Tokai vs Yamaha

[JohnA]

IMO the hotter bridge in the MK II's mean the neck/bridge balance is better, I often find the neck pickups is louder than the bridge, and in the middle position the bridge pickup gets overpowered. The MK II's while not the best pickups available sound as good or better than most of the off the shelf replacements, I 'upgraded' some once to a set of Seth Lovers and promptly swapped them back again

Some of the expensive hand wound PAF's sound sweeter when played clean, but who wants a LP for clean tones :wink:

 

[Mole Man]

Aren't we in danger of straying off topic here? Some of the posts above would be more at home in the "Confessions of a boutique PAF tart", thread that I started here:

http://www.tokaiforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=14270&highlight=fralin

 

[luis]

Pre 2005 MK-II bridge pickup Gotoh made, is not so hot as post MK-II(Keiyo?) ones.I?m not a great fan of new MK-II bridge but I understand it?s a good choice for more hair(metal music) and a good choice from Tokai to get a wider public so no ctticism at all,just different tastes.
I had those MK-II in a '05 LS-150 HDC finish and I took them off and gave them for free to a guy from Argentina who was starting to build guitars.

A great local player was playing my Reborn with Dr. Vs through a JCM800 and the sound was so clear...more fenderish than tipycal modern Les Paul sound...Very interesting...Have to put my Rolphs '58 in to compare....

 

[looktoyourorb]

...But I suspect that has a lot more to do with the guitars and that, in the end, I'm just not an SG guy.

Yep, SG is very different to a LP - I've found that it has some of the flavour or feel of a single coil type guitar like a Tele for instance. I think it's in the initial pick attack and some sort of treble emphasis maybe. The SG just seems kind of crispy, I can't explain it properly.

Only issue I have with the SG is the playing position - when I go to it after playing a Strat or LP I feel like I can't reach the first fret! Although after 10 minutes you quickly get used to it again. I don't have large hands so I don't have my guitars slung really low, but the SG should probably be worn a bit lower and angled up a bit more than a Strat or LP.

I got my SG quite recently and find quite difficullt putting it down. I think the difference compared to a Les Paul is a very "jangly" sound, quite snappy but not as thick or deep as the LP. Probably something to do with the lower body mass and this neck completely out of the body.

Perfect to bring these ACDC chords to life.

I do agree it feels odd to play after one of my LS.

 

[JVsearch]

Mk2's - bridge 11,5k, and 7,5k neck.

Pearly Gates - bridge 8,35k, neck 7,3k

My measurements are:

MK II 11.05 & 7.39
Pearly Gates 7.78 & 7.00

The Pearly Gates have an extra touch of brightness in them too, though they are surprisingly low in output.

I would expect the Pearly Gates to be bright, and the MKIIs to have more mids given those readings. However, as the MKII has more output you can set it up further away from the strings which should increase the brightness.

 

[bashbrook]

Pre 2005 MK-II bridge pickup Gotoh made, is not so hot as post MK-II(Keiyo?) ones.

Luis - thanks for this. I never realised that there were two different types of PAF MK2s used in Tokais!

I just dug out the PAF MK2 pickups that were originally in my ES120.
They are Gotoh made - you can just make out the word "Gotoh" faintly printed on the labels that say "LP-A F" (front/neck) and LP-A R" (rear/bridge).

What's interesting is that both pickups come out at just under 8.5K resistance.

This would explain why I didn't think that the bridge pickup sounded overwound and why I thought the pickups sounded like they were both in that classic PAF ballpark!

Cheers
Brendan

 

[JVsearch]

Pre 2005 MK-II bridge pickup Gotoh made, is not so hot as post MK-II(Keiyo?) ones.

Luis - thanks for this. I never realised that there were two different types of PAF MK2s used in Tokais!

I just dug out the PAF MK2 pickups that were originally in my ES120.
They are Gotoh made - you can just make out the word "Gotoh" faintly printed on the labels that say "LP-A F" (front/neck) and LP-A R" (rear/bridge).

What's interesting is that both pickups come out at just under 8.5K resistance.

This would explain why I didn't think that the bridge pickup sounded overwound and why I thought the pickups sounded like they were both in that classic PAF ballpark!

Cheers
Brendan

That explains everything - your set can definitely be called PAF clones!

 

[BluesFan]

A year on and time for an update. Over the past year whilst thinking about what 335 style guitar to get I have bought a Recording King Style-O resonator guitar, a MIJ Vintage Fender Custom '62 Telecaster (sunburst with binding front and back) and a Yamaha acoustic. Trying to find a shop that stocks the high-end Tokai ES models has been impossible without travelling long distance so when I got my hands on a Yamaha a few weeks back my mind was made up. I am now the proud and very satisfied owner of a brown sunburst Yamaha SA2200.

 

[luis]

Eli "paperboy" band plays a Yamaha SA-2000WR (not sure if Eli or the other guitarist-I guess the later-).I just saw the roadie placing the guitar back to the Yamaha OSCH case. Despite that they play GREAT!