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Tokai LS120 Reborn old 1980 Eu SOLD!!

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Lumi71

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Apr 4, 2005
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Selling another beauty...








in general its in very good condition.
i am very sure it has a brazilian rosewood board and a solid top.
i can send some more pics of course.

non original parts (as far as i know:

-new bone nut
-cts pots
-pio caps
-grover tuner

2800 + shipping euro with a basic hardcase (not the one in the pic)
if you want the hardcase in the pic (its not the original tokai) i would charge + 70 euro.
could also sell you some new original kluson double ring/single line tuner with the conversion bushinhs which i bought for it for + 50 euro.

weight is 4,15 with the klusons or 4,25 with the grovers.
 
Be careful with the word brazilian if you want to sell such a guitar in Germany :wink:
 
ibicus said:
Be careful with the word brazilian if you want to sell such a guitar in Germany :wink:

yes, i know....
but thanks 8)
 
some cavity pics






as for the braz board-
i am no absolut expert, but i can tell that the board looks different from any other rosewood boards i have seen.
for the colour, but more for the grain . more spare pores but a little bigger.
as far as i kno that would be typical for braz.
you can click on the pics with the bpard and enlarge them
 
yeah, i know not so visible.
these are the pics i got from the seller. amybe i can take better.
but take a look at the pic here. click and zoom it on photobucket.
grain line in the cavity and on the top are perfecly matching..

 
The top surface matches perfectly like a mirror, but the maple growth rings in the cavity maple wall on the left and right don't seem to have the same mirror-image that would be there for book-matched top. All my opinion but the book-matched Tokai tops that are pretty much mirror images are usually veneers as a carved maple top will lose a lot of its symmetry once the maple is carved away.
 
Yes, it's a veener top. The two pieces are cutted differently as you can see the lines in the wood (and the top is bookmatched).

The fretboard of my '82 LS-150 I have had, was very dark too but it wasn't braz rosewood but a South America species of rosewood. Definitively not the braz you find on old 50's/early 60's Gibson.
The same for the Mahogany, it's not honduras.

I can easily compare because I have a bunch of early's 60's Gibson and Epiphone with braz.

There's a lot of people who believe that the japanese companies were using the same materials as Gibson in the 50's (even on high-end guitars) but it's just a dream.
The materials they were using was very good but what makes the difference, was the craftmanship and the way they were manufacturing.

Great guitar you are selling !
 
bluejeannot said:
Here is a Braz board Tokai http://www.tokaiforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=22708

I don't think so, too clear and too redish.

Braz is darker (the one you find on 50's/early 60's Gibson) without this contrast between clear and dark lines, cut open pores.
This JB fretboard remind me the wood Gibson was using after 1965, a clearer rosewood from South America with long pores or small pores (they've called it indian rosewood) but not Braz.

Sometimes, you can have darker indian and clearer braz, but the braz is always brown/black and the indian have some redish even if it's dark. the only solution is to check the shape of the pores and the colors variations to identify braz.

As I said previously, Japanese builder were using good quality woods from South America but not the same in the golden years of Gibson. Don't trust all informations in catalogues, they might be wrong sometimes.
 
They used a ton of brazilian on acoustics in the 70's in Japan but didn't throw too much on fretboards it seems.
 
villager said:
"The 81 catalogue I found (better res. than the one on here, so I could read it) lists the 120 as having a jacaranda fingerboard,"

As I've said previously, there is a difference between what you read in the catalogues (or on forums) and the reality.
They are so many mistakes in old catalogues.

Comparing some older Tokai and Gibson, I've made my own opinion and the high-end Tokai does not have braz, just a south america rosewood (even if it's very dark).

The fretboard of this '82 LS150 is very dark but it's not braz, the pores does not look like this on a braz fingerboard.
321_1373219334.jpg


And I said : the quality of the wood is very very good, using best materials with a great craftmanship. Don't worry about your fretboards. :D
 
i know what braz looks like i have enough guitars with braz boards.. and i agree i have yet to see it on an older tokai... but i find it interesting that the catalogue actually says its jacaranda...
 
villager said:
i know what braz looks like i have enough guitars with braz boards.. and i agree i have yet to see it on an older tokai... but i find it interesting that the catalogue actually says its jacaranda...

I think they were confusing the species of rosewood and say "jaracanda" in the catalogue for the best quality of rosewood.
If you know a little bit the story of brazilian rosewood, you can easily understand why it's so rare after 1965 on guitars.
I don't know why some guys want to believe that the japanese manufacturers were able to have old stocks of braz because there was an export ban since 1968 from Brazil.

I don't know what guitars you are refering to, but I haven't seen a braz board guitar on your website. Maybe you have old US gems from the 50's/early 60's. :wink:
 
maybe you need to look a bit harder... greco egf 1800s 1200s tokai ls 320 tokai hbz, mushroom, couple ofcustom ordered navigators, all small pored dark braz, and i dont think they were "confused" there are brand new guitars available now with braz as an option, navigator spec it as available on custom orders, tokai regularly use it on the top models and crews also have a line called 59FM which are specced as brazillian so it is still out there yes in limited quantities but still there... many replica builders also have it to use and theres a fair bit available on ebay, all with cities certificates..
 
villager said:
maybe you need to look a bit harder... greco egf 1800s 1200s tokai ls 320 tokai hbz, mushroom, couple ofcustom ordered navigators, all small pored dark braz, and i dont think they were "confused" there are brand new guitars available now with braz as an option, navigator spec it as available on custom orders, tokai regularly use it on the top models and crews also have a line called 59FM which are specced as brazillian so it is still out there yes in limited quantities but still there... many replica builders also have it to use and theres a fair bit available on ebay, all with cities certificates..

Maybe today but not in the 70's/80's, they were confused, but it's very limited quantity and you'd have to get an CITES certificate to sell guitars with braz.
I know there are many manufacturers which are building Replicas with braz, but it's nowadays. I was talking about old mij from late 70's/early 80's.

No, EGF 1200's fretboards have to many pores to be braz, from what i've seen, sorry.
 
Mark, I've nothing against you, you're a sympathic guy but from what I see on your website, this EGF 1800 has a indian rosewood fretboard not a braz.

DSCF5885.jpg
 
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