Semi
New member
Hello guys, finally decided to upload the photos of my very first Tokai ALS48 Premium, and I just thought I tell a little story of how I ended up with a Tokai guitar (one which I am proud to say I own one and loving it).
Please skip the story if you don't want to read it
I am a newbie at playing juitars (though I had a guitar class back in high school but I haven't played for so long that I forget everything I learned back then), I wanted to buy a Les Paul guitar and I checked a musical insturment store (Long & McQuade, yes, I live in Canada) close to where I live and to find that the real Les Paul cost at least $2400+ CAD, of course, I started to see if there's any copy ones.
I bought a Jay Turser Les Paul copy model "JT-LPSTD" from Tom & Lee Music store after seeing a demo, which I must say I was driven by the "urge" to get a Les Paul and I didn't check more details about the guitar other than few reviews of this guitar, which came out quite positive (mainly because of the bang for the buck), it was until I got home and started playing around with it and looking closer at the guitar, that I found that the shape didn't look right as I originally hoped for, the sound was ok because it has single cut mahogany just like the Les Paul, but nothing like the real Les Paul of course (which obviously I know it has to be a cheaper mahogany).
After doing a little digging on the internet, it looks like Jay Turser had to re-shape the body of the guitar a little to avoid lawsuits from Gibson, which is understandable, but over all I didn't like the guitar's built quality, it's not a bad guitar, but something felt missing, that's where the thought "maybe there's a Japanese company that also make copies of the Les Paul", and I trust Japanese build qualities because usually they have a very strict policy when it comes build quality, with that thought, I started looking online to see if there's any Japanese company that also make Les Paul copies, and there, I found a forum which was doing a poll to vote which Japanese company the players think makes the best copy of Les Paul, and Tokai was the clear winner, with ESP on the 2nd place, with that, I searched online for any reviews I can find about Tokai guitar qualities and how well they sound, which turned out all positive except rare few that was negative.
By this time I had already returned the Jay Turser guitar with a full refund of the money, then I checked eBay and found a UK store seller selling an ALS48 Premium with a price that's within my budget, as I looked at the photo provided (not a very good quality photo I'd say), the guitar itself looked nice with alder body with maple top, which led me to believe it is MIK, which I noticed it may be MIC after looking closer at the back side of the seller's photo just the day before it arrived, that the spot where it tells you the make, it looked more like a sticker than a carved "made in ***", and just as I suspected, it is MIC, but I must say I was blown away by the finish of the guitar (as you will see it on the photos), of course the inside's not so nice (after all it is a lower end model), I had Long & McQuade change the strings for me (who knows how long the old strings had been on the guitar when it was in that UK store, what's more is the fact that from the photo of that store, it looks like all of their new guitars are out of the box standing or hanging on the wall inside the store), the strings are now the Gibson Vintage Re-Issue, they sound way better than the old strings and I am now happily doing my practice with my first loving Tokai ALS48 Premium guitar!
Please excuse me for the long story, but I'm excited to have this this Tokai guitar and please excuse the quality of the photos too, my only camera is my iPhone 3G, the actual color of the guitar is a little more darker than it is on the photos, the red for example, the guitar actually look quite like a $2400 CAD Les Paul Standard if you don't go over the details.
By the way, it is numbered 9061810, and just to be on the safe side, does it look genuine to you guys? it looks like a genuine Tokai to me, three screw trd, and the logo goes indeed go from thick to thin as it goes, and no "Manufactured under licence for Tokai Gakki Co.Ltd" Make in Korea.
Thanks for viewing.
Please skip the story if you don't want to read it
I am a newbie at playing juitars (though I had a guitar class back in high school but I haven't played for so long that I forget everything I learned back then), I wanted to buy a Les Paul guitar and I checked a musical insturment store (Long & McQuade, yes, I live in Canada) close to where I live and to find that the real Les Paul cost at least $2400+ CAD, of course, I started to see if there's any copy ones.
I bought a Jay Turser Les Paul copy model "JT-LPSTD" from Tom & Lee Music store after seeing a demo, which I must say I was driven by the "urge" to get a Les Paul and I didn't check more details about the guitar other than few reviews of this guitar, which came out quite positive (mainly because of the bang for the buck), it was until I got home and started playing around with it and looking closer at the guitar, that I found that the shape didn't look right as I originally hoped for, the sound was ok because it has single cut mahogany just like the Les Paul, but nothing like the real Les Paul of course (which obviously I know it has to be a cheaper mahogany).
After doing a little digging on the internet, it looks like Jay Turser had to re-shape the body of the guitar a little to avoid lawsuits from Gibson, which is understandable, but over all I didn't like the guitar's built quality, it's not a bad guitar, but something felt missing, that's where the thought "maybe there's a Japanese company that also make copies of the Les Paul", and I trust Japanese build qualities because usually they have a very strict policy when it comes build quality, with that thought, I started looking online to see if there's any Japanese company that also make Les Paul copies, and there, I found a forum which was doing a poll to vote which Japanese company the players think makes the best copy of Les Paul, and Tokai was the clear winner, with ESP on the 2nd place, with that, I searched online for any reviews I can find about Tokai guitar qualities and how well they sound, which turned out all positive except rare few that was negative.
By this time I had already returned the Jay Turser guitar with a full refund of the money, then I checked eBay and found a UK store seller selling an ALS48 Premium with a price that's within my budget, as I looked at the photo provided (not a very good quality photo I'd say), the guitar itself looked nice with alder body with maple top, which led me to believe it is MIK, which I noticed it may be MIC after looking closer at the back side of the seller's photo just the day before it arrived, that the spot where it tells you the make, it looked more like a sticker than a carved "made in ***", and just as I suspected, it is MIC, but I must say I was blown away by the finish of the guitar (as you will see it on the photos), of course the inside's not so nice (after all it is a lower end model), I had Long & McQuade change the strings for me (who knows how long the old strings had been on the guitar when it was in that UK store, what's more is the fact that from the photo of that store, it looks like all of their new guitars are out of the box standing or hanging on the wall inside the store), the strings are now the Gibson Vintage Re-Issue, they sound way better than the old strings and I am now happily doing my practice with my first loving Tokai ALS48 Premium guitar!
Please excuse me for the long story, but I'm excited to have this this Tokai guitar and please excuse the quality of the photos too, my only camera is my iPhone 3G, the actual color of the guitar is a little more darker than it is on the photos, the red for example, the guitar actually look quite like a $2400 CAD Les Paul Standard if you don't go over the details.
By the way, it is numbered 9061810, and just to be on the safe side, does it look genuine to you guys? it looks like a genuine Tokai to me, three screw trd, and the logo goes indeed go from thick to thin as it goes, and no "Manufactured under licence for Tokai Gakki Co.Ltd" Make in Korea.
Thanks for viewing.
How's the sound and playability?
