stratdeluxer
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- Joined
- Aug 28, 2002
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Hello everybody....As promised I wanted to give an in depth review on my new 2001 Korean made Love Rock Les Paul(lefty) 59 replica... Who says the Korean model Tokai Love Rocks suck? Mine is phenomenal.... ;o)
I must say that when I opened the case on this guitar that I was immediately Wowed! Gorgeous flamed top of orange running into honey/yellow(Honeyburst I guess)..I've compared the looks and the top on mine to several pictures both in my 58 thru 60 Les Paul book and several catalog photos from Guitar Galleria and on the net lately....This guitar is no cheap EPI and it feels like a very expensive and very well built Gibson Les Paul..The weight,looks,and feel of this guitar is very,very scary for thousands less! It looks to have a mahogany back and a sycamore maple or plain maple top but I'm not sure if the neck is mahogany or maple w/rosewood over it?It's hard to see the grain with the dark wine colored paint over it.The neck shape is great also.Not as deep as my SG neck,nor as wide,and it felt comfy right away for me.This worried me but all is fine..With the action low I had some noting out but no fret buzz..Now that the action is up and a change to .010's I don't think I'll encounter any buzz or noting out..
Couple of things I changed on it right off...
Both rear plates that cover the 3 way switch and the pots were white.I changed them both to Gibson black.Black is the correct color. ;o)
The truss rod cover had 3 screws and the shape was all wrong so it got changed to the 59 Les Paul style unmarked Gibson truss rod cover.The headstock looks just identical in shape and the gold writing from 10 feet away and it has the greenish looking Kluson style tuners with the narrow headstock...Looks dead on like a 59 Les Paul or a 59 reissue! Can't tell.I'll have to take some magor pictures of this thing!
The action was too low for my liking at 3/32" bass and 1/8" treble and was noting out high on the neck with bends,plus I hate .009's on my guitars especially on the 24 3/4 scales....I brought the action up to around 5/32" bass and 4/32" treble...Much better but I'm still tweaking and will recheck after the restring to .010s...
The relief is around .010 but I didn't measure it.It's actually fine...The guitar came with what looks like D'Addario .009's that I'll switch to .010's..The D'Addarios have the colored ends which I saw at the back of the bridge..I assume D'addarios?
I had to snug up the 3 way switch because it was loose...The switch is a cheesy enclosed type which I will replace but it does work fine now...
The pots are cheesy mini typical Jap/Korean crap and so are the tone caps.These will get replaced tomorrow along with the knobs that have a bigger inside knurled hole! ;o)The internal wire will get changed over to Fender cloth type instead of the thin cheap crap in there now! LOL
So how does the guitar play and sound?
Great....The neck pickup is really nice...Just right.Not too dark and not too bright.Not at all muddy clean of with high gain...The neck pickup reads around 8.0k and it's a keeper..
The bridge pickup was a bit disappointing..Thin and bright and the tone control sucks and doesn't roll the high end off in a smooth controllable way.I will remedy this with better pots and I'll try 300k here instead of the 500k to warm the bridge pickup up a bit...This pickup only measures around 6.0k(Wonder what happened here?) It doesn't sound bad but it reminds me of a Tele bridge pickup...Quacky and bright and with alot less volume than the neck..I'll probably stick a Classic 57 or a good Duncan pickup in the bridge position soon..
Middle position sounds pretty good also...Does the Dickey Betts,Page thing pretty nice.Again just right,not too bright or too dark..
Overall I think I ended up with a phenomenal looking,feeling,playing guitar...After a bridge pickup change and better pots,wire,switch,caps,this guitar will be dead perfect for my Les Paul woes....A 59 Gibson Lefty reissue would set me back about $3500...I'LL have less than 1k into an amazing rare,one off axe that aren't to be sold over in the states anymore because Gibson sued Tokai "again" ;o) I'm told that I own only 3 lefties of this model that were sent to Canada and it's a great guitar! I'm happy!
John
Hello everybody....As promised I wanted to give an in depth review on my new 2001 Korean made Love Rock Les Paul(lefty) 59 replica... Who says the Korean model Tokai Love Rocks suck? Mine is phenomenal.... ;o)
I must say that when I opened the case on this guitar that I was immediately Wowed! Gorgeous flamed top of orange running into honey/yellow(Honeyburst I guess)..I've compared the looks and the top on mine to several pictures both in my 58 thru 60 Les Paul book and several catalog photos from Guitar Galleria and on the net lately....This guitar is no cheap EPI and it feels like a very expensive and very well built Gibson Les Paul..The weight,looks,and feel of this guitar is very,very scary for thousands less! It looks to have a mahogany back and a sycamore maple or plain maple top but I'm not sure if the neck is mahogany or maple w/rosewood over it?It's hard to see the grain with the dark wine colored paint over it.The neck shape is great also.Not as deep as my SG neck,nor as wide,and it felt comfy right away for me.This worried me but all is fine..With the action low I had some noting out but no fret buzz..Now that the action is up and a change to .010's I don't think I'll encounter any buzz or noting out..
Couple of things I changed on it right off...
Both rear plates that cover the 3 way switch and the pots were white.I changed them both to Gibson black.Black is the correct color. ;o)
The truss rod cover had 3 screws and the shape was all wrong so it got changed to the 59 Les Paul style unmarked Gibson truss rod cover.The headstock looks just identical in shape and the gold writing from 10 feet away and it has the greenish looking Kluson style tuners with the narrow headstock...Looks dead on like a 59 Les Paul or a 59 reissue! Can't tell.I'll have to take some magor pictures of this thing!
The action was too low for my liking at 3/32" bass and 1/8" treble and was noting out high on the neck with bends,plus I hate .009's on my guitars especially on the 24 3/4 scales....I brought the action up to around 5/32" bass and 4/32" treble...Much better but I'm still tweaking and will recheck after the restring to .010s...
The relief is around .010 but I didn't measure it.It's actually fine...The guitar came with what looks like D'Addario .009's that I'll switch to .010's..The D'Addarios have the colored ends which I saw at the back of the bridge..I assume D'addarios?
I had to snug up the 3 way switch because it was loose...The switch is a cheesy enclosed type which I will replace but it does work fine now...
The pots are cheesy mini typical Jap/Korean crap and so are the tone caps.These will get replaced tomorrow along with the knobs that have a bigger inside knurled hole! ;o)The internal wire will get changed over to Fender cloth type instead of the thin cheap crap in there now! LOL
So how does the guitar play and sound?
Great....The neck pickup is really nice...Just right.Not too dark and not too bright.Not at all muddy clean of with high gain...The neck pickup reads around 8.0k and it's a keeper..
The bridge pickup was a bit disappointing..Thin and bright and the tone control sucks and doesn't roll the high end off in a smooth controllable way.I will remedy this with better pots and I'll try 300k here instead of the 500k to warm the bridge pickup up a bit...This pickup only measures around 6.0k(Wonder what happened here?) It doesn't sound bad but it reminds me of a Tele bridge pickup...Quacky and bright and with alot less volume than the neck..I'll probably stick a Classic 57 or a good Duncan pickup in the bridge position soon..
Middle position sounds pretty good also...Does the Dickey Betts,Page thing pretty nice.Again just right,not too bright or too dark..
Overall I think I ended up with a phenomenal looking,feeling,playing guitar...After a bridge pickup change and better pots,wire,switch,caps,this guitar will be dead perfect for my Les Paul woes....A 59 Gibson Lefty reissue would set me back about $3500...I'LL have less than 1k into an amazing rare,one off axe that aren't to be sold over in the states anymore because Gibson sued Tokai "again" ;o) I'm told that I own only 3 lefties of this model that were sent to Canada and it's a great guitar! I'm happy!
John