The Magna Carta - LS Series spec sheet, in English ca. 1978

[Cali Girl]

I got this in a batch of 70's catalogs and flyers. I had not seen it before in English, just the Japanese version and translation on this page:

http://www.tokairegistry.com/tokai-info/tokai-gibson-models.html

You can imagine my surprise at reading through it for the first time! But maybe this is old news for the more expert Tokai historians.

It predates the LS-120 model and plainly spells out all the specifications for early LS series and LC series guitars. It must be from some time in 1978-80.

Major points of interest for me...
-We don't use veneer (this would change soon)
-All LS have one piece necks (we know early ones had 2 piece)
-LC have mahogany top (wasn't sure til now)
-South American mahogany necks

 

[Cali Girl]

 

[wulfman]

Thanks for sharing, very cool.

 

[DaveWW]

Great stuff. I certainly hadn't seen this one before.

Dave

 

[jacco]

I got this in a batch of 70's catalogs and flyers. I had not seen it before in English, just the Japanese version and translation on this page:

http://www.tokairegistry.com/tokai-info/tokai-gibson-models.html

You can imagine my surprise at reading through it for the first time! But maybe this is old news for the more expert Tokai historians.

It predates the LS-120 model and plainly spells out all the specifications for early LS series and LC series guitars. It must be from some time in 1978-80.

Major points of interest for me...
-We don't use veneer (this would change soon)
-All LS have one piece necks (we know early ones had 2 piece)
-LC have mahogany top (wasn't sure til now)
-South American mahogany backs

Love it!! Many thanks for sharing.
Must be late 1978, early 1979 for there's no 150 in the 1978 catalog but it's mentioned here & there's a 200 in the 1979 catalog but not mentioned here.
Like the mentioning of south american maho too!

 

[Cali Girl]

I made a mistake when reading it - it says South American Mahogany neck. Body is said to be solid mhaogany with no origin given. I edited my first post.

I am pleased that this seems to be "new" info and source for some of us.

To read the flyer it sounds as if they scanned a 1958 burst. They make a lot of other boasts too about how good the product is!

 

[spikeymikey]

Nice find and v interesting.

What about the finish = "high gloss polyurethane"????

Not nitro then?

Oh dear.......

 

[Freebird]

Nice find and v interesting.

What about the finish = "high gloss polyurethane"????

Not nitro then?

Oh dear.......

LS-80 and above have nitro as far as I can tell from the table.

Great information! Thanks Cali Girl!!!!!!!!!!

 

[JVsearch]

To read the flyer it sounds as if they scanned a 1958 burst. They make a lot of other boasts too about how good the product is!

I thought that was common knowledge?

Problem is I can't remember where I heard about it, could have been Tokai Joe. They had a couple of bursts available for cloning IIRC.
It still amazes me that some people at a smallish company in Japan realised that the 'vintage reissue' was going to be a big thing.
The Reborn series had well and truly ended before Gibson produced their first 'vintage reissue' in about 1982.

These documents you've scored are a pretty good find. I wonder why they were translated, and for who?

 

[jacco]

Do you see how the middle carve of the open book has been filled with a marker pen, just like the ST headstock has been cut out with scissors?

 

[Cali Girl]

These documents you've scored are a pretty good find. I wonder why they were translated, and for who?

That's a good question - maybe it was some kind of advanced press sent to dealers to generate orders?

Do you see how the middle carve of the open book has been filled with a marker pen, just like the ST headstock has been cut out with scissors?

You are right about that too. Funny how they altered the flyer to remove the F and G trademarks but the actual product still had the open book and ball end headstocks.

 

[jacco]

To me it looks like the text was written in the USA with use of a translation of the specs by someone who knew the implications of selling ?exact? copies. It?s pretty short after Gibson filing the lawsuit against Hoshino.

 

[Cali Girl]

http://www.k4.dion.ne.jp/~yjibika/en_1983TokaiLS200_2.html

As far as I know, Tokai was the first factory which reproduced near-genuine structure of the 'Burst and also used computerized numerical controlled craft machine to comlete the precise appearance of 'Burst. It is well-know that a famous Japanese guitarist Tomiaki Hidaka offered his 'Burst to collect the three-dimentional data of real Les Paul to operate a computerized craft machine for the first time. Tokai made the epoch, therefore old Tokai is highly regarded now.

This seems to support what Tokai writes in the flyer about copying an original Les Paul. I couldn't find any info on Tomiaki Hidaka or his guitar, does anyone have a picture?

 

[jacco]

Well he died early, in 1986 at age 36. Google Tommy Hidaka or Garo (the band he played in).