Any Thoughts on my Guitar? Tokai LS150F

[HAMAMATSU]

mr.kunishi furuhashi says of LS150F that, tokai originally planned to make only 100 units of LS150F and it had a very vintage looking 2A grade quality maple-top with the old quality grade mahogany back. but the reputation of it was so good so tokai eventually made more than the first 100 units from time to time as an irregular line product.

[HAMAMATSU]

so tokai probably made about a few hundreds of the LS150F around 2004-2007. it had a vintage looking very quality 2A maple-top plus the old grade very quality mahogany back. the possible colors were probably violin finish, cherry sunburst, dark cherry sunburst, natural. it was an excellent and vintage idea of mr.kunishi furuhashi and the tokai CEO like the LS320 series. if you ever meet yours then you should maybe get it sure cause its very rare and cool after all. a good LS150F luck!

[ILOVEROCKLS150F]

I don't know if you could see the serial number but it very much appears to be a 2007. That's the year I bought it and it felt like a very new guitar when I got it. I used to work in guitar shops and I know the difference between one fresh from the box and one that has been dangling on a hanger for months or more. I would have though mine was outside of that original 100 then - maybe the reason for the slightly wacky natural finish, later experimenting? - instantly made me think of Paul Kossoff's stripped one for obvious reasons. It feels a lot like an Gibson R9, it's 59 vintage spec but no fret nibs though.

Here is inside the control cavity. As I said, I have swapped out the pick ups for Seth Lovers and the capacitors for Luxe BumbleBees, I kept the original wiring from the toggle-switch (blue wiring) and all the other components are also still original. Also here are inside the pick up cavities, reasonably clear what is written but some of it is Japanese - Any idea what it says?


Neck


Bridge

[ILOVEROCKLS150F]

Without trying to think into it too much - seems like it says "57 - 51 LS-150 / 5A" or it might say "S7 - S1 LS-150 / 5A" I have no Idea what the first bit says but I didn't see these until about 3 years ago and it was definitely sold to me as an LS-150 back in 2007, so that bit makes sense. Any idea on the character in the neck pick up cavity? There's an N and then..? Neck joint is very cool.

[HAMAMATSU]

" N-木目 " means probably or surely, NATURAL-WOOD GRAIN. it means that yours be painted in natural and so all the wood grains of it be visible or something. yours could be actually very rare very possibly. yours has the 5A grade maple-top! usually the LS150Fs have only the 2A exotic looking quality grade maple-top and tokai is usually known to go only the 4A grade maple-top for the solid ones. (the veneers could go on to the highest grade like the quilt maple-top.) but yours has the 5A grade in natural to show off its natural beauty. its quite a suprise to see the ones like yours. the 5A grade maple-top !!!!!

[ILOVEROCKLS150F]

Wow. It now seems very surprising that I managed to get hold of this guitar so inexpensively. Is there anyway to find out more about this guitar? You seem very knowledgeable. Are you a collector? Do you know people who work for, or used to work for Tokai? Thanks for all the info, it's so cool of you to help me find out more.

[HAMAMATSU]

i m just a good old member of this forum here and there are some veterans like me but they dont come here often lately. anyways. i m japanese and a guitar mania living in yokouka, japan! are you from uk? ..... if anyone knows about LS150F completely then its mr.kunishi furuhashi ofcourse. LS150F was almost his personal creation by tokai and mr.furuhashi was the ex-tokai engeneer from the 80s. he and tokai, especially the CEO, are still the great friends so they help tokai from time to time. mr.furuhashi does a guitar shop in nagoya, japan but he doesnt do good english plus he is very busy at his store so he can answer our questions good only sometimes. i can email him and ask the questions but he may or may not answer enough for it. if you have more questions about your LS150F then PM me here on this forum. i will email him for you. maybe he tells us all you wanna know!