“Expanding our signature aesthetics, ergonomics, and playability to a whole new audience of creators and performers”: Abasi Concepts unveils the Larada Bass, a monster 5-string bass version of the brand’s flagship guitar

Tosin Abasi’s Abasi Concepts has unveiled its first ever bass guitar, transposing its flagship Larada electric guitar design to a headless bass that shares the same ergonomics and futuristic build.

Abasi Concepts is offering the Larada Bass as a five-string instrument with a multi-scale maple fingerboard, with 24 frets. Of course, as soon as any brand releases anything there are always comments asking for more. 

At this very moment these Larada Basses are not even live on the Abasi Concepts webpage, with only a reel on Instagram to introduce the models, and yet the people are already asking: might a six-string version be coming? 

We would rule nothing out. Let’s just see if there’s a four-string but that might just be too old school for Abasi’s style. These are very much instruments for the 21st-century bass player – for recreating the sort of sounds you might hear on an Animals As Leaders record.

We don’t know the price. We don’t know exactly what kind of woods Abasi Concepts as used but Abasi Concepts’ preference for lightweight okoume bodies would suggest that is what we have got here. The brand did share some details, however. These new will have glued-in maple necks, reinforced with carbon fibre. 

Also, as with the guitars, the Larada Bass comes equipped with a pair of Fishman Fluence Modern humbuckers. These bass pickups are similarly multi-voiced, powered by 9V battery and controlled via a toggle switch and a quartet of knobs, all of which makes for a lot of tone options.

Typically, your Fishman Fluence bass tone voicings are selected by the aforementioned toggle switch an include a passive voice for “classic, fat and round” tones, an active mode for a wider frequency and dynamic range, and an active mode with mid-contour that gives you a scooped EQ profile for funk and percussive slap styles, techniques which Abasi will often export from the world of bass and rework for progressive metal guitar. 

We would also expect these to feature a coil-split, a two-band EQ, and blend control. Again, lots of tone options. This will be a hard-working instrument.

The headless style will surely go some way to relieving neck dive. It will be interesting to feel how balanced these are when playing. Individual saddles hold the strings in place at the neck and bridge, with the bridge’s saddles adjustable for ensuring your intonation and setup is on point.

And there are four sweet finish options. No sign of these on the Abasi Concepts website just yet but it’s definitely worth following the brand on Instagram and bookmarking the site, because just like the guitars, these will be available direct from Abasi Concepts and will surely sell out in a flash.

• Tosin Abasi guitar lesson: tapping and picking