Tokyo, Round 3!!!

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Big Willie Style

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Tickets are booked, hotel reserved. Off to Tokyo at the end of the month.

Can anyone tell me where Retro Bazaar is? I've heard of so many people getting some good finds there so I'd like to check it out.

Jason
 
Just got back from Tokyo, round 3. What a ton of Tokais this time! There were Juniors, ES's, Love Rock's galore, high end, lower end, etc. There were a ton of the LS-160s to be had but **** they were heavy mo'fos. One shop I was in that had a lot of them said they averaged between 4.5-5kg. They had extremely nice tops though. As much as I would have liked to get the LS-5 with Holmes pickups that Ikebe had on sale, I ended up coming home with a guitar I'd been eyeing for 3-4 years and all 3 trips to Tokyo - the Edwards JP. Just couldn't pass it up this time.

Pics to follow of that and the sweet Bacchus strat I picked up.

Jason
 
Here are some pics of the Bacchus strat I bought on my trip. The designation is BST-118, which I gather is not a very common model. Pics are not very high-res as they were taken with my iPhone:

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The Bacchus is in amazing shape. It has one very small pinead ding through the finish on the top just in front of the end strap button. Other than that, just a very small amount of surface scratching that is impossible to photograph due to the finish. I was on the fence about this guitar as, even though I liked the look of it, I hadn't heard of the model. But TJ did a bit of digging for me (thanks!) and I realized it was a pretty good deal for what I paid.

And a bonus shot of my Edwards JP I picked up as well. I almost left without it again, until I picked it up. What a LIGHT guitar!!!

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There were lots of Tokais to be had on this trip and I was really thinking about a Junior DC or a Goldtop with p90s (didn't see one), but two juniors I saw weren't great - little finish flaws and such. On the white one, it had a nasty and easily seen through the finish join in the wood. Anyways, lots of high end models available with awesome looking tops, but HEAVY HEAVY!

I saw the usual suspects - a few Grecos, a few Burnys, a few OBG's, tons of PRS, Fender from everywhere, and Gibsons. The only older Tokai I saw was a ST-50 Goldie in good shape for about 49,000 yen. I might have bought it if I didn't already buy the Bacchus.

Overall, I couldn't be happier with my purchases on this trip!!!

Jason
 
Very nice..... that Bacchus is very cool - never seen one like it!

Gotta love that Jimmy Page Edwards. Is it the Super Circuit model with the push, pull coil splitting knobs? Best value on the street in my opinion.


Enjoy your new toys..... well done!
 
Thanks Marcus. Yes, the JP has the super circuit. As far as the Bacchus goes, I never saw one either, but I did recently see a BST-120, which was very similar but had brown oil finish and gold hardware (if memory serves).

Jason
 
Big Willie Style said:
Thanks Marcus. Yes, the JP has the super circuit. As far as the Bacchus goes, I never saw one either, but I did recently see a BST-120, which was very similar but had brown oil finish and gold hardware (if memory serves).

Jason

Very nice.... both of them
 
Big Willie Style said:
Hey Marcus, did you ever come across an English version of the super circuit switching diagram included with the guitar?

Jason

No.... mine's in Japanese but it's very clear to understand which coils are active depending upon which pots you pull up..... it's alot of fun discovering the different tonal qualities - all the way from strat tone to T Bone Walker honk tone to Peter Green out of phase tone.

Remember, the coil splitting option is ONLY useable when both pickups are engaged - middle position on the selector switch.
 
marcusnieman said:
Remember, the coil splitting option is ONLY useable when both pickups are engaged - middle position on the selector switch.

That's a strange way to wire it. :eek:
 
stratman323 said:
marcusnieman said:
Remember, the coil splitting option is ONLY useable when both pickups are engaged - middle position on the selector switch.

That's a strange way to wire it. :eek:

Kinda makes sense.... if you want to use any kind of coil combination between the two pickups, they both need to be active, yes?
 
Big Willie Style said:
Thanks guys! Got a lot of experimenting to do. Now if I can just get the time away...

Jason

The hard part is remembering which coil combinations produce which tones..... especially if you're gigging with it. Find a few that you like and go to often and remember those. If I recall, T Bone tone is with all pots down except for the bridge tone pot pulled up (note .... non pulled pots still operate as normal)
 
marcusnieman said:
Kinda makes sense.... if you want to use any kind of coil combination between the two pickups, they both need to be active, yes?

So what if you want tapped bridge or tapped neck on their own? My mate has a Duncan JB in the bridge of his Love Rock, & he uses it tapped quite a bit.
 
stratman323 said:
marcusnieman said:
Kinda makes sense.... if you want to use any kind of coil combination between the two pickups, they both need to be active, yes?

So what if you want tapped bridge or tapped neck on their own? My mate has a Duncan JB in the bridge of his Love Rock, & he uses it tapped quite a bit.

I'll need to find the diagram, scan and put it up. Technically, I think it's the volume pots that coil split and the tone knobs affect the phasing
 
Forgot to mention, some of the nicest guitars I saw on this trip was a rack of Fujigen Expert FL's with quilt or flame tops. Frickin amazing looking guitars! Kind of like a LP meets Tele mix. Expensive though... :eek:

Jason
 

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