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FORGOTTEN HISTORY: Tosin abasi | History Defined

Manuel Gardner Fernandes breaks down the 5 techniques that define his sound

Manuel presents his percussive strumming, tapped harmonics, selective picking, and Hetfield-inspired downpicking approaches

Guitar World

“A lot of guitar players are like, ‘Oh, well, Jimmy Page was fine with that, so I guess I don’t need more fret access, or I don’t need better balance’”: Tosin Abasi on the art of designing cutting-edge instruments that keep the guitar’s core

The Kaizen – which Abasi designed in collaboration with Ernie Ball Music Man – looks to drag guitar design into a bold new future

Guitar World

“How I rap correlates with how I play. There’s a lot of syncopation and dead notes”: Ando San on marrying hip-hop with prog, thumping, and his eight-string guitar personally spec'd by Jeff Kiesel

Inspired by Tosin Abasi and J Dilla, San's mission to merge modern prog with experimental hip-hop required him to mature as an artist – and he has no plans to stop evolving

Guitar World

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“At this point, we’re even being emulated by other companies”: Tosin Abasi never planned to be a guitar designer – he explains how Abasi Concepts became one of the biggest names in progressive guitars

The Animals as Leaders virtuoso charts his journey as an ergonomic guitar pioneer, from commissioning eight-strings to having his own designs imitated

Guitar World

“Modern, ergonomic, and unapologetically performance-driven”: Tosin Abasi’s long-awaited nylon-string is finally here – and he collaborated with another guitar company to make it a reality

The Abasi Concepts meets Córdoba link-up resulted in the inventive Abasi Stage 7, a model that the Animals as Leaders guitarist himself described as “for guys who maybe aren't traditional classical players, but want a nylon-string guitar for recording and specifically for stage”

Guitar World

“What’s Japanese for shameless?” Tosin Abasi's Animals As Leaders bandmate lambasts Ibanez's new Alpha guitar design

Guitar World

“Engineered from the ground up”: Ibanez issues its answer to Ernie Ball and Abasi Concepts with the Alpha Series – its most progressive guitar design to date

The shred and metal expert leans into the contemporary design trends currently dominating the prog guitar scene for a landmark launch

Guitar World

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“I kept seeing outdated business models that didn’t make sense in today’s social media-driven world”: The unstoppable rise of signature guitar companies, as explained by Ola Englund

With more artist products available now than ever before, and an entire movement of brands run and owned by musicians, we investigate theevolution of signature guitar gear with a little help from the Solar Guitars founder

Guitar World

“We are big fans of tube amplifiers. There’s no substitute for playing an amp in a room”: From amps to plugins, Tosin Abasi teases the next evolution of Abasi Concepts

Abasi also addresses the ubiquitous amp modeler versus amplifier debate – and why “nothing defeats the experience of plugging into an amp”

Guitar World

“Tosin Abasi told me once, the first time he heard us, he said, ‘This music is broken’”: Meshuggah's Mårten Hagström reflects on changing the face of metal guitar

The success of their two bands has resulted in some key industry changes

Guitar World

“I thought it was the worst film I’d seen in my life! I was super-embarrassed. But that solo became part of the franchise’”: Stevie Salas on Bill & Ted, playing arenas with Rod Stewart then opening for Joe Satriani, and turning down both Van Halen singers

The ahead-of-his-time guitar great recalls starting a trend followed by Steve Vai and Tosin Abasi, why he had to quit a Joe Satriani tour, and why he sometimes aimed to be the worst player in the room

Guitar World

“Maybe I’m playing into the hate I get from how cold the hyper-modern stuff can be – but I will do a 180 at some point and make people cry”: Guitar heroes are hailing him as shred’s next big thing – but Spiro is already planning a blues left-turn

Touted as the guitar world's next big disruptor by Tim Henson, Misha Mansoor and Tosin Abasi, Spiro Dussias reveals his next project and why he hopes to record a blues album before he turns 30

Guitar World

“Scoring especially highly for its superb ergonomics”: Sterling By Music Man Kaizen 7 review

Progressive guitar icon Tosin Abasi's dramatic Music Man custom seven-string, re-imagined for those with lighter wallets

Guitar World

“I’m seeing players compose something crazy-hard and pretend they can play it when they can’t. It’s dishonest”: How Hedras became one of today’s leading virtuosos by fusing shred smarts and boomer sensibilities

The Cort signature artist on why it’s worth the long climb up Shred Mountain, teaching Tosin Abasi tapping tricks and standing by an effect that many of his contemporaries have abandoned

Guitar World

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Guitar World

“He's definitely trying to push what a guitar could be”: Misha Mansoor joins Tim Henson and Tosin Abasi in praising this emerging virtuoso – who’s changing the landscape of progressive guitar

Shred’s finest new talent can add another name to the list of guitar heroes who have singled him out for praise

Guitar World

“I want the guitar to play fast, to wear close to the body, and communicate a degree of aggression”: Sterling by Music Man and Tosin Abasi bring the futuristic Kaizen to a new low price point – slashing nearly $3k off the original

Three years after the boundary-pushing build was first unveiled, the long-awaited Sterling spin-off has arrived

MusicRadar

“I want the guitar to play fast… to communicate a degree of aggression and forward-thinking”: Sterling By Music Man unveils affordable version of Tosin Abasi’s groundbreaking EBMM Kaizen signature model – and yes, there's a 7-string

A Kaizen for under $1,000? SBMM might have a smash hit on its hands with the Animals As Leaders' signature electric – available now in Firemist Purple Satin and Stealth Black

Guitar World

Meshuggah pioneered it, Periphery took it to new levels, and John Petrucci thinks it opens up "a new world" – here is everything you need to know about learning 8-string guitar

Six different ways to get the most from your 8-string guitar by Haken’s Charlie Griffiths

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Guitar World

“I rarely do straight down strokes. I haven't played Metallica in a while”: Tosin Abasi and Plini give a masterclass in virtuosity after writing and recording a song in a day

Having recently partnered with Kiko Loureiro and Matteus Asato, it seems the Aussie has met his match as Neural DSP challenges the elite shredders to fuse their talents together

Guitar World

“A virtuoso beyond virtuosos”: Matteo Mancuso has become one of the hottest guitar talents on the planet – now he’s finally announced his first headline US tour

The generational guitar player will be heading out on his first extended run of headline dates in the US and Canada this year

Guitar World

“A classical guitar for the modern era, with all the specifications expected by the seasoned player”: Harley Benton seizes on the Polyphia-led nylon-string revival with a versatile acoustic-electric for under $300

The new model, which boasts a sleek look, an integrated piezo pickup system, and a “warm and resonant” tonal quality, is the latest addition to Harley Benton's budget-friendly acoustic line

Guitar World

“I like that their appearance intrigues non-guitar players and bothers old-fashioned people”: Despite early love from Eddie Van Halen and Allan Holdsworth, headless guitars became a punchline – yet in 2025, they’re more popular than ever. We found out why

With wider options across a variety of price points and more signature artists than ever, has the headless axe’s time finally come?

Metal Hammer

"Instrumental albums are often made by musicians for musicians, so we wanted to keep things tuneful and hold the listener’s attention" How Animals As Leaders broke the mould with The Joy Of Motion

The story of the Washington instrumental trio's third album, 2014's The Joy Of Motion

Guitar World

“This gives me the sound I am after in my head”: Spiro – the virtuoso tipped for greatness by Tim Henson and Tosin Abasi – shares the secrets behind his speed picking technique that will help you play faster

“Shred’s next great hope” has offered an insight into the concept behind his jaw-dropping right-hand technique

Guitar World

“You may never want to live without this tone-shaping compressor on your pedalboard”: Abasi Concepts Micro-Aggressor review

Tosin Abasi's gear company drops a new type of compressor for 21st-century playing styles – and it could be the tone-sweetener you've been looking for

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