Abasi Concepts, a Los Angeles, CA based company headed up by Animals as Leaders virtuoso Tosin Abasi and COO Ivan Chopik, has produced some of the most radical and forward-thinking designs in the guitar marketplace.
And they’ve done it once again with the new ēmi 7, which continues to push the brand’s innovation forward, while at the same also making some nods to classic “guitar-chitecture,” with a non-multi-scale fretboard and a Gotoh 510 floating tremolo system, among other features.
The ēmi 7 boasts an okoume body, a roasted, figured maple neck and ebony or maple fingerboard. The shape references the classic double-cut design, but as guitarist Jimmy Franklin points out in the above demo video, the body also boasts a “sick bevel and two-sheen finish.”
Other features on the ēmi 7 include Hipshot locking tuners, an oviform + - asymmetrical neck profile and Fishman Fluence Tosin Abasi pickups with a five-way switch. “You get so much Tosin in this,” Jimmy says. “It’s great.”
Something on the ēmi 7 that’s entirely new to an Abasi guitar? A tone knob. “So if you are a more classic player that’s looking to get into this modern guitar space, you will feel pretty comfortable with having the tone knob to not lose some of your traditional playing aspects,” Jimmy says. On top of that, “we have a second voicing when you pull the tone knob up.”
Jimmy then takes us through the amazing range of voicings on tap, “starting with some really heavy sounds and then getting over to some ambient kind of tones.”
The results, as you can hear, are spectacular – and better yet, easy to achieve. “This guitar is so friendly to play,” Jimmy says of the ēmi 7. “It just makes it as easy as possible to get the ideas in your head out through your instrument.”
For more great videos from Jimmy Franklin, subscribe to his official page on YouTube.
To try one out for yourself, head over to Abasi Concepts.