What are the modern Tokais like?

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austin

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I'm looking for a white Les Paul at the moment and having owned a 79 Reborn in the past I'm tempted to get a Tokai but are the modern ones any good? I'm guessing they won't be anywhere near the spec of the vintage models but are they worth buying or not as don't want to waste my cash?
I found these on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Tokai-ALC-53-Love-Rock-White-Les-Paul-Custom_W0QQitemZ270526135841QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item3efc9d3e21

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Tokai-LC53-Les-Paul-Custom-Electric-Guitar-Vint-White_W0QQitemZ330361959603QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item4ceb1b74b3

Any opinions?
 
You get what you pay for... cheap = cheap.

But I'm a guitar snob and would never buy a Chinese made guitar! :lol:
 
JVsearch said:
You get what you pay for... cheap = cheap.

But I'm a guitar snob and would never buy a Chinese made guitar! :lol:
Around 50% of my collection is Chinese built.
If you're a newbie who doesn't know chipboard from Mahogany then you can be led astray...but I've been playing for 40 years and I know what i like.
I have a Mahogany bodied explorer(MiC) that beats the Chinese built Epi and Tokai versions hands down.
To write off ALL Chinese built guitars as crap is not just snobby...it's downright ignorant.
If you know what constitutes a decent guitar then there are bargains to be found.
 
Older Tokais have a reputation. But if they're any better than the modern made-in-Japan models, there must be choirs of angels singing every time you open their cases.

I just got a MIJ Tokai LS150 (now called an LS160):

http://www1.odn.ne.jp/tokaigakki/products/premium/ls160.html

This is a truly stunning, alive sounding guitar made to 50s Les Paul spec. The old ones may be better, but there can't be much in it. At the shop where I had it dropped off, one of the shop guys was playing it. He was gob-smacked. He said, "this is the best Les Paul I've played in my life."

It's certainly the best I've played in mine.

I get the impression that the availability of the cheap, Chinese Tokais, has fed this rumour that they're no longer quality guitars. Not to say Chinese ones are junk - just that they presumably don't inspire the awe that greets MIJ Tokais (old and new).

This couldn't be more false. If you get a MIJ Tokai, you will not be disappointed.
 
Hi austin, welcome to the forum,

Let me first say go for the MIJ tokai, if your on a tight budget go for an LS92 or LS98F if you were after a flame top and can pay a little more.

I own a MIC love rock as well as a MIJ model which is much better quality of coarse, but the MIC model is not all that bad, it actually is a much better guitar than the Epi les paul studio that I owned when I bought the MIC love rock, It walks all over the Epi in every aspect.
Sure some have issues with the finnish but overall the build quality is pretty good.
But having said that still go with MIJ they are magical :wink:
 
austin said:
I'm looking for a white Les Paul at the moment and having owned a 79 Reborn in the past I'm tempted to get a Tokai but are the modern ones any good? I'm guessing they won't be anywhere near the spec of the vintage models but are they worth buying or not as don't want to waste my cash?

The situation is the same as it was back in the 70s & 80s - the real bargains are the entry level Japanese guitars. The more expensive ones have extra bells & whistles, but the basic MIJ models are as close to the early Tokais as anyone can reasonably get in 2010. With a bit of luck, they should age as well as the early guitars did.

However good the Chinese stuff might be, I still reckon Tokai should protect their name by calling the MIC stuff "Fred by Tokai" or something, like "Orville by Gibson" or "Squier by Fender" - it would help to differentiate between the original MIJ stuff & the budget range.

OK, it's not a LP, but this is a 2007 ES130 - does it look like standards have dropped?

IMG_0176.jpg


Mike
 
Ozeshin said:
To write off ALL Chinese built guitars as crap is not just snobby...it's downright ignorant.
If you know what constitutes a decent guitar then there are bargains to be found.

Definetely!! The Chinese made Burny's are great, Edwards are doing most of their manufature in China and they build some amazing guitars. If you look at the quality thats coming out of China today and compare it with what came out of Japan in the early '70's, the Chinese stuff knocks spots off it!

At the moment the higher-end Japanese models are still better than the cheaper Chinese ones, but give it a few years, the Chinese are catching up fast!!
 
Ozeshin said:
JVsearch said:
You get what you pay for... cheap = cheap.

But I'm a guitar snob and would never buy a Chinese made guitar! :lol:
Around 50% of my collection is Chinese built.
If you're a newbie who doesn't know chipboard from Mahogany then you can be led astray...but I've been playing for 40 years and I know what i like.
I have a Mahogany bodied explorer(MiC) that beats the Chinese built Epi and Tokai versions hands down.
To write off ALL Chinese built guitars as crap is not just snobby...it's downright ignorant.
If you know what constitutes a decent guitar then there are bargains to be found.

Hey, buy as many Chinese made guitars as you like, buy the ones that I don't want! :D

My preference is to have 2 or 3 really nice guitars rather than 6 or 7 that are a bit average. Life is too short, and we all need some way to narrow down the hundreds of choices available to us. In the end I don't care how good they are or how good they're getting, or whether some people on here believe they are the new collectables of the future. My own purchases of Japanese guitars have satisfied me (for now :lol: ). I will come round to buying Chinese guitars once they are in the ascendency and have bankrupted Tokai, Gibson, Fender etc, in the meantime you can buy all the developmental guitars along the way.

As far as Edwards goes I'm ideologically opposed to buying them for reasons that are already on record and don't need to be repeated here. It's just another way of eliminating yet another "me too" product that frankly, I find boring, like most consumption.

I didn't say Chinese guitars were crap, I said they were cheap - this is not the same. Why would I buy a new Chinese guitar for $500 when I can get a second hand Japanese one for $800?
 
Thanks for all the replies guys. I'm not a newbie to guitars, I own a couple of Gibsons and an Epi Wilshire but I don't know anything about the modern Tokais, hence my question. I had a 79 Reborn so I know the quality of those but unfortunately I had to sell it when I was short of cash. What I'm after is an arctic white Les Paul and I'd seen those MIC Tokais on Ebay that I linked to. By the sounds of it they're not going to be what I'm after so how do I know which are the MIJ ones to find a white one?
 
You want to look for an Tokai LC98S.

http://cgi.ebay.ca/TOKAI-LC98S-Snow-White-Made-in-Japan-BRAND-NEW-mint_W0QQitemZ270527046754QQcmdZViewItemQQptZGuitar?hash=item3efcab2462
 
Well both my ES130 and LS150 (both built in the last five years) are excellent guitars and stand comparison with the best guitars I have.
 
austin said:
I'm looking for a white Les Paul at the moment and having owned a 79 Reborn in the past I'm tempted to get a Tokai but are the modern ones any good? I'm guessing they won't be anywhere near the spec of the vintage models but are they worth buying or not as don't want to waste my cash?

Any opinions?

You'd find this one every bit as good as on old one, made by anyone

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Tokai-Love-Rock-LS370-Electric-Guitar-VF-0920384_W0QQitemZ330374533175QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item4cebdb5037


You never mentioned your budget :wink:
Even comes with a case

Take a trip up the M1 to Sheffield to see it in the flesh


Chris
 
austin said:
I'm looking for a white Les Paul at the moment and having owned a 79 Reborn in the past I'm tempted to get a Tokai but are the modern ones any good? I'm guessing they won't be anywhere near the spec of the vintage models but are they worth buying or not as don't want to waste my cash?
I found these on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Tokai-ALC-53-Love-Rock-White-Les-Paul-Custom_W0QQitemZ270526135841QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item3efc9d3e21

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Tokai-LC53-Les-Paul-Custom-Electric-Guitar-Vint-White_W0QQitemZ330361959603QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item4ceb1b74b3

Any opinions?

Yep - worth a visit up the road mate i fyou want to discern the differnce in the flesh and walk away with a corker. I have white japanese LC85S still available if you are in to the LP Custom thing.

Cheers
 
I am sure richtone is a great supplie but I having a hard time with his pricing. I can get a better price buying directly from japan through ebay.
 
fogboundturtle said:
I am sure richtone is a great supplie but I having a hard time with his pricing. I can get a better price buying directly from japan through ebay.

Where abouts are you based? Happy to run the numbers on a specific model for you.
 

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