Tosin Abasi's guitar strings: the Animals as Leaders 8-string rig, sourced
The strings, guitars, and pickups Tosin Abasi uses with Animals as Leaders on his Abasi Concepts Larada 8. Every spec cited to Abasi Concepts, D'Addario, Fishman, and Premier Guitar.
Animals as Leaders / Abasi Concepts · reviewed by the Change Your Strings editorial team ·
Tosin Abasi strings his Abasi Concepts Larada 8 with D'Addario NYXL. The Larada ships a custom 8-string spread, a NYXL 9.5 set plus a .056 and a .074 low pair, roughly .0095 to .074. The guitar is a 27.5 to 25.5 inch multiscale with his Fishman Fluence signature pickups. Animals as Leaders play in a low 8-string tuning, most often with the eighth string dropped to E.
What's on the guitar
Tosin Abasi founded Animals as Leaders in 2007 and built the modern 8-string vocabulary around it. Almost every part of his current rig is a product he designed:
- Guitars: Abasi Concepts Larada 8. A 27.5 to 25.5 inch multiscale, not a single scale length. He designed it after leaving Ibanez.
- Strings: D'Addario NYXL, the string Abasi Concepts factory-fits to the Larada. The 8-string spread is roughly .0095 to .074.
- Tuning: low 8-string, F# standard with the eighth string frequently dropped to E.
- Pickups: Fishman Fluence Tosin Abasi signature, three switchable voices.
- Amps: shifting over the years, a Fractal Axe-Fx II in 2013, traditional tube heads by 2017, plus his own Neural DSP plugin.
His Larada ships a custom D'Addario NYXL spread that is not sold as a single box. The closest off-the-shelf set from the same brand and line is D'Addario's NYXL1074 8-string:
NYXL1074 Nickel Wound 8-String (.010–.074)
Why this one: His actual brand and line. The Larada ships a custom NYXL spread (a 9.5 set plus .056 and .074); the NYXL1074 is the closest single boxed 8-string set, .010 to .074, light top and heavy bottom for the low F#.
Endorsed vs. verified use
Abasi is a documented D'Addario artist, listed on their guitar roster, and his own guitar company strings every Larada with D'Addario NYXL. His pickups are a Fishman signature, and his guitar is his own brand. There is very little guesswork here: the gear is on the record, on both the string maker's page and the manufacturer spec sheet he controls.
This page corrects three specs older write-ups get wrong. The Larada 8 is a 27.5 to 25.5 inch multiscale, not a single 28.625 inch scale. His current pickups are Fishman Fluence signatures, while the Ibanez era used DiMarzio Ionizers. And his amp has never been a Fractal Axe-Fx III; the documented rigs are an Axe-Fx II in 2013 and tube heads by 2017.
Electric guitars
Abasi designed the Larada from the neck profile out, then left Ibanez to build it. Sourced from the Abasi Concepts spec sheet and the retailer spec for his old Ibanez signature.
Current · his own brand · 8-string multiscale
Abasi Concepts Larada 8
His signature 8-string since 2017. A 27.5 to 25.5 inch multiscale (fanned frets), 24 X-Jumbo stainless frets, a 16 to 21.5 inch compound radius, and his Fishman Fluence signature pickups. The multiscale is the point: the longer bass side keeps the low F# tight while the shorter treble side stays comfortable for his melodic work. Ships with D'Addario NYXL.
Source: Abasi Concepts: Larada 8 spec.
2013 to 2017 · Ibanez signature era
Ibanez TAM100 / TAM10
His first signature line. The TAM100 was the Japan-built flagship; the TAM10 was the more affordable version. Both are fixed-scale 8-strings loaded with DiMarzio Ionizer 8 pickups with coil-tap wiring. Premier Guitar's 2013 rundown caught an early prototype already carrying the DiMarzio Ionizers.
Source: Guitar World: TAM100 review; Premier Guitar: AAL Rig Rundown, 2013.
Pickups
Two eras, two pickup families. His current set is a Fishman signature; the Ibanez years ran DiMarzio.
Current · his signature · three voices
Fishman Fluence Tosin Abasi Signature
The stock pickup in every Larada, made in 6, 7, and 8-string versions. Fishman's Fluence core gives three switchable voices: a modern, aggressive high-output voice, a passive-style humbucker voice, and a glassy single-coil voice. That range is what lets one guitar cover his clean tapped passages and his heaviest rhythm parts.
Source: Fishman: Tosin Abasi signature; Fishman: 8-String set.
Ibanez era · passive · HSH
DiMarzio Ionizer 8
The pickups in his Ibanez TAM signatures, with a coil-tap and a five-way selector for extra voicing options. This is the sound on the earlier Animals as Leaders records, before the Fishman Fluence signature arrived with Abasi Concepts.
Source: DiMarzio: Ionizer 8, designed for Tosin Abasi; Guitar World: TAM100 review.
Amps and effects
His amplification is the part that has moved the most, so treat any single "his amp" claim with care. What is documented:
Documented rigs · 2013 then 2017
Fractal Axe-Fx II, then tube heads
In Premier Guitar's 2013 rundown he ran a Fractal Axe-Fx II into a Port City Pearl head used as a power amp, into a Port City cab. By the 2017 rundown he had moved back to traditional tube heads while bandmate Javier Reyes stayed fully digital. He has never used a Fractal Axe-Fx III on the record; that model postdates both rundowns.
Source: Premier Guitar, 2013; Premier Guitar, 2017.
His own plugin · signature amp sim
Neural DSP Archetype: Tosin Abasi
His signature amp-and-effects plugin, linked directly from the Abasi Concepts site. It is a modern part of his tone toolkit and of many home djent rigs, the software equivalent of the tight, articulate high-gain sound his strings and pickups are built around.
Source: Neural DSP: Archetype Abasi.
Strings
This is the reason Abasi lives on Change Your Strings. His string story is unusually well-documented because it appears in two places at once: on D'Addario's artist page, and on the spec sheet of the guitar company he owns.
His actual set · factory spec · about .0095–.074
D'Addario NYXL, Larada 8 custom spread
Abasi Concepts lists the Larada 8 strings as "D'Addario 9.5 NYXL plus .056, .074." In plain terms: a NYXL 9.5 set on the top six (roughly .0095 to .046) with a .056 and a .074 added for the seventh and eighth strings. NYXL's high-carbon core keeps that low .074 tight and articulate under his tapping and slap technique.
Source: Abasi Concepts: Larada 8 string spec; D'Addario: Tosin Abasi.
Historical · 2013 · DR Strings
DR .009–.074 (earlier era)
Before D'Addario, Premier Guitar's 2013 rundown documents Abasi and Reyes on DR .009 to .074 8-string sets, tuning the 8-string to standard and dropping the low string to E. The gauge range barely changed across the switch; the brand and the string technology did.
If you want an 8-string set you can buy off the shelf today in his exact brand and line, the closest box is the D'Addario NYXL1074:
Buyable · same brand and line · .010–.074
D'Addario NYXL1074 8-String
A light-top, heavy-bottom 8-string set: .010 .013 .017 .030 .042 .054 .064 .074. Not the custom spread the Larada ships, but the same NYXL line, in a single box, sized for F# standard and Drop E.
Why F# and Drop E on a multiscale 8-string
Animals as Leaders live in a low 8-string register, F# standard with the eighth string often dropped to E. Two design choices keep that low string from turning to mush. First, the Larada's multiscale runs the bass side out to 27.5 inches, adding tension where the low F# needs it while the treble side stays a comfortable 25.5 for bends and melody. Second, the string spread is built for the job: a .074 low string is heavy enough to hold pitch and definition that far down.
That is the same tension problem every extended-range player meets, and it is why his bandmate-in-arms in the djent world, Misha Mansoor, engineers his own balanced-tension sets. If you are setting up an 8-string for this register, start with the 8-string gauge guide.
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