My new LS150 arrives!!

And is pretty much amazing. Hands down better than nearly every gibson I've ever played..which says a lot considering I've played several 58 reissues, top of the line custom shop LP's, etc and here for a fraction of the price tag I've got all of that?!? I'm still on cloud 9 hahah

The only "fault" if you can even call it that, I've found is that the pickups don't quite measure up to the burstbuckers and 59's that gibson use. It's not a huge deal though becuase I've got a bareknuckle nailbomb going into the bridge and just ordered a bareknuckle mule for the neck. Those along with 2 WCR caps and WCR easy spin volume pots.

Also, and again, this is one of those insignificant quibbles is that the little tip of the pickup switch is a much darker color creme than the rest of the plastic hardware.

I got it from the ebay seller yasoohmusic1109. Mr. Togawa made the purchase as easy and painless as I think possible. shipping from Japan to Alabama took all of 5 days too

EASILY one of the best music purchases I've ever made in my life and certainly not the last. I sent Mr. Togawa an email thanking him and telling him I'd be buying another from him eventually.

Anyways, I took a couple of vids and pics.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pW9k7QBurY4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP_tH4hNexw












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WEED

Beautiful pics.

8)

Mike

Beautiful guitar - congratulations

Cool videos and great pictures. I'm curious if the pictures are photoshopped in any way - are they photoshop edited and superimposed onto different backgrounds? The guitar really stands out - nice!


Dave

If you`re half as good a guitarist as you are a photographer then the world better watch out.Congratulations on a fine purchase. Gabe.

I love those shots; the sky looks very ominous! I also love the grain on the plain top - it's quite complex with great lines. Good choice.

bluejeannot said:

If you`re half as good a guitarist as you are a photographer then the world better watch out.Congratulations on a fine purchase. Gabe.

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hah thanks man I've been playing guitar a WHOLE lot longer than snapping pics. This is my first DSLR (Canon 450D and sigma 30mm lens) and the learning curve necessary to go from average consumer photos to pro quality is staggering. (part of the staggering part of that is the cost of the lesnses )

Dave WW, no superimposing was done. A big storm rolled through just before I snapped these (the bottom fell out literally 2 minutes after I finished up)

I did however use the HDR photography method to capture a more surreal look to the colors and what not and it turns out that a very mild HDR composition yielded the best representation of the instrument's stain color and wood grain.

I used a program called photomatrix to compile each set of 3 pictures (each image is composed of 3 separate images at different exposures) and once the HDR image compiled, I used adobe lightroom to fine tune the color and add the vignetting (the black fade at the edge of the pictures) and for that last shot, I used a filter set in lightroom to give more of an antique look.


Unrelated, pic but taking it a step further with more photoshop work, I did one of me and Mrs. Fastredponycar of us in our roy orbison 3d glasses we got when we went to see Pixar's "UP". Achieving more or less a look like it was a page taken out of an old 70's magazine or folded up old photo


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Yamaha grizzly 600 history

Thanks for the detailed explanation on the pic's. I might look into HDR.

Dave

DaveWW said:

Thanks for the detailed explanation on the pic's. I might look into HDR.

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You've scared me off from trying it!

OMG....what a great piece of wood.

Pickups sound just fine to me.

Great Youtube demos...audio sounds very sweet...excellent playing.

Thanks for posting.

8) Alabaman, your pics are very cool and feel artistic. Thanks. I enjoyed them good! Do you know a town called "Valley" in Alabama? I met a very good Gibson man from there once before. He and his hometown sounded very nice, very peaceful. There is a big river by his town Valley, can't remember its name now. some Indian name I guess. Good day in sweet home Alabama!

:wink: j.

SUSHI GUY said:

8) Alabaman, your pics are very cool and feel artistic. Thanks. I enjoyed them good! Do you know a town called "Valley" in Alabama? I met a very good Gibson man from there once before. He and his hometown sounded very nice, very peaceful. There is a big river by his town Valley, can't remember its name now. some Indian name I guess. Good day in sweet home Alabama!

:wink: j.

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haha yes I used to do work in Valley. I don't know what the river is but we have a lot of rivers here and a lot of them have native american names. There are a few Indian reservations in Alabama as well as some towns that are mostly native american residents. My great grandmother is actually part Cherokee Indian.

A lot of the towns are indeed very small and peaceful places. There aren't many big cities in Alabama. Just my home city of Montgomery another that my wife is from called Birmingham and then Mobile down on the gulf of mexico.
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Teen videos

FastRedPonyCar said:

There aren't many big cities in Alabama. Just my home city of Montgomery another that my wife is from called Birmingham and then Mobile down on the gulf of mexico.

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And a little place called Huntsville, home of the Redstone Arsenal..

Mick51 said:

FastRedPonyCar said:

There aren't many big cities in Alabama. Just my home city of Montgomery another that my wife is from called Birmingham and then Mobile down on the gulf of mexico.

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And a little place called Huntsville, home of the Redstone Arsenal..

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I have a lot of family up in huntsville They own a big cotton farm (Tate farms)

We used to go to the space and rocket center when we were kids and would go up to visit them. It was a really small city back then.
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May I ask you some more southern questions Mr.Good Alabaman?

-I hear sometimes that Athens in Georgia is this or that. Is Athens any special place than one of those college towns? What is special about them if any actually?

-I am personally very interested in Helena, Arkansas. Wanna have a little bluesy house there someday if I could. The very Blues town I heard. Like Clarksdale....

-Do you know where is actually "The Crossroads" by Robert Johnson? I have actually visited 2 of his graves before.....in 1992.........

-Is Hattisburg, Mississippi very nice place? Is it the Blues town like Helena? Lacey Chabert came from there I think......

-Do you know anything about the town in Mississippi named "Magnolia"??

-Do people in The Dixieland today speak English w/heavy southern accent today? Why they call there "Dixieland" u know?

-The guitar people in your area are very aware of Tokai guitars?

-I am personally Japanese but will I be very welcome living in the deep South someday coz I love the Blues and all. Can I die there happily, peacefully? as a good blues guy in the area? hopefully yep!

Thank you very much Alabaman. Sorry too many questions here. Just tell me briefly on each one is enough. Thank you! Good everyday in Alabama!



:wink: Joe Japanese.

SUSHI GUY said:

May I ask you some more southern questions Mr.Good Alabaman?

-I hear sometimes that Athens in Georgia is this or that. Is Athens any special place than one of those college towns? What is special about them if any actually?

Savanna Georgia is a beautiful city with a lot of early 1900's and late 1800's buildings. Athens is nice as well and since it's mostly a college town, has younger people living there

-I am personally very interested in Helena, Arkansas. Wanna have a little bluesy house there someday if I could. The very Blues town I heard. Like Clarksdale....

-Do you know where is actually "The Crossroads" by Robert Johnson? I have actually visited 2 of his graves before.....in 1992.........

I've seen the movie crossroads but am not familiar with the locations it was filmed

-Is Hattisburg, Mississippi very nice place? Is it the Blues town like Helena? Lacey Chabert came from there I think......

I've never been there

-Do you know anything about the town in Mississippi named "Magnolia"??

nah, I'm not too familiar with mississippi

-Do people in The Dixieland today speak English w/heavy southern accent today? Why they call there "Dixieland" u know?

It's funny that the people in the south who live in small towns usually do have a very heavy southern accent but the people in the larger towns and cities don't... even if the small towns are just half an hour away from the city.

As to why it's called dixieland, here's what wikipedia says.

The word "'Dixie'" refers to privately issued currency from banks in Louisiana.[4] These banks issued ten-dollar notes,[5] labeled "Dix", French for "ten", on the reverse side. These notes are now highly sought-after for their numismatic value. The notes were known as "Dixies" by English-speaking southerners, and the area around New Orleans and the Cajun-speaking parts of Louisiana came to be known as "Dixieland". Eventually, usage of the term broadened to refer to most of the Southern States.

-The guitar people in your area are very aware of Tokai guitars?

I've been in a few stores so far with the guitar and one store owner had heard of them and was very impressed. He sells Tyler, Surh, Anderson, Meloncon and Parker guitars so for him to be impressed was very good. I also went to guitar center and no one had heard of tokai but they were in love with it when they played and heard it.

-I am personally Japanese but will I be very welcome living in the deep South someday coz I love the Blues and all. Can I die there happily, peacefully? as a good blues guy in the area? hopefully yep!

Eh, I'm sure you could die peacefully anywhere but it depends on what type blues you like. Chicago has more of a small club jazz type blues, Nashville and Memphis have more of a country type thing, New Orleans has a cajun blues style... lots of different types but there are several cities in America that revolve around music.

Thank you very much Alabaman. Sorry too many questions here. Just tell me briefly on each one is enough. Thank you! Good everyday in Alabama!



:wink: Joe Japanese.

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VAPORIZER VOLCANO

FastRed

Did your guitar come with a Polishing cloth, or any case candy...maybe a gigbag...anything?...or did you have to buy a hard case separately?

Speaking of Crossroads... 8)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B88TRvkYi3s


Diamond, it did come with a tokai brand hardshell case, build sheet with serial number and truss rod wrench but no polishing cloth.

I use these. I think they're better than the typical guitar polishing cloth anyways.

http://www.amazon.com/CARRAND-40061-MICROFIBER-TOWEL-16X16/dp/B001B5IXC0/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=automotive&qid=1248951235&sr=1-8
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SUSHI GUY said:

I am personally Japanese but will I be very welcome living in the deep South someday coz I love the Blues and all. Can I die there happily, peacefully? as a good blues guy in the area? hopefully yep!

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Alabama was never a popular place with the old blues guys - many of them made a point of avoiding the state when travelling through the South. Hopefully things have improved quite a bit since JB Lenoir wrote this chilling song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvilFSMVHTs

****. Congratulations. That 150 looks so good. I've got to get a second job.

Great job with the pics. HDR can work done tastefully like this folks. But don't go crazy with it.

I'm coming from the other side, trying to apply the same dedication to guitar playing as I did to learning photography. It seems to be paying off. I'm realising that learning itself is a skill you can learn.

singemonkey said:

****. Congratulations. That 150 looks so good. I've got to get a second job.

.

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Get the second job now, there's 10 of those on there way. :lol: