LS150 SHAVE NECK DOWN

My guitar tech would file that neck down in no time at all...we're talking a millimetre or two, not inches.
Then I might even leave the back of the neck unfinished, just oil it or give it a clear coat seal...it would be glorious. 8)

Diamond said:

My guitar tech would file that neck down in no time at all...we're talking a millimetre or two, not inches.
Then I might even leave the back of the neck unfinished, just oil it or give it a clear coat seal...it would be glorious. 8)

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Really?

With the truss rod as close as this to the back of the neck???

Although I am tempted by getting the guy to remove the varnish on the back of the neck, this would seriously effect the value of the guitar.
Going further than that I could be risking the truss rod popping out of the neck if I got someone to actually shave it.

Nothing is certain in life, but if I knew i'd be where I wanted to be with a pickup change and a neck trim I would be very tempted to keep this guitar, as it really is a beutiful plain top.

One thing I did notice when I recently compared the Tokai to some of the custom shop Les Pauls was that I think the LS150 is a lot darker in tone and had a more bassy and mellow tone less attack ( this was comparing guitars acoustically with no amp), so perhaps there might be a case for a brighter more aggressive pickup set.
The Lollar Imperials I have are standard wind, anyone want to chime in and say what their favourite pups are in their LS150s, and before anyone says anything the Lollar were a definite improvement on the Gotoh Pups that came in it.

OK!

I have had a bit of a massive break through with my Tokai.

After doing a bit more research I tried changing the bridge out from the one it came with (brass saddles) to a Gotoh Nashville with steel saddles.
This was a real game changer, it changed the overall resonant frequency of the guitar and really made this guitar come to life.
The guitar has become acoustically less muddy and more focused,
Less bassy but a much more even sound spectrum and much more responsive.

I could reel off a load more adjectives but I have to say I have really bonded with this guitar now, it has become extremely musical in all the right ways.
In this light I am most likely going to leave the neck alone.

I can't believe how much difference this one bridge has made , I came so close to selling it , I am very glad I didn't!

Glad to hear you stopped yourself from making a terrible mistake.

I've never put a Nashville bridge on a Tokai, so I wouldn't know if it makes a difference acoustically/unplugged...but, what's important is what difference it makes when the guitar is plugged into an amp?

Diamond said:

Glad to hear you stopped yourself from making a terrible mistake.

I've never put a Nashville bridge on a Tokai, so I wouldn't know if it makes a difference acoustically/unplugged...but, what's important is what difference it makes when the guitar is plugged into an amp?

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Hi Diamond,

I thought you may be the first to jump in.

I only mentioned the effects of the bridge acoustically as the new bridge really moved the resonant frequency of the guitar, and when I compared the Tokai to some Les Pauls in a shop recently I did it acoustically just to be sure the differences weren't all in the pickups and hardware, the Tokai at the time had the old bridge on and sounded too bassy/ dark and not enough mid to get a nice biting sound.

Plugged in now it is so far from what it was with the brass saddles, I don't know if it is the Nashville specifically or just any steel saddled bridge would have taken it in this sonic direction.
What ever it is it's just fantastic!
Plugged in this guitar has a beautiful clean tone, warm, clear and twangy and so responsive, just pure shimmering blissful tone!
Switch to an overdriven or fully distorted tone and you have a fire snorting beast, but it still retains a massive amount of soul and tone, nasty but rich at the same time.
I have to be clear that all this was missing from the guitars feel and tone before, I guess the bridge it came with just wasn't right for this guitar, perhaps it just didn't allow the right frequencies through the strings and congested the tone.

Whatever the science behind it I now can't put this guitar down and my girlfriend is beginning to give me funny looks! Actually they're not that funny!

Glad to hear you're digging it now.

Tell those fools on The Gear Page what's happened.

I did,

and to their credit a couple of those fools did suggest pickup or hardware changes, so all good.

Definitely wouldn`t shave your neck !
A friend had a 50`s Gibson that had been shaved,one hot day
the grain opened up along the line of the trussrod!
He wasn`t a happy bunny !

glaister3 said:

Definitely wouldn`t shave your neck !
A friend had a 50`s Gibson that had been shaved,one hot day
the grain opened up along the line of the trussrod!
He wasn`t a happy bunny !

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Thanks for the info, I decided a while ago not to do that.
But what I did do after becoming very happy with the tone after the bridge change was very carefully take some of the vanish on the back of the neck off with 0000 wire wool.

This actually made a noticeable difference and gave me a Satin finish on the neck.

This guitar is a total keeper now, and sounds vastly superior to how sounded when it came.