HELP! Could someone explain the Love Rock range?

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glouis

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Hi fellas,

It's been about 15 years I play guitar, but I'm a rookie here, and I don't know quite anything about Tokai guitars, except I've heard so much good about them...
Could somebody explain me the current range of Love Rock : for instance, on eBay UK, I've seen a LS80, and the seller says it is also known as LS70... Guitar costs ?649, whereas on Coda site, I've seen an LS 70 at ?499 : is it really the same model?
Plus, could you pls tell me which models are MIJ and which are MIK? I've also heard about models aimed at american market, whose heads are quite different... :-? Well, I must confess I'm totally lost!!!
Will someone have mercy?

Thanks guys! :wink:
 
Hi There

Coda are selling off old shop soiled/Ex Demo stock for ?499. The price for a new one with a Hard Case included is generally around the ?649 mark. I'll PM you a link to the ones i've seen.

Cheers
 
Forgot to tackle the other half of your question - here is a quick run down of current UK love rock models

Korean:
LS48
LS50Q
LS56V - Has a bigsby fitted

Japanese:
LS60
LS65
LS70F
LS75Q
LS75S
LC70
LS150
LS320

Where there appears to be confusion, notwithstanding coda's pricing, is in the code numbers used. Tokai change their codes more often than a baby has it's nappy changed. And so the old codes have stuck in peoples's minds. Although, to be correct the LS70 should be called an LS80, LS75Q = LS85Q, LS75S should be LS85S and the LC70s are now officially called LC80.

In general the Japanese models will feature better materials, build quality and better finish than the cheaper Korean models. At the same time, the Korean models are generally accepted to beat the pants of most Epiphones that cost more. So they aren't bad guitars, but they are made to a budget.

Hope this helps.
 
There are models aimed at the Jap market for sure with different headstocks to the UK ones.

UK ones have a little dimple in the centre of the headstock to slightly differentiate them from Gibson headstocks. I am guessing this is for legal reasons and probably also applies to US models?

*snip as guitarslinger answered it better!*
 
If you are unsure if a guitar you are looking at is Japanese or Korean, take a look at the truss rod cover, if it has 3 screws it's Korean, and if it has 2 screws it's Japanese. This applies to the SG and LP style guitars, to my knowlage, I'm sure someone else knows the exceptions to the rule!

What makes the models more confusing is that they change the model numbers around, so an SG60 is the same as an SG70, there are some more specific details over on the tokai registry site. I think someone else mentioned this too, again just a bit of background research to any guitars you might check out is worth it with confusing stuff like this.

To add something even more confusing to the mix, I bought a Tokai from coda's luton branch on saturday, and it was not shop soiled atall, in fact it was brand spanking new, even though it was at the price listed on Coda's website. Oh and, as I'm sure you'll be aware, lots of shops split up "included" cases and gig bags, from all brands, and sell them seperatly, so if you think it should be included just say so.
 
Snake said:
If you are unsure if a guitar you are looking at is Japanese or Korean, take a look at the truss rod cover, if it has 3 screws it's Korean, and if it has 2 screws it's Japanese. This applies to the SG and LP style guitars, to my knowlage, I'm sure someone else knows the exceptions to the rule!

What makes the models more confusing is that they change the model numbers around, so an SG60 is the same as an SG70, there are some more specific details over on the tokai registry site. I think someone else mentioned this too, again just a bit of background research to any guitars you might check out is worth it with confusing stuff like this.

To add something even more confusing to the mix, I bought a Tokai from coda's luton branch on saturday, and it was not shop soiled atall, in fact it was brand spanking new, even though it was at the price listed on Coda's website. Oh and, as I'm sure you'll be aware, lots of shops split up "included" cases and gig bags, from all brands, and sell them seperatly, so if you think it should be included just say so.
Click to expand...

So Coda has more guitars others than the ex-demo ones on the website that sell for 499?
 
Japanese:
LS60 - Current Model No. LS70
LS65 - Current Model No. LS75
LS70F - Current Model No. LS80F
LS75Q - Current Model No. LS85Q
LS75S - Current Model No. LS85S
LC70 - Current Model No. LC80?
LS150 - Current Model No. LS180?
LS320 - Current Model No. LS350?

Because of inflation in Japan, the model's RRP increased by 10,000Yen, hence the model no.'s increase by "10". It can get confusing on this board when people talk about new guitars, using the current model no.'s which can be confused with the slightly higher spec older models. It's even more confusing when the guitars are bought in the UK, as the importer refers to them using the older model no.'s, but they are in fact newer models... I think... :-?
 
as the importer refers to them using the older model no.'s, but they are in fact newer models... I think...
Click to expand...

I can verify that my LS70F is documented on the invoice and box as LS80F - hence UK Model no are the "old" model numbers.
 
That's right - if you bought an LS70F new in the UK recently - you actually got what is officially an LS80F - according to the new Tokai coding system.

Haha - you gotta love it! :roll:
 
math2014 said:
So Coda has more guitars others than the ex-demo ones on the website that sell for 499?
Click to expand...

From what I saw, yeah. The one I bought, the SG60, was at the price listed on the website, was brand spanking new, and it's still listed on the site (they said once a guitar is out of stock they remove it from the site right away). The guy in Luton said they got an extra few guitars out of Tokai.
 
bruno said:
ls-320 is now l2-380

ls-180 is a, for now, extinct model, so is the ls-150
Click to expand...

I don't get that!

People keep saying that but I have 2 LS150s on order! Are they incorrectly labelled in the UK or something!?! :?
 
hm Coda is confusing as to what they got in stock...

I wonder whats the situation in Denmark street.

If you add in the mix LS120 LS125 etc etc that DONT appear at tokai.uk website it gets even more confusing
 
I always find that denmark street is much higher in price than "local" shops, like coda, which I went like 90 miles to get to! Plus I think a few of the shops down there are owned by the same people. I love going there though since you get to try out lots more guitars than smaller shops!

Y'know, the thing I find confusing about the Love Rock range, is that tokai's uk distro company lists the SGs as Love Rocks.. Dunno how correct that is, or if it's some link in with when SGs came out they had "Les Paul" on them (I think?)
 
jamieh, just because coda managed to stock up on ls-150's, doesn't mean they're still being produced, they aren't, I asked, and this has been much debated in this forum, the production started and only lasted, due to a bunch of maple that was incorrectly suplied to tokai, it was supposed to be plain (or very low flame) and instead it was quite flamey, so they decided to produce a limited run of guitars, with nice features at affordable prices, together with those flamed maple tops... they've been out of production for more than one or two months by now...
 
the one thing I haven't understood to it's full extend is how come, the ls-150's you buy in england don't come with the open book headstock, most of them I've seen, have that extra wave at the middle... what's up with that? Anything to do with lawsuits? If that's what it is about, than those guitars were made especially for the european market, and there for should have a different designation, other than LS. Right?
 
The headstock design is because of trademark issues, the shape of the headstock is a trade mark of Gibson. In England we have harsher trademark and copyright laws than Japan, and the US has harder ones, which is why the export designs have that nasty nasty curved headstock, and a different body shape (though I have yet to see one of those).

Yeah the European designs have a different designation, I think they are ALS instead of just LS. Check out Tokai UK site, I think you can see the different body shapes there too, and I think perhaps the nasty headstocks (not sure though).
 
ok thanks, just trying to understand once and for all, the difference is so small I would definetly still buy it...
 
I personally (as I have one ordered from Coda) can't wait to see what they get.
I'm picking my violin finish up but will (of course) check out the other spares (if any) they have and try them out too.

If there's a blue one (YUK) that rocks better than the others including 'mine' then that's what I'll go home with.

One thing that's getting me intrigued is the pick up specs.

'Gotoh Custom PAF OR Trev Wilkinson SL' ??

Which is it? Which is better? Is there a difference other than the name?

I'll post my experiences and you'll all be the first to know ;)
 

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