Japanese sources for Tokai?

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Schocker

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Now that Ishibashi has stopped carrying Tokai, where can one acquire them from Japan as an international customer?

Your suggestions would be appreciated (by me, although I can't speak for my missus! :p ).
 
I'm sure tokaijoe (forum member -not sure if spelled right) can lead you in the right direction.
 
Very respectable dealer

http://stores.ebay.com.au/MIJ-Guitar-HISASHI

And single-handedly representing the cause of new Tokais on eBay most of the time, it would seem.

I should clarify that I'm excluding UK dealers due to that small but off-putting matter of the the headstock 'bump'.

It's a shame that Ishibashi stopped offering Tokais; the service was good and the 20% discount generally covered the shipping cost!

Thanks for the replies so far.
 
stratman323 said:
Why did Ishibashi stop selling Tokais?

Mike

I read something here about quality issues: http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?p=3902095

5th and 8th post.
 
Quality issues with Tokai? That's a new one on me. :-?

Mind you, I suppose this isn't the place to hear bad things about Tokai! :lol:
 
Schocker said:
[

I should clarify that I'm excluding UK dealers due to that small but off-putting matter of the the headstock 'bump'.

It's not just the bump - it's the exchange rate of the dollar to the Pound Sterling (approx 2 to one) and the Euro.
 
stratman323 said:
Quality issues with Tokai? That's a new one on me. :-?

Mind you, I suppose this isn't the place to hear bad things about Tokai! :lol:

That's true :) But one have to keep an open mind. It is a bit sad though.
 
It's not just the bump - it's the exchange rate of the dollar to the Pound Sterling (approx 2 to one) and the Euro.

Another very good point. The strength of the pound to the dollar isn't quite as favourable to us in the UK as it was recently but it's still a decent incentive.

The pound:Japanese yen rate is still good but first you've got to find a seller using that currency!

At least the UK dealers seem to have found the cases which used to be absent when Tokais were sold over here. Unbelievable practice that was...selling a Tokai for well over ?700 and not supplying a hard case. :eek:

So, to recap...Hisashi is still the only source we've established in Japan at the moment. Any others?
 
Schocker said:
[
So, to recap...Hisashi is still the only source we've established in Japan at the moment. Any others?

Have a look on ebay. There are other long time Japanese sellers (many whom I've bought from) there:

mijsixtringkatana
bluzey_guitars
guitarspazz7 (who has a nice Mosrite Japan up for sale)
koiz-guitar (his prices are absurd but he gets some nice guitars)
seikosuru2003
guitargai (here in the US but he gets killer guitars)

If you're looking for dealers who will sell direct, that's another list.
 
Schocker said:
So, to recap...Hisashi is still the only source we've established in Japan at the moment. Any others?

These "japanese shops" threads usually are quite unsuccesful :lol: Most of the time arise the very same shops and those shops have no stock or don't have what you want.

bart said:
stratman323 said:
Why did Ishibashi stop selling Tokais?

Mike

I read something here about quality issues: http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?p=3902095

5th and 8th post.

There were some quality issues and b-stock buzzes but I think the main reason for dropping Tokai is that selling Tokai is quite difficult for a shop.

When I ordered my ls85f from Ishibashi I had to pay and then wait for three months. I tried to order an SG from Isashi but he told that he couldn't order the model I wanted until the next year :eek: . This thing for a shop is probably absolutely unoperative.

I'm interested in ordering a high end model and a walnut sg but it is impossible to find any dealer. Besides, I can't purchase in a rush, I need to plan ahead and to know where, when and the final price.
 
There's a guy called chingo who seems to sell a lot of second-hand Tokais on eBay. My Silver Star came from him, via a guy in the UK who bought it from chingo.
 
Have a look on ebay. There are other long time Japanese sellers (many whom I've bought from) there

Cheers, I'll keep looking there. Although I seem to be spending quite a lot of time eBaying Tokai and MIJ guitars as it is!

These "japanese shops" threads usually are quite unsuccesful Most of the time arise the very same shops and those shops have no stock or don't have what you want.

They seem to occur on a reasonably regular basis, I know. I guess it's when I want something that suddenly I get especially curious again! Certainly finding links that are still live/current and relevant to what I'm after is proving more difficult than a couple of years back.

Discerning what models have what numbers is reminding me how time flies (or is that the prices are just going up more frequently?!). The equivalent of me ES-100 was an ES-110 not so long ago, now it seems to be an ES-125. Wasn't the ES-125 a block inlay version of the ES-120 only recently? Or was that the ES-130? :p

I'll get my coat... :lol:
 
Have a look on ebay. There are other long time Japanese sellers (many whom I've bought from) there

Cheers, I'll keep looking there. Although I seem to be spending quite a lot of time eBaying Tokai and MIJ guitars as it is!

These "japanese shops" threads usually are quite unsuccesful Most of the time arise the very same shops and those shops have no stock or don't have what you want.

They seem to occur on a reasonably regular basis, I know. I guess it's when I want something that suddenly I get especially curious again! Certainly finding links that are still live/current and relevant to what I'm after is proving more difficult than a couple of years back.

Discerning what models have what numbers is reminding me how time flies (or is that the prices are just going up more frequently?!). The equivalent of me ES-100 was an ES-110 not so long ago, now it seems to be an ES-125. Wasn't the ES-125 a block inlay version of the ES-120 only recently? Or was that the ES-130? :p

I'll get my coat... :lol:
 
Here is a reply I got from Ishibashi last August:

Dear xxxxx,

Thank you for your inquiry! This is Aiko from Ishibashi Web Shop :)

I'm very sorry but Ishibashi stopped taking orders of Tokai products
since last June... because of its recent quality and delay for orders...
:(
Again, I'm sorry for this inconvenience...

Sometimes we have used Tokai instruments in our U-BOX (not so often,
though...).
http://www.ishibashi.co.jp/u_box/
If you find any Tokai ones that you are interested in, please let me
know. I'll be happy to help you then


Its funny. I got a 2007 LS-135 recently and there are no quality issues to speak of, in a bad way that is.

Anyone know what quality issues they might have been speaking of?
 
for one thing, one has to learn to read between the lines over here thats where the truth often lies. they may be withholding the real reason and use the QC problem as an excuse. of course I can`t be 100% certain, I never am in this country and thats from 14 years of living here. the delay in filling orders does sound plausible however as the local Rock Inn didn`t have any Tokais for over a year, and the ones they have now are all MIC. so I generally take what I am told with a kilo of salt.
 
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