My new Tokai :)

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warxy

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Paid on friday and it arrived in the afternoon today. It was packed extremely well and the seller was very easy to talk to. :)
LS98F lemon drop, such a gorgeous! Well to me it is 8)
I weighted it and it was 4.4kg, whats the typical way of a LP or Tokai LS?
Gotta get used to the neck though, always played my Ibanez and i have quite small hands. Too bad they sold the last one without the pickguard installed. Plugged it into my Line6 X3, didnt sound quite like anything ive imagine, might have to fiddle with the settings little bit. I might change the pickups later on after i play with it for a bit more.

I wanna thank those who gave me lots of pointers on the thread (you know who you are :D) .

Gonna put in some locking strap and new strings, oil the neck a bit and all that.

The questions now are: pickguard on or off? Wrap strings around tail piece? Im thinking about changing the tail piece to one of those aluminum ones cause they enhance clarity? or do i need to change the bridge as well? :lol:

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Congrats - lovely guitar. Lemon Drop - best colour IMHO :D

Don't worry about the neck. Lots of people say that at first but they very soon get used to, and even start preferring, the wide neck.

You'll get lot's of opinions about hardware and changes but I'd say leave it as it is for a while. It doesn't really need any mod's. Once you've got to know it maybe a faber locking bridge and tailpiece or similar but they're quite pricey for the very small improvement they make. I don't like the wrap over bridges but each to his own. As far as the pickgaurd goes I say leave it off :lol:

You've got a really nice guitar there and your probably better off investing in a decent small valve amp if you want to get the best out of it.

Dave
 
Sweet - very nice looking guitar. To echo whats been said above, I wouldn't go changing anything yet, all stock it will be extremely good as it is - though you will undoubtedly need to change amp settings that worked for a different guitar. Ditto the neck, give it a couple of days and the Ibanez neck will fell too small and weedy :lol:
 
DaveWW said:
Congrats - lovely guitar. Lemon Drop - best colour IMHO :D
haha thank you! Lemon drop seems to look much better in person, the picture on the tokai website is a very dark lemon drop and i thought i would had got some thing like that. Lucky that i got it like the one i have now, a lighter colour.

DaveWW said:
Don't worry about the neck. Lots of people say that at first but they very soon get used to, and even start preferring, the wide neck.
Im not sure about the width yet, Ibanez have wider necks i would assume? Its really the thickness im talking about :p but i hope i will get used to it.

DaveWW said:
You'll get lot's of opinions about hardware and changes but I'd say leave it as it is for a while. It doesn't really need any mod's. Once you've got to know it maybe a faber locking bridge and tailpiece or similar but they're quite pricey for the very small improvement they make. I don't like the wrap over bridges but each to his own. As far as the pickgaurd goes I say leave it off :lol:
Im sure there will be alot of opinions on changing hardwares, how much does these parts cost anyway? I dont actually have any idea. Ive always heard about locking bridge and tail piece and all that but never actually knew how they work, dont mind explain them to me?
Anyway, i will change strings tomorrow so i will have a play around with the pickguard, but i dont know how much i can take the screw holes if i decide that it looks good with the pickguard off. Hope the mojos wont run out from them.

Oh another thing is, im thinking about taking the pickup covers off. Not sure how that will look. Do you just take those 6 screws off to remove the cover?

DaveWW said:
You've got a really nice guitar there and your probably better off investing in a decent small valve amp if you want to get the best out of it.

Dave
Yep, im saving up now for one of those Blackstar HT-5, stacks or combo 8) Apparently they are very good? I remember playing one of those in a shop and it sounded very nice, with a wide range of sound that you can achieve. That ISF thing they talk about actually works very well i think. but i dont know if it will be loud enough as i am joining a youth band soon, well hopefully. What amp would you recommend?
 
warxy said:
...Oh another thing is, im thinking about taking the pickup covers off. Not sure how that will look. Do you just take those 6 screws off to remove the cover?

No, you have to remove the whole pickup and unsolder the cover from the pickup base plate.
There will be a fat blob of solder on each of the long sides that are used to join the bottom edge of the cover to the edge of the base plate.
The screws are used as pole pieces on one of the two humbucker coils, and they go through the middle of the coils and screw all the way out the bottom of the base plate.
Removing them will not release the cover.

The other humbucker coil has metal poles that look like the pole pieces on a Strat pickup, but on a covered humbucker they are concealed by the cover.

But you can easily remove the cover if you have a soldering iron.
 
JVsearch said:
No, you have to remove the whole pickup and unsolder the cover from the pickup base plate.
There will be a fat blob of solder on each of the long sides that are used to join the bottom edge of the cover to the edge of the base plate.
ahhhh, sounds like quite some work if i dont like what it will turn out to be.

JVsearch said:
Removing them will not release the cover..
So i wont need to unscrew those screws?

JVsearch said:
But you can easily remove the cover if you have a soldering iron.
Yeah, my dad has one somewhere. I dont know if could be bothered to do that now since now it involves a soldering iron, are them pickups all black?
 
Nice guitar there, I am happy to see you got a nice one.
Just a couple of things:

-If the pickups are sounding a little weak, see if you can raise them up to be closer to the strings. From the picture it looks like they are still pretty low. The bridge pickup can be as close as a couple of mm from the strings when you fret at the last fret.
The neck pickup should be a bit farther away, but tust your ears. There is usually a sweet spot where you will find you have enough response and "the sound"

- if you want to take the pickup covers off but dont want to use a soldering iron, get a box-cutter (xacto knife, whatever it is called) and cut the solder joint. Either way will work, but if you don't have a good soldering iron you may have some trouble melting the bond.

Anyway, above all, play the guitar..
 
Great looking guitar. Aluminium tailpiece is probably a good idea.

+1 on adjusting pickup heights before deciding whether to take the covers off.

I got to play a little blackstar combo the other day with my Tokai and it sounded **** good.
 
I think the pickups are all black under the covers......but it was a while ago and I refitted aged covers last time I did it and can't be sure. I'm coming around to the view like most people, I think, that the pickups look better with the covers on....

+2 or 3 about removing the covers. Unless you've got a good soldering iron it's harder than you think. The large mass of the pickups tends to conduct all the heat and can make it hard to get them off.

Only thing i'd change now is the TRC. Bell shaped covers look much nicer :D

Dave
 
DaveWW said:
I think the pickups are all black under the covers......but it was a while ago and I refitted aged covers last time I did it and can't be sure. I'm coming around to the view like most people, I think, that the pickups look better with the covers on....

+2 or 3 about removing the covers. Unless you've got a good soldering iron it's harder than you think. The large mass of the pickups tends to conduct all the heat and can make it hard to get them off...

Yeah, I should have said something about that - you need an iron with around 80 watts power, a 40 watt circuit board type iron will do what Dave said.
It can't heat the solder quick enough to melt it with all the heat conducting into the base plate and cover.

Cutting the solder joint is a good idea! Then there's no temptation to bend the sides of the covers outwards to separate the solder joint, and it would be easy to re-solder the covers back if you want.
Smart, I like it, thanks wulfman! :)
 
-If the pickups are sounding a little weak, see if you can raise them up to be closer to the strings. From the picture it looks like they are still pretty low. The bridge pickup can be as close as a couple of mm from the strings when you fret at the last fret.
The neck pickup should be a bit farther away, but tust your ears. There is usually a sweet spot where you will find you have enough response and "the sound"
It wasnt that the pickups were too weak, they just sounded quite different to what i was expecting. I will fiddle with the pickup height anyway. Wouldnt rising the bridge pickup like this kills a lot of the sustain? :S

I got to play a little blackstar combo the other day with my Tokai and it sounded **** good.
Ive done some research about the amp today, and apparently it doesnt have that natural break up when you pick harder like you would get on a typical valve amp(possibly due to the solidstate component in the amp). Otherwise, its a very good rock out amp.

Very nice..... I'd play it a bit before you start swapping parts out. That way you'll hear any perceivable difference better.
That sounds like a good idea marcus

I think the pickups are all black under the covers......but it was a while ago and I refitted aged covers last time I did it and can't be sure. I'm coming around to the view like most people, I think, that the pickups look better with the covers on....
Personal reference i would say, i guess taking the covers wont look too good if youre right about them being all black. hmmmmm, zebra colour pickups :roll:
anyway, think i will leave the pickup covers for now.

Great looking guitar. Aluminium tailpiece is probably a good idea.
Only thing i'd change now is the TRC. Bell shaped covers look much nicer
ahahahaha, i knew someone's gonna say something about the TRC :D
But guys, where is a good place for getting all these parts? tail piece, bell shape TRC and all that.
 
Lovely guitar.

My advice, and IMO, don't change a thing, don't tailwrap, and definitely don't take the covers off the pickups.

:lol:

Have a Happy Christmas and New Year, guys.
 
Yeah Diamond, i will leave all the things you mentioned alone for now. Took the pickguard off btw, looks much better for the moment.

Took it to a very good guitar tech yesterday (Perry Ormsby if anyone knows) and gave it a good setup and fret leveling. Now the guitar plays like butter and the sustain is just pure awesome :D

Anyway, i think i will put a momentary kill switch into the guitar soon, i just love all the cool things you get to do with one. I know you can achieve the same effect with the toggle but i would like both pickups to be on as well as being able to use the effect.
 
I like pickups covers on for some guitars and off for others. My ES for example, has them on and I think it'd look rather willy with them off. I put uncovered zebra pickups in my LS-150 (matte VF flame) and I think they look badass. To each their own I guess. But at the end of the day, pickup covers or not, you have one very sweet looking guitar! Congrats!

Jason

P.S. I'm a big fan of taking the pickguard off a Les Paul. I think they just look so much nicer without. Just my 2c.
 
stratmoto said:
They are a nice looking guitar.

So, how much did it cost, all up, including the fret level, etc?
Its about 1.5k AUD all up from what i can remember on top of my head, guitar+case+shipping+setup. Money well spent id say, even though i couldve gotten a higher end Tokai with the same money :roll:

on a side note: the handle of the case, one of the screw/nail thingy broke and came off after some carrying around and i had to fix it myself. That was quite some trouble. Now i really want one of those SKB case: http://www.skbcases.com/music/products/proddetail.php?f=&id=610&o=&offset=1&c=82&s=75

Big Willie Style said:
I like pickups covers on for some guitars and off for others. My ES for example, has them on and I think it'd look rather willy with them off. I put uncovered zebra pickups in my LS-150 (matte VF flame) and I think they look badass. To each their own I guess. But at the end of the day, pickup covers or not, you have one very sweet looking guitar! Congrats!

Jason

P.S. I'm a big fan of taking the pickguard off a Les Paul. I think they just look so much nicer without. Just my 2c.
Thanks Jason! yeah it really depends on the guitar and personal reference. Anyway, after playing the guitar heaps for the last couple days i find the stock pickups to be too muddy to my liking when distorted so im planning to order a set of SD slash signature alnico2 pickups and replace the stock ones (theyre gonna be zebra/ rv zebra jason 8) )
I think i actually prefer the look of the pickguard on a lemon drop finish guitar so i might put it back on soon. The only thing thats stopping me from do it is because i dont like the feel of playing with a pickguard installed :eek:

P.S. oh guys, ive got myself a new Blackstar HT60 combo :D loving it so far 8) Now i need to get myself some real pedals for the first time :wink:
 
I found the neck too muddy in mine too so I replaced them with a set of LeoSounds Growldogs. Check them out online. They sound great and are probably around the same price for a set of handwound pickups as the SD Slash.

Funny about pickups and personal tastes - the same MKII's came in my '02 ES-120, my '05 LS-150 and my '07 SG-155. I found them to be muddy in my LS, shrill in the SG, but perfect in the ES.

Jason
 
If it's a new Tokai, don't wrap strings dude. Tailpiece and it's screws are bad quality in low Tokai models, they are too soft. Screws bend and strings dig into the edges of tailpiece.
IME it's not worth it. But I would try to screw all the way down tailpiece's screws to prevent their bending.
Buy a better tailpiece and locking kit if you want to wrap.
 
messer said:
But I would try to screw all the way down tailpiece's screws to prevent their bending.

They're not that soft and I doubt he's playing 12's or larger strings on it. I've never bent tailpiece studs.

You should screw down the tailpiece studs so that the strings just clear the backside of the bridge frame (should be able to slip a piece of paper between the strings and the bridge frame)

Strings resting on the frame kill the transfer of the string vibration between the beginning point ( nut and tuning keys) to the end point (tailpiece)
 

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