Tokai

I just bought it this afternoon! I tried it out at the shop on a Blackstar H5 tube amp. It's beautifully crafted , with a superb lacquer! Mahogany body, maple top... it's heavy (not chambered like the new Gibsons). The electronics is incredible, totally shielded! Perfectly installed, great condensers, well assembled. The finishing shows a real quality and know-how, seems like a gifted craftsman's work - not something out of a factory. Neck is rather thin, very pleasant and easy to play, a real pleasure! Clean sounds are beautiful, I never thought such beautiful clean sounds could come out of a Les Paul... Overdriven sounds are awesome! Accurate, thick, dense, I feared what the result would be but wow, it ROCKS! Huge sounds, you can get everything, SRV's solos, blues, hard, crunch - everything! Pickups: the MK2 humbuckers are totally breathtaking! Pros: great value for money, I wanted a Standard Les Paul, here it is, this one's in no way inferior to a Gibson... Its sound, building quality, Made-in-Japan quality finish: just ask any instrument maker or repairman what he thinks of it! Cons: can't think of any right now... I got it for €999, 30% off the original €1300 price because it had a small scratch on the headstock from the moment it was unpacked. Tried it and bought it on the spot, with an additional Gibson case for free!

MY Tokai Love Rock had not been produced from mahogany, and has no maple cap I think, just a flame maple veneer, which looks great, but has no effect of the sound. Hoever, it's pickups are decent, enough output for feedback WITHOUT ANY SEAGUELL effect, and without being noisy. I love it. :-) The machine heads are without any brand, but do what they were ment to be. The neck/body are maybe maple, and nato the fingerboard is definetelly rosewood. The finish is quite good, and the craftmanship is good enought too. (fret levelling, and fret ends... etc) In overall, I like it for the price, except that I can see clearly how many parts were the body made from :-( Check this video, and my others on youtube :-) Thank you for your attention, hope I was able to help you https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZqpa8XQ-5Y

Purchased January 2003 from Sound Control Birmingham for £584 including Hiscox hard case. PAF humbuckers. This guita has got everything - fantastic build quality, beautiful finish, playability and superb sound. I've gigged with it three times now, and it is just great. Both pickups sound wonderful, whether clean or with the amp really wound up. Lots of richness, bite, yet without the muddiness I've always come across with humbucking pickups. Impossible to fault. I was slightly put off when I first came across these guitars by the naff name "Love Rock", but don't be fooled, it's every bit a Les Paul. Materials used in its construction appear to be as good as any new Gibson. The mahogany body is a very decent piece of wood, lovely colour, and the finish and attention to detail, frets, binding, inlays etc cannot be faulted. It's beautifully finished, unbelievable for the price. I've had two Les Pauls over the years, a cherry sunburst De Luxe in the mid-70's, and a white '88 Custom, and this Tokai puts them to shame. Ever since seeing a Gold Top back in the early 70's, I've wanted one. I think today's Gibsons are over-priced, and the Tokai is an absolute bargain. I'm even thinking of saving up for one of the flame-top versions. SUPERB!! This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com