Help with information on ES 120 N???

Hi, I'm thinking about making an offer on a beautiful, used, natural ES 120 N here in the UK and wondered whether anyone could give me any info on it?

Serial number is 0510243

I gather it was made in Japan in 2005, but what are the specs? Nitro? Bone nut? Gotoh hardware? Pickups? Centre block? Does this guitar have a modern equivalent in terms of spec? UES.....? And I guess the ultimate question, is it a good model to get?! I'm trying to get a grip of how much I should offer.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Dave

Hi Dave,
Firstly there are far more qualified people on this forum who can give you the exact specs for your prospective guitar.

I owned a 2004 ish ES120 N which I bought second hand around 2007. It had Gotoh hardware but the pickups had been changed to Seth Lovers. The nut I'm sure was not bone but it was well made and well cut so it made no sense to change it.
I did change the pickups for some hand wound PAF type pickups.

I've owned perhaps 20 or so 335 type guitars over the last 40 years and that particular one was the best I have ever had. That's not through rose tinted glasses. Even the luthier that has made me a fair few guitars had a soft spot for it and thought it was exceptional.
Unfortunately it got damaged beyond repair in an accident and it was devastating.
I have other high end semi's but I've hankered after another Tokai semi for a few years but held off because I thought I could never replace that guitar. Anyway, I relented and recently bought an ES158 in natural.
It is totally flawless. Not a glue line anywhere and the binding looks like it grew there. What's blown me away though is how great it sounds with the standard pickups. Very, very articulate and it responds so well to volume and tone changes without ever going muddy.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I would be very surprised if you bought that guitar and it had issues. Tokai and Yamaha are one of the few brands I would buy online unseen and have done so many times.
I have a Larry Carlton 335 by Gibson and it is a joke compared to the new Tokai. The Tokai is elegant..the Gibson is clunky!!

Best of luck...



LS320....ES120...and unknown model Tokai strat bought s/h in 1985.

Thanks, Brian. Great photo- beautiful guitars!
Can anyone else chip in?

2005 ES120 was a pretty high spec guitar for that year. Perhaps similar to this one from 2011:

https://reverb.com/item/3787216-2011-tokai-es185-vnt-flame-figure-plain-grain-custom-historic-quality-ohsc-warranty-card

SN 0509185 VNT here I really love this guitar but i would also know a bit more about specs