John Mayer set to upset purists as he plays eight-string blues on Tosin Abasi’s guitar

John Mayer, poster boy for contemporary blues and creator of the rather traditionally spec’d PRS Silver Sky, is apparently stretching his electric guitar wings after testing one of Tosin Abasi’s eight-string Abasi Concept Larada models.

In a video shared by the Animals As Leaders guitarist on Instagram and reposted below, Mayer can be seen handling bass and lead duties with a smooth fingerstyle technique - we wonder how blues purists will feel about that...

Mayer was so impressed by the guitar, he put an order in right there and then.

“We’re starting an art series build for John ASAP,” Abasi revealed.

In recent years, Mayer has declared himself open to new approaches to the guitar, revealing he doesn’t even bring an amp to sessions any more, instead utilising an Akai MPC.

“Pick your favourite guitarists from the ’60s and ask yourself, if they were around today at the age they were in the ’60s, would they have embraced new technology?” he told Guitar World.

“Damn right, they would’ve! You’re damn right Jimi Hendrix would have been unplugging from a Marshall and holding the guitar cable in his hand, looking around the room going, ‘Where can I plug this into?’”

Tosin Abasi’s long-awaited Larada - which he first developed with Ibanez before branching out under his own name - is set to arrive this summer.