1981 ES-150J (ES-335 Style Tokai)

_JDZ · Sus4add11 Joined: 10 Apr 2018 Posts: 36 Location: USA

I've only recently joined, but been following for some time.

Figured I'd share my favorite of the Tokai's I have.

It's an 81 ES-150J. ES-150 and ES-100 were new models in 1981 and each came in Rock and Jazz versions. Mine is a Jazz version, which means it has the Jazz, rather than Rock pickups.

The 100 and 150 are very much the same guitars, with the differences being the 150 has birds eye maple, a cashew lacquer finish (love the amber tone to it), ebony fretboard and upgraded electronics including oil condensers.

On both guitars Tokai used 3-ply maple (all three ply's are maple), single piece mahogany neck, MOP dots on the fretboard, same neck profile as used on 59 and 60 335's, 5-ply long pickguard, and solid maple center block sandwiched between spruce. Tokai’s catalog says they did exhaustive research into the details of ’58 to ’64 ES-335’s and all those details are just how the originals were made.

I’m really into vintage MIJ copies of ES-335’s and trying to document many of them more fully as the details on them aren’t nearly as well known as the Les Paul copies.

And if you are wondering, yes, the guitar plays and sounds fantastic.

John

DSC00757 by JDZ, on Flickr

DSC00740s by JDZ, on Flickr

DSC00750s by JDZ, on Flickr

20180205_203145s by JDZ, on Flickr

DSC00742s by JDZ, on Flickr

NeckCavity_s by JDZ, on Flickr

DSC00743s by JDZ, on Flickr

DSC00749s by JDZ, on Flickr

villager · Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2018 2:06 am Post subject:

Hi John the 150 does not actually have cashew Lacquer, that was only used on the 200 models, that finish on the 150 is beautifully aged nitrocellulose...
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_JDZ · Sus4add11 Joined: 10 Apr 2018 Posts: 36 Location: USA

Hi Mark. The translation I have of the '81 catalog shows the 150 is finished in cashew:

"The whole series comes in black sunburst (SB), Tokai red (TR) or natural (N), with classic lacquer finish on the ES100 R and ES100J or cashew nut finish on the ES150R and ES150J"

Shows the same in the specifications grid.

marcusnieman · Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2018 6:36 am Post subject:

Very nice. My 81 ES100J has a fair amount of birdseye in the body wood as well

villager · Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2018 6:43 am Post subject:

ah thats very interesting... i was always under the impression it was nitro!! cool..
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http://www.japanguitars.co.uk

guitar hiro · Guitar God Joined: 05 Dec 2013 Posts: 372

that is an amazing looking ES

what is the neck thickness like at the first fret?

_JDZ · Sus4add11 Joined: 10 Apr 2018 Posts: 36 Location: USA

_JDZ · Sus4add11 Joined: 10 Apr 2018 Posts: 36 Location: USA

_JDZ · Sus4add11 Joined: 10 Apr 2018 Posts: 36 Location: USA

togps · Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2018 4:09 am Post subject:

When cashew nut finish is used you can ID it on yellowish body and neck binding.
Also the Tokai logo appears yellowish
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guitar hiro · Guitar God Joined: 05 Dec 2013 Posts: 372

villager · Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2018 8:32 am Post subject:

its strange the Tokai LPs vary a lot in neck size, but the ES series do seem to be relatively uniform...
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http://www.japanguitars.co.uk

duff · Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2018 3:01 pm Post subject:

I had 3, still have 2 and they all differ in neck thickness.. the sunburst one had a really thick neck, similiar to my gibson es-175 vos. The natural one and cherry have a thinner neck.

lovely es-150! The binding on those is always more yellow then on the es-100's. Definitely different lacquer. They are my favorite tokai's as well.

luis · Guitar God Joined: 15 Sep 2001 Posts: 2376 Location: Spain

I will check my ES100 SB 1981 finally restored back to stock and with Antiquities, TVT pots and Sprague Hyrel (PIO military 50s) caps.

Emiel · Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2018 3:33 am Post subject:

A friend of mine has a '81 ES100 that is just three serial numbers apart from my '81 ES100. His has a noticable thicker neck and soundwise a little bit more low end, other than that they are identical. Fantastic guitars!