sickman82
New member
Hey Guys,
Well, this is my first post so I wanted to make it a helpful/useful one.
I've been after an SG copy for some time now, and Friday just gone I made the purchase for a USG35. I was looking at a couple of other options - the Vintage VS6 and the Epiphone G400 Pro. Having owned a couple of Epiphones (including a G400 Limited Edition 60's worn cherry that I wasn't very fond of) and a couple of Vintage branded guitars - I decided to try my luck with Tokai this time.
Originally I went with the Cherry Red option, but decided to swap it for Ebony before it was shipped. Purely because on close inspection of the photos I could clearly see a few joins in the neck that aesthetically weren't very pleasing. With it being the Easter bank holiday weekend here in the UK, I had to wait until yesterday for the guitar to arrive.
I managed to slip out of work yesterday afternoon to go grab some 'lunch'. Earlier in the day I had agreed with the shop below my flat that they would sign for my delivery. Annoyingly, when I checked the tracking as I got to work, the guitar was delivered 10 minutes after I left! I had to wait until 1:30 before I could sneak out and see it.
I got home, unpackaged it and played a few notes straight out the box. Credit to Absolute Guitars, the guitar was in tune. The setup left something to be desired however, but I didn't have time to tinker on my 'lunch' break. I plugged it in to my Marshall Super Lead 100w (with PPIMV), and I was a little disappointed.. it sounded pretty dull and lifeless in the neck, the bridge was a bit too harsh. I had to go back to work by this point, which gave me time to plan what I was going to do to bring this guitar to life.
Inspecting the guitar fully last night after work, I was extremely surprised at just how good the fit and finish of this guitar is. I'm no stranger to imports, so I know that the main issue with guitars of this price point isn't always necessarily how they sound; but how they play, look and feel in your hands. Everything is immaculate. There isn't a single flaw. They have used decent screws - I know this may sound trivial, but it's really irritating when you find a guitar has cheap screws that just strip so easy even with the correct size head. The rosewood on the neck is really beautifully dark, it even looks as though they have oiled it.. I may find later on that this isn't actually rosewood, but it looks pretty good for now. The binding is prefect, no overspray anywhere to be seen. The fret work is perfect, nicely crowned and polished.
Fast forward to this morning, I've spent a good 5 hours tinkering with the set up, putting my favourite strings on, adjusting the nut, pickup and polepiece height, rewired it to 50's specs and I have finally got it to where I want. It's worth noting that the nut is a genuine bone nut, as I was cutting it earlier I got that familiar smell.. anybody that cuts there own nuts will know what I mean here. The neck is warm, but airy and clear. The bridge has just the right amount of beef and bite. I found that backing off the pickups to 5mm on the neck and 4mm for the bridge thick E side, 4mm and 5mm respectively for the skinny E side (matching the pole pieces to the radius) gave the sweet spot tone I was after. It's worth adding that the stock pickups are pretty hot, particularly the bridge. I may swap these out at some point for something more old school - but for now they're good.
I have the action set fairly low.. not shredder low, about 2mm on the fat E, 1.5mm on the skinny E.. measured at the 17th fret. With 12 thou relief in the neck, it plays as I expected.. no dead notes on the fretboard, which is testament to Tokai China. I usually need to level one or two frets - sometimes even the whole neck! I don't have a particularly light touch, and fret buzz is to a minimum.. I don't worry too much about fret buzz unless it's choking notes, and it certainly isn't the case here.
There are a few things I'm going to change.. but for the most part the things I want to swap out are par for the course - pots, caps, knobs etc. As I said, I may swap the pickups, but I'll wait a while before I do to see if I can bond with these.
All in all, I'm very impressed. By far, the quality is far better than any Vintage I've owned or played.. it's on par with a few very good Epiphones I've had, but blows the others out the water. I wasn't expecting much for ?249, but I got a lot more than I paid for in my opinion.
Anybody that is thinking of buying one of these, or other Chinese Tokais.. or anybody that is dismissing them purely because they are made in China.. I'd recommend you to go for it. A very, very nice guitar for the money. I have a YouTube channel, I've already decided to do a video demo/review.. as soon as it's done I will post the link.
Peace,
Danny
Well, this is my first post so I wanted to make it a helpful/useful one.
I've been after an SG copy for some time now, and Friday just gone I made the purchase for a USG35. I was looking at a couple of other options - the Vintage VS6 and the Epiphone G400 Pro. Having owned a couple of Epiphones (including a G400 Limited Edition 60's worn cherry that I wasn't very fond of) and a couple of Vintage branded guitars - I decided to try my luck with Tokai this time.
Originally I went with the Cherry Red option, but decided to swap it for Ebony before it was shipped. Purely because on close inspection of the photos I could clearly see a few joins in the neck that aesthetically weren't very pleasing. With it being the Easter bank holiday weekend here in the UK, I had to wait until yesterday for the guitar to arrive.
I managed to slip out of work yesterday afternoon to go grab some 'lunch'. Earlier in the day I had agreed with the shop below my flat that they would sign for my delivery. Annoyingly, when I checked the tracking as I got to work, the guitar was delivered 10 minutes after I left! I had to wait until 1:30 before I could sneak out and see it.
I got home, unpackaged it and played a few notes straight out the box. Credit to Absolute Guitars, the guitar was in tune. The setup left something to be desired however, but I didn't have time to tinker on my 'lunch' break. I plugged it in to my Marshall Super Lead 100w (with PPIMV), and I was a little disappointed.. it sounded pretty dull and lifeless in the neck, the bridge was a bit too harsh. I had to go back to work by this point, which gave me time to plan what I was going to do to bring this guitar to life.
Inspecting the guitar fully last night after work, I was extremely surprised at just how good the fit and finish of this guitar is. I'm no stranger to imports, so I know that the main issue with guitars of this price point isn't always necessarily how they sound; but how they play, look and feel in your hands. Everything is immaculate. There isn't a single flaw. They have used decent screws - I know this may sound trivial, but it's really irritating when you find a guitar has cheap screws that just strip so easy even with the correct size head. The rosewood on the neck is really beautifully dark, it even looks as though they have oiled it.. I may find later on that this isn't actually rosewood, but it looks pretty good for now. The binding is prefect, no overspray anywhere to be seen. The fret work is perfect, nicely crowned and polished.
Fast forward to this morning, I've spent a good 5 hours tinkering with the set up, putting my favourite strings on, adjusting the nut, pickup and polepiece height, rewired it to 50's specs and I have finally got it to where I want. It's worth noting that the nut is a genuine bone nut, as I was cutting it earlier I got that familiar smell.. anybody that cuts there own nuts will know what I mean here. The neck is warm, but airy and clear. The bridge has just the right amount of beef and bite. I found that backing off the pickups to 5mm on the neck and 4mm for the bridge thick E side, 4mm and 5mm respectively for the skinny E side (matching the pole pieces to the radius) gave the sweet spot tone I was after. It's worth adding that the stock pickups are pretty hot, particularly the bridge. I may swap these out at some point for something more old school - but for now they're good.
I have the action set fairly low.. not shredder low, about 2mm on the fat E, 1.5mm on the skinny E.. measured at the 17th fret. With 12 thou relief in the neck, it plays as I expected.. no dead notes on the fretboard, which is testament to Tokai China. I usually need to level one or two frets - sometimes even the whole neck! I don't have a particularly light touch, and fret buzz is to a minimum.. I don't worry too much about fret buzz unless it's choking notes, and it certainly isn't the case here.
There are a few things I'm going to change.. but for the most part the things I want to swap out are par for the course - pots, caps, knobs etc. As I said, I may swap the pickups, but I'll wait a while before I do to see if I can bond with these.
All in all, I'm very impressed. By far, the quality is far better than any Vintage I've owned or played.. it's on par with a few very good Epiphones I've had, but blows the others out the water. I wasn't expecting much for ?249, but I got a lot more than I paid for in my opinion.
Anybody that is thinking of buying one of these, or other Chinese Tokais.. or anybody that is dismissing them purely because they are made in China.. I'd recommend you to go for it. A very, very nice guitar for the money. I have a YouTube channel, I've already decided to do a video demo/review.. as soon as it's done I will post the link.
Peace,
Danny
