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1980 Tokai LS80-Goldtop

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Gregg Levy

Member
Joined
Apr 9, 2009
Messages
12
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Location
Norwood, NJ USA
Completely original guitar in NEAR MINT condition. Dark back. Brazilian Rosewood board. Very large neck profile. Strong and well matched original Gotoh pickups. Plays and sounds great. Original frets in near new condition. No repairs. No monkey business. Clean original hardshell case. Original oversize Tokai polishing cloth. Original trussrod wrench.

$1,600.00 plus shipping/insurance.

Payment: A US bank check or US postal money orders are the ONLY forms of accepted payment. Overseas customers may pay with a bank draft purchased locally from a US bank.

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Wow!!! Absolute beauty!! I have one the same in no-where near the condition of yours. Dammned exchange rate :cry:
 
John, you buy that one, & I'll take your battered old wreck off your hands.

:p

Mike
 
the_man said:
would have been a fair price 3 years ago. not 2009.
rup

Sorry, but the seller sets the price, high or low. I really wish people could not critique within the Classifieds.

............ just my position.

Beautiful guitar, good luck with the sale. Joe
 
i think tokai never used brazillian RW for fretboard in those days.
only indian rosewood.

there are very nice tokai genuine polishing cloth available today
and 3 colors are available. blue and yellow and pink. all goes for
$10 a sheet. picks and tuner are available too.

pretty nice your goldtop set looks here.


8)
 
I agree with Joe, I see too many tokai's advertised as braz/honduran, when there is no evidence of this at all, in fact any sparse evidence seems to indicate otherwise..

If I get a question on one of my Tokai's about whether its a braz board and honduran back I simply state ''I do not know''

the ONLY ones I know for sure are the modern 320's and latter..
 
Hi guys, my LS 180 and my order made gold top are both Honduras mahogany, verified by Tokai, the 180 has a ebony fretboard and the gold top has a ebonised rosewood board. Honduras mahogany is used for other high end guitars as well like the SG 155, the ES155, and the LSS 175 as well as the LS 320 and higher models.

Mick
 
no..

the early 850's and 1000's were all braz, that stopped sometime in 81, the 1000's continued a bit later with Braz, so some early 850's are, most 1000's are ..but some are not..!!
 
8) our best tokai friend (he is both mick's and mine) told me that
tokai basically only used indian rosewood for the fretboard so
never brazillian/african rosewood then yet. and they only used
canadian sycamore for the laminate top part and soft maple for
the bottom maple part. for the solid maple tops they used hard maple.
never honduran mahogany in those days they only used african
mahogany for the body&neck. like villager and mick said, tokai
didnt use better woods like brazillian/honduran/ til much later
recent years. this fact is about the tokai golden years gtrs from
1978 to 1982 especially.




8) too many ebay sellers seem to say their old tokais have brazillian/
honduran/ but its simply not true. it might look so and they wanna
believe so but NO! always indian RW/canadian MPL/african maho.
 
Joe,if the woods used on the earlier tokais[1978-1982] were not of the quality used on the later high end models,why are the earlier ones so highly regarded.....


Bob
 
Quality is not the right word, Joe means that the wood was not identical to the 59 gibsons, heh but neither is modern honduran mahogony or new growth farmed Braz rosewood...so it makes very little difference really, its not just the wood , the long tenon, the nitro, the hide glue, etc etc that makes a good guitar, its something magic too...

basically the way that wood is grown, harvested and dried today is as far removed from the wood used in 59 gibsons as is the african mahog and indian rosewood used in early tokai's ...

so although people believe that they need honduran mahog and braz rosewood boards its actually quite mad to think that the modern versions of these woods are identical to old growth woods used in the old days....they really are not, the only way to find old growth honduran mahog is to search for old church pews and bank counters from the 40's and 50's ... thats what a few of the top individual builders spend time doing...as for old growth braz rosewood, I have no idea where on earth one would find that...
 
hunter said:
Joe,if the woods used on the earlier tokais[1978-1982] were not of the quality used on the later high end models,why are the earlier ones so highly regarded.....


Bob


:) hello bob.......good woods are all good woods so good woods.........

they are all the same kind of the wood just a bit different thats all.
when the quality of the wood is high then its high quality so no problem.
the old days gibson used brazillian/honduran/hard maple mostly coz
those were easy to get around the north america and generally these
were kinda the best kind mostly stably. but laters when people basically
used them up they began using the similar woods. actually basically
the same but only a bit defferent coz where they are from. the weather
makes them a bit defferent from each other i think. but the quality is
the quality so when its all GOOD quality then no better or no worse really.
just the same species with a bit different tendency or som. also what
villager is saying here about the old growth and early growth makes
a lot of quality differences even in the same wood. today's woods are
not fully grown too early cut and used. so unmatured yet that gives
the soft, small, weak, unmatured tone. the old woods were tough like
the old people! anyways still the quality is the quality so when its good
then its good no problem.

these are most popular gtr woods, all the same wood but a bit defferent
like where they are from and the looks and density and...................


brazillian / indian / madagascar (african) rosewood.

honduran / s.american / african mahogany.

soft maple / hard maple / eastern hard maple.

each famous gtr wood at least has 3 major kinds all very useful and good.
ofcourse more minor varietions to them are possible.






8)
 
Thanks guys for the info....always good stuff from you all :D

Joe,you know I am a sucker for the brown back ls80 so I decided to add this beauty to my collection......hunt for the goldtop is over :D
 
8) congrats philly bob! u just keep getting super cool ones and i dont know
why that much lucky u r. must be som about your destiny bob.......
someday a great collector huh.......congrats again! ................j
 

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