I am definitely gonna be buying me one of those Japanese Tokai Les Pauls

[Rock Fella]

Im selling off my Hamer USA Artist to fund a Peavey 6505 head , this leaves me with my beloved 2001 R9 , but for gigs I definitely need a 2nd gtr.

Im a dyed in the wool Les Paul bloke and I quite fancy the Tokai Japanese models, they are at great prices. Id stick a Dimarzio Super Distortion (bridge) and a Paf in the neck of said axe, it would be a designated METAL guitar.

Guys here who have the Japanese Tokai`s how do you find em ?

jimmy

 

[ArthurS]

I got mine new from eBay about two years ago. It's a mid-end Japanese model (LS80F), cost me around $700 incl shipping back then; they're slightly more expensive nowadays.

It's an amazing playing and sounding guitar. It has a wonderful acoustic tone, very resonant, and one of the nicest necks on I've ever played on any Les Paul-style guitar. Very well made, too; easily the equivalent of production Gibson USA models.

The stock pickups are so-so; the neck pickup is actually pretty nice, but I didn't like the bridge at all. I first replaced the pickups with Timbuckers (wonderful pickups), which I eventually had to sell. It now has the original Gotoh neck pickup, and a Wolfetone Marshallhead pickup in the brid

My particular guitar is finished in a very, very thin matte finish. I like the way it looks and feels (neck!), but they usually come in a more traditional glossy finish. I've never been able to do it justice on photo, but here is an old pic to get an idea:

 

[Reeek]

Take a look at the Agiles too. The AL-3000 or higher are really good guitars and not just for the money. I absolutley LOVE my AL-3000 Gold Top. The pickups are really nice sounding alnico V, the swtiches are really good quality, the ebony fretboard is smooth and the playability of mine is actually world class. It just fits my hand like a glove. The string height is low and it plain plays fantastic. The abalone trapavoid inlays are really sweet too. The fretbaord radius is 13.7 inches so it's flat but not way flat.

$369.95 + shipping

It's such a nice axe that I bought a top end TKL case for it too.

 

[Ogre]

Not exactly relavent, but my Tokai strat(pre 1982- Japanese) is one of my favorite guitars. They did it right, and it sounds and plays like a dream.

 

[Lex Luthier]

This guy comes across a lot of Japanese LP copies, might be worth giving him a call:
Marks Guitar Shop - (509) 325-8353 - 918 W Garland Ave, Spokane, WA 99205

 

[el34power]

Originally posted by Rock Fella
Im selling off my Hamer USA Artist to fund a Peavey 6505 head , this leaves me with my beloved 2001 R9 , but for gigs I definitely need a 2nd gtr.

Im a dyed in the wool Les Paul bloke and I quite fancy the Tokai Japanese models, they are at great prices. Id stick a Dimarzio Super Distortion (bridge) and a Paf in the neck of said axe, it would be a designated METAL guitar.

Guys here who have the Japanese Tokai`s how do you find em ?

jimmy

FWIW. I tried the Tokai's. They seemed fine but for the money....
I just got a 1983 Yamaha SBG1000. These things rock. Killer pick ups, coil splits. mahogany body and maple top.... You can get'em for a deacent price. I would put it up against ANY Les Paul....Yes ANY

 

[hans-jürgen]

Id stick a Dimarzio Super Distortion (bridge) and a Paf in the neck of said axe, it would be a designated METAL guitar.

This would be the original configuration of an old LS-150 model and probably a good choice for metal music. I'm testing several bridge pickups for my LS-120 at the moment, and so far I like the DiMarzio PAF (7.5 kOhm) very much, but I'm more into bluesrock stuff.

 

[ned911]

You can't get Tokai's in the US. JSD is a great dealer for MIK's but you will have to order from Japan for a MIJ model. Best bet is to hop over to tokaiforum.com and take a quick run through the threads as this topic comes up quite a bit.

 

[geetaruke]

The good ones are truly great

 

[brobar]

Guys here who have the Japanese Tokai`s how do you find em ?

You should definitely get one. I wanted an "authentic" Les Paul and searched for one for years and never found one I connected with. I tried dozens of dozens and none really spoke to me. Then I played a friend's Tokai and THAT was the LP I wanted. I tried to buy it off of him. He told me I was crazy. So I went searching for my own. It took me a little while to find the right one because I didn't want a flamed or quilted top (those are a dime a dozen). I finally found this beautiful plain-top LS196 and fell in love. The pickups were too hot for me (wanted that vintage vibe and these were more Screamin' Demon vibe) so I swapped them out for a pair of Monty's PAFs. It is the tone audibly that the guitar gives off visually. Perfect match.

*** edit ***
Well crap. I didn't expect to have to look at the date each thread I open.

So what do you say... 16 years later... still loving your Tokai (if you got one)?

 

[Kyusha]

if its just for gigs, get an aio wolf

459 and its already in the us

 

[AmherstJoe]

Another good option are the MIJ Epiphone Elitist Les Pauls.
Only mentioning as they seem to be more readily available then the Tokais in the US.
I own Historic 57 gold top and a Historic 56 P90 Goldtop. But for playing out I found real value and quality in the Epiphone Elitists. They were definitely an upgrade from the Gibson studio line IMHO with the long tenon neck, bone nut etc.

Just throwing it out there as a good alternative to the Tokai. Alsoyou sometime see a Yamaha MIJ in the states.

 

[audiomo]

to be fair i'd rather see this thread bumped than a "14 year old" asking about 4 grand guitars he should buy or people asking if they purchase guitars due to how cool they will look on stage

 

[GA20T]

You should definitely get one. I wanted an "authentic" Les Paul and searched for one for years and never found one I connected with. I tried dozens of dozens and none really spoke to me. Then I played a friend's Tokai and THAT was the LP I wanted. I tried to buy it off of him. He told me I was crazy. So I went searching for my own. It took me a little while to find the right one because I didn't want a flamed or quilted top (those are a dime a dozen). I finally found this beautiful plain-top LS196 and fell in love. The pickups were too hot for me (wanted that vintage vibe and these were more Screamin' Demon vibe) so I swapped them out for a pair of Monty's PAFs. It is the tone audibly that the guitar gives off visually. Perfect match.

*** edit ***
Well crap. I didn't expect to have to look at the date each thread I open.

So what do you say... 16 years later... still loving your Tokai (if you got one)?

I've never plunked down on a Les Paul because I couldn't find something like this right here, or the price was absurd enough it wasn't even worth giving a strum. Is this ~the same thing as the ~$2G CAD Tokais one can buy on Reverb these days?

 

[brobar]

I've never plunked down on a Les Paul because I couldn't find something like this right here, or the price was absurd enough it wasn't even worth giving a strum. Is this ~the same thing as the ~$2G CAD Tokais one can buy on Reverb these days?

About $1,523 USD (plus shipping) so probably pretty close to $2G CAD.

Tokai LS196 #2145071 2021 Violin Finish ［Made In Japan］［YK012］ | Reverb

---------------------------------To customers in Russian Federation,Due to COVID-19 outbreak, shipping service temporarily terminated from Japan to Russia.For the above reason, we would like you to do NOT proceed order/transaction.We accept refund in the case of proceeded transaction however it m...

reverb.com

 

[Eireguitar]

This thread is older than that kid who's spending 4k on a tele.

 

[PRW]

to be fair i'd rather see this thread bumped than a "14 year old" asking about 4 grand guitars he should buy or people asking if they purchase guitars due to how cool they will look on stage

This ... just because a thread is old doesn't mean there's no inherent value in revisiting a subject. Some people would probably bitch and offer this link and say "it's already been discussed" if someone started a new, non-zombie thread. I mean, just because something was once discussed, does it mean it can never be discussed ever again? And don't say the search function is your friend, because the one on the page only goes back a couple of years and a lot of folks either don't know how to do a site-specific Google search or consider it to be too much of a PITA.

 

[TA22GT]

Me? I love Japanese Tokai's. No really I do.

 

[DGTCrazy]

16 y/o thread reported, posts removed and thread ban issued. It’s interesting to me that a few folks feel that somehow if a thread is “old” there’s some magic rule that says you can’t respond to it. To those I say that the purpose of TGP (at least in part) is to provide a cache of relevant information on various topics regardless of when it was originally posted. So to all you Tokai aficionados, please enjoy this thread.

 

[bal704]

Fujigen has MIJ models thru their US store. It may be an option to buying from Japan.

FGN Guitars