Tokai "Love Rock" LS85F
Discussion
Hi, Currently I have a standard (Mexican) Stratocaster, and owing to my 21st coming up i'm looking at something to add to the collection (due mainly to a lack of other ideas, I want something that I can keep forever, a guitar fits the bill)
A Les Paul is significantly different to the strat to justify in my mind, however a genuine Gibson is way out of budget (I'm a leftie and would want a standard in some sort of faded burst, which as you know = £££)
I have heard a bit about Tokai's being just as well built....a guitar good enough to keep indefinately, they are also basically a carbon copy, which is nice (more appealing than an Epiphone), and so a short search on Ebay leads me to the following guitar which is about perfect (right colour and spec, and at an acceptable price)
http://www.richtonemusic.co.uk/guitars-1/electric-...
So I was wondering if any of you had experience of these guitars? It looks very nice, and i'm definately liking the idea of a Les Paul into a Marshall 1/2 Stack
My only reservation is that one of them will gather dust on the wall, be it the LP or the strat...for those of you with collections, do you tend to use one guitar predominately or alternate between the two.....it's not like they are similar (infact they are polar opposites) so hopefully this wont be a problem.
A Les Paul is significantly different to the strat to justify in my mind, however a genuine Gibson is way out of budget (I'm a leftie and would want a standard in some sort of faded burst, which as you know = £££)
I have heard a bit about Tokai's being just as well built....a guitar good enough to keep indefinately, they are also basically a carbon copy, which is nice (more appealing than an Epiphone), and so a short search on Ebay leads me to the following guitar which is about perfect (right colour and spec, and at an acceptable price)
http://www.richtonemusic.co.uk/guitars-1/electric-...
So I was wondering if any of you had experience of these guitars? It looks very nice, and i'm definately liking the idea of a Les Paul into a Marshall 1/2 Stack
My only reservation is that one of them will gather dust on the wall, be it the LP or the strat...for those of you with collections, do you tend to use one guitar predominately or alternate between the two.....it's not like they are similar (infact they are polar opposites) so hopefully this wont be a problem.
lockhart flawse said:
One of them will sit on the shelf. Why not bin the Mexican Strat and get a USA one? A US Strat will be worth keeping but a Mexican one will never be worth anything much. IMHO.
Eh?I've got a (mid '80s Fender Japan) Strat and a (mid '70s Ibanez/CSL) Les Paul-a-like[1] and neither of them sit on the shelf!
Standard USA Strats are somewhat over-rated (and over priced) at the moment in my view by the way, I spent quite a while in my local friendly dealers recently working my way gradually up the price range looking for a better Strat than mine and didn't find anything which felt and sounded significantly nicer than my mid '80s '60s re-issue until I reached Custom Shop territory in the form of the "Custom Classic". The sweet spot for value for money seemed like the (really very nice indeed) "Classic Player '60s" to me and given the difference in price you could afford the Mexican guitar to lose an awful lot of value before it started to matter. I've opted to leave (most of) my money in the bank, put a set of Bare Knuckle "Irish Tour" pickups on the Japanese Strat, and keep saving for an early '60s Custom Shop relic...
Anyway, alternate suggestion to the Les Paul: My youngest son's got a PRS SE single cut which is an interesting (more contemporary?) spin on the single cutaway, mahogany, maple top, and two humbuckers theme. Damn fine Guitar, lovely to play, sounds good, and extremely pretty with it's translucent grey-black finish over a Maple top, and damn fine value for money, in fact it's good enough that we walked out of the shop with a second one (the "Soapbar" model with P90 style single coil pickups) for me and I regularly steal^x^x^x^xborrow Elliot's too
--
JG
some interesting stuff here, thanks for the comments
Firstly I do really want a Les Paul....an original is out of the question, so a carbon copy will do, it's the other "classic" guitar shape In my eyes (Yes I do know about the tele and SG but they dont really float my boat)
the PRS's are very nice guitars I will admit, but part of the appeal of that tokai is that it's more of a traditional design.
As per upgrading the Mexican Strat to a USA version....a fair point, however the guitar has more sentimental value than cost value to me, It took me a LONG time to save up for it (£5 a week pocket money.....basically from the age of 13 to 15) and I wouldnt ever want to sell it, It's also a good one, have played USA strats that didnt feel as good as mine (this may be subjective) and others have said how well it plays, perhaps I got a very good one
I dont think the Americans are all they are cracked up to be. If I were looking at changing it would have to be an American Vintage 62 model, in Sunburst and with Rosewoood....the same guitar as I have now, seems a bit pointless, besides I am looking at around £600 which is nowhere near enough to get one...2nd hand is out of the question due to the rarity of Lefties (and also i'm very specific in what I want)
I might look at upgrading the pickups/electronics of the STD though. thats not really expensive but could make a big difference (some more progressive volume and tone pots, and a better set of 60's style pickups)
My main issue is still with the amount that both will be played, because they will be of similar quality neither will end up being a back up guitar I hope(done that before and the cheapo one....it never got played) and they are tonally very different beasts.
Firstly I do really want a Les Paul....an original is out of the question, so a carbon copy will do, it's the other "classic" guitar shape In my eyes (Yes I do know about the tele and SG but they dont really float my boat)
the PRS's are very nice guitars I will admit, but part of the appeal of that tokai is that it's more of a traditional design.
As per upgrading the Mexican Strat to a USA version....a fair point, however the guitar has more sentimental value than cost value to me, It took me a LONG time to save up for it (£5 a week pocket money.....basically from the age of 13 to 15) and I wouldnt ever want to sell it, It's also a good one, have played USA strats that didnt feel as good as mine (this may be subjective) and others have said how well it plays, perhaps I got a very good one
I dont think the Americans are all they are cracked up to be. If I were looking at changing it would have to be an American Vintage 62 model, in Sunburst and with Rosewoood....the same guitar as I have now, seems a bit pointless, besides I am looking at around £600 which is nowhere near enough to get one...2nd hand is out of the question due to the rarity of Lefties (and also i'm very specific in what I want)
I might look at upgrading the pickups/electronics of the STD though. thats not really expensive but could make a big difference (some more progressive volume and tone pots, and a better set of 60's style pickups)
My main issue is still with the amount that both will be played, because they will be of similar quality neither will end up being a back up guitar I hope(done that before and the cheapo one....it never got played) and they are tonally very different beasts.
Edited by Matthew_Eames on Wednesday 5th November 14:09
Matthew_Eames said:
the PRS's are very nice guitars I will admit, but part of the appeal of that tokai is that it's more of a traditional design.
If that's what you want then that's what you've got to have. Nobody said guitars had to be a totally rational choice, I'm damned sure the ones I have weren't (with the possible exception of the PRS SE) so I'm certainly not going to argue with you there!Matthew_Eames said:
I might look at upgrading the pickups/electronics of the STD though. thats not really expensive but could make a big difference (some more progressive volume and tone pots, and a better set of 60's style pickups)
Made a very noticeable difference to my Japanese Strat. It's not easy trying to describe differences in the sound of pickups but I find with the Bare Knuckles "Irish Tour" set I can have a good deal more "sparkle" in my clean or not-quite-clean tone without "harshness" creeping in or the top end slicing the top of my head off. Bare Knuckles will do you a pre-wired scratchplate with everything bar the jack socket and earth wire by the way, so as well as the pickups I've now got top quality switches, pots etc, beautifully neat wiring, soldering which doesn't look like metallic pigeon droppings, and I get to indulge my Tortoiseshell fetish --
JG
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