there after playing it for a few weeks. so take that with a grain of salt.

 

[I play music]

I mean, maybe I'm less critical but I don't think I would have even noticed these had I not been looking for them?

That being said, I am also the guy always looking at "demo" and "blem" models to save a couple hundred here and there. I usually forget the flaws are even there after playing it for a few weeks. so take that with a grain of salt.

That's kinda the point I guess. Everyone else would sell these as b stock. And saving some money for minor blemishes that you can live with is cool. Paying 3k and having blemishes is not.

 

[Daniel Leu]

I mean, maybe I'm less critical but I don't think I would have even noticed these had I not been looking for them?

That being said, I am also the guy always looking at "demo" and "blem" models to save a couple hundred here and there. I usually forget the flaws are even there after playing it for a few weeks. so take that with a grain of salt.

Same, though I realize we're probably in the minority here. The tuner issue (and possibly pickup covers) is obviously something that can and should be fixed, but I don't think I'd return a guitar (if it felt, played, and sounded perfect) over those smaller items. But I also don't treat my instruments as well as they probably deserve either, they all have at least a few dings and scratches.

 

[Chevygizmo]

The real question though is how many fanboys will not report issues?

Bet we won’t see any YouTube reviews talking about these issues. I guarantee influences got the ones with no flaws

These Schechter guitars seem like a total disaster for $2000 and the $3600 USA models continue to be a roll of the dice since every batch had an issue. On a side note the red Spartan and Space Tele are on reverb but these reviews made me reluctant to a age one. Kudos to the honest reviews here because they are few and far between. Wish a luthier had the balls to do a YouTube video that walked through the pros/cons but that would get cancelled by the fanboys.

 

[HungryGuitarStudent]

I mean, maybe I'm less critical but I don't think I would have even noticed these had I not been looking for them?

That being said, I am also the guy always looking at "demo" and "blem" models to save a couple hundred here and there. I usually forget the flaws are even there after playing it for a few weeks. so take that with a grain of salt.

These blemishes kinda kill part of the resale value (the one near the pickup is ~5mm wide and the other one is ~4mm deep). Add to that tuners whose shaft is not the correct size for the tuner heads.

Maybe I’m crazy, but to me these are not flaws that I can accept on a 3 k$ instrument.

 

[Daniel Leu]

After a few years, I might have resold it. These blemishes kinda kill part of the resale value (the one near the pickup is ~5mm wide and the other one is ~4mm deep). Add to that tuners whose shaft is not the correct size for the tuner heads.

Again, for me the main reason was the playability was just not there. I had serious problems with upper neck access.

Maybe I’m crazy, but to me these are not flaws that I can accept on a 3 k$ instrument.

For sure. Different players are bothered by different things. If it's the kind of issue you can't get out of your head while playing it, it's not worth it. The tuner issue is definitely unacceptable.