Anniversary

[BlueThird]

Knew I should never have started hanging around here. After a nasty attack of GAS I've just pulled the trigger on one of these:

Might have to cancel Christmas. :roll:

Did you ever get round to buying one, Marcus? Noticed some of your admiring glances while I was reading about them.

 

[dalemajd]

nice!

id love to put a bigsby on one of them, as the machine heads line up with the nut. PRS style headstock, tele style body. how does she sound

 

[BlueThird]

Kappie was impressed, but it's going to be a while before mine arrives.

 

[marcusnieman]

Very nice.... I do love those!

 

[Kappie]

Kappie was impressed, but it's going to be a while before mine arrives.

Yeah I actually still am. These guitars are top of the bill. I noted that there are some of them still out on eBay, possibly at give away prices if you are lucky 8)
Here is the link I noted:
http://shop.ebay.de/gpsoo/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340

 

[marcusnieman]

Kappie was impressed, but it's going to be a while before mine arrives.

Yeah I actually still am. These guitars are top of the bill. I noted that there are some of them still out on eBay, possibly at give away prices if you are lucky 8)
Here is the link I noted:
http://shop.ebay.de/gpsoo/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340

Did the pickups change on them?? The ebay links say they are MK I (??). I thought they were MK II's

Love those guitars......

 

[marcusnieman]

Did you ever get round to buying one, Marcus? Noticed some of your admiring glances while I was reading about them.

No... I got sidetracked with another purchase but I'm back on the trail for one of these. Noticed the ones on eBay Germany are very nicely priced. I'm leaning toward the Godtop, Blackie or VF

 

[Diamond]

I think I need to put a tailpiece on my SC-2...it's a great guitar, but it would be even better with a tailpiece.
Looks like these SC-2s were the beginnings of the Anniversary models, identical bodies.

 

[marcusnieman]

Nice ..... I remember that one too.

What are your thoughts on the string thru body going right to the saddles?

 

[Diamond]

It has incredible resonance which I think has something to do with the string thru.
Actually, I have no complaints with the guitar, it plays really well and sounds very good, I just think cosmetically a tailpiece would make it special and finish it off.

Here's a pic of my SC-2 and my CIJ 68RI Strat, both made by Tokai.

 

[Kappie]

Kappie was impressed, but it's going to be a while before mine arrives.

Yeah I actually still am. These guitars are top of the bill. I noted that there are some of them still out on eBay, possibly at give away prices if you are lucky 8)
Here is the link I noted:
http://shop.ebay.de/gpsoo/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340

Did the pickups change on them?? The ebay links say they are MK I (??). I thought they were MK II's

Love those guitars......

I have been told the pickups ar Keiyo and I must say they are very good. Very powerful with a lot of grit and very good definition. I am not sure about the Tokai way of classifying pick-uos. It seems one time a MK I is a Gotoh make and the other time it is Keiyo. Beats me, but as long as it sounds the way it does I guess it's okay 8)

 

[mattim]

Kappie was impressed, but it's going to be a while before mine arrives.

Yeah I actually still am. These guitars are top of the bill. I noted that there are some of them still out on eBay, possibly at give away prices if you are lucky 8)
Here is the link I noted:
http://shop.ebay.de/gpsoo/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340

How did this auction end, any transactions happened ? No info available any more. Who was the seller ?

Matti

 

[BlueThird]

I think I need to put a tailpiece on my SC-2...it's a great guitar, but it would be even better with a tailpiece.

Is that purely on aesthetic grounds Diamond? If it is, maybe some different ferrules might be worth a look. Stewmac have these:

I've always liked the idea of string through designs, but the ferrules on the SC-2 make it look a bit stark to me.

 

[BlueThird]

How did this auction end, any transactions happened ? No info available any more. Who was the seller ?

Matti

Of those six, all of them went to the opening bidder (at ?537.50) apart from one of the two violin finish models. On that one the bidding went up to ?543. Seller was gpsoo, better know around these parts as Gottfried/togps ? the German Tokai distributor.

I actually bid on a similar auction about two weeks ago and missed out. Gottfried agreed to sell me one for the same price as the winning bid, which was higher than the current batch went for (but on a more expensive model). From a buyer's point of view the good news is that at these prices, it's an incredibly well-specified guitar for the money and the number of bids is thinning out. The bad news is that the number of guitars must be as well. Pretty sure there were only 50 of them made, and ten have sold on eBay since the start of December. In the circumstances, another batch doesn't seem particularly likely, so for a new one it's now or never.

If you're interested, I'd drop a PM to togps, and pronto.

Hoping to have mine within the next few days. Will obviously post something as soon as I've had a play.

 

[macforst]

Hello!
I?m new here. Two weeks ago I bought a Anniversary from ebay (a 140 VF, from Gottried, 553 Euro).
I play now for about 25 years guitar, mostly Fender and Godin, always bolt-on long-scale-necks. I really like Japanese guitars, my first Strat was a Japanese one from 1990 - the best I?ve ever owned.
The Anniversary is impressive - great tone (needless to say a completely different one than my other guitars have), long sustain - wow! The pickups are very, very good - surely you can get a different sound, when you swap them. But I doubt it will get really better.
I?ve never played a guitar of this extraordinary quality in this price range. I don?t need the look of a Paula lol:, sorry, a Love Rock), I need the sound and the playability - and thats what I got.

 

[Kappie]

Hello!
I?m new here. Two weeks ago I bought a Anniversary from ebay (a 140 VF, from Gottried, 553 Euro).
I play now for about 25 years guitar, mostly Fender and Godin, always bolt-on long-scale-necks. I really like Japanese guitars, my first Strat was a Japanese one from 1990 - the best I?ve ever owned.
The Anniversary is impressive - great tone (needless to say a completely different one than my other guitars have), long sustain - wow! The pickups are very, very good - surely you can get a different sound, when you swap them. But I doubt it will get really better.
I?ve never played a guitar of this extraordinary quality in this price range. I don?t need the look of a Paula lol:, sorry, a Love Rock), I need the sound and the playability - and thats what I got.

To be honest I think 553 Euros is ridiculously cheap for a guitar offering this kind of quality. I paid way more for my Anniversary (almost double) but I can't care less because the guitar is worth every penny of what I paid for it, and I have not regretted it a single moment. I think ? 1300,- would also have been a reasonable price for the quality you are getting, and compared with other "top brands" you probably would pay double of that. I used to have a Korina PRS McCarthy but this guitar is way better. It has more bite and character and a more "in your face" sound. The McCarthy costed around 1800 Euros, but compared to the Tokai it lacked character and sounded bleak. After I got the Anniversary I sold the PRS for about the same price I bought it. I felt a little sorry for parting with it because a PRS had been a long time wish. The building quality was excellent, just as the Tokai, but the Tokai won on playability and sound. Also the McCarthy felt more like a mass fabricated guitar whereas the Tokai feels more like handmade. To be honest I think that the prices for which these guitars were sold on eBay are almost an insult to the instrument. If I already didn't have one I would contact togps immediately and buy one.

 

[macforst]

Well, it?s still embarrassing for me that I got the guitar for such small money :-? . A formal flaw: The body of my Anniversary seems to be made of two pieces mahagony - different from the description.
Well, if a guitar sounds like this one does it could be made of 10 pieces of Balsawood - it wouldn?t disturb me .
Does anybody know if Tokai uses a veneer on the top of the GA140F? Or is the top solid?
Thanks
Matthias

 

[Diamond]

Hello!
I?m new here. Two weeks ago I bought a Anniversary from ebay (a 140 VF, from Gottried, 553 Euro).
I play now for about 25 years guitar, mostly Fender and Godin, always bolt-on long-scale-necks. I really like Japanese guitars, my first Strat was a Japanese one from 1990 - the best I?ve ever owned.
The Anniversary is impressive - great tone (needless to say a completely different one than my other guitars have), long sustain - wow! The pickups are very, very good - surely you can get a different sound, when you swap them. But I doubt it will get really better.
I?ve never played a guitar of this extraordinary quality in this price range. I don?t need the look of a Paula lol:, sorry, a Love Rock), I need the sound and the playability - and thats what I got.

To be honest I think 553 Euros is ridiculously cheap for a guitar offering this kind of quality. I paid way more for my Anniversary (almost double) but I can't care less because the guitar is worth every penny of what I paid for it, and I have not regretted it a single moment. I think ? 1300,- would also have been a reasonable price for the quality you are getting, and compared with other "top brands" you probably would pay double of that. I used to have a Korina PRS McCarthy but this guitar is way better. It has more bite and character and a more "in your face" sound. The McCarthy costed around 1800 Euros, but compared to the Tokai it lacked character and sounded bleak. After I got the Anniversary I sold the PRS for about the same price I bought it. I felt a little sorry for parting with it because a PRS had been a long time wish. The building quality was excellent, just as the Tokai, but the Tokai won on playability and sound. Also the McCarthy felt more like a mass fabricated guitar whereas the Tokai feels more like handmade. To be honest I think that the prices for which these guitars were sold on eBay are almost an insult to the instrument. If I already didn't have one I would contact togps immediately and buy one.

If you put "PRS" on the headstock nobody would know the difference...

 

[Kappie]

Well, it?s still embarrassing for me that I got the guitar for such small money :-? . A formal flaw: The body of my Anniversary seems to be made of two pieces mahagony - different from the description.
Well, if a guitar sounds like this one does it could be made of 10 pieces of Balsawood - it wouldn?t disturb me .
Does anybody know if Tokai uses a veneer on the top of the GA140F? Or is the top solid?
Thanks
Matthias

To be honest I don't know, apart from the binding mine is totally black. I think you'll have to ask Gottfried.
Yeah you should really be embarrassed for paying so little money, shame on you

 

[marcusnieman]

Just pulled the trigger on one - Violin Finish