The following content is related to the September 2013 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue.
Seeing and hearing Tosin Abasi deftly build complex two-handed chords, weave sweeps into single-note blurs and slap melodic bass lines across his eight-string fretboard feels like being part of the stunned audience at Marty McFly’s heavy metal performance of Johnny B. Goode—you’re witnessing the future of guitar.
Following suit, Abasi’s new, Japanese-built signature TAM100 Ibanez is much more than a refinement of hackneyed designs—it represents an entirely new formula for creating tone, melding exotic woods and specially wired, signature DiMarzio Ionizer8 pickups into an expressive, supremely crafted eight-string that’s worthy of Abasi’s seemingly boundless musical gifts.