Any Thoughts on my Guitar? Tokai LS150F

Tokai Forum

Help Support Tokai Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I

ILOVEROCKLS150F

Member
Joined
Jan 6, 2021
Messages
11
Reaction score
0
This is my Tokai LS-150F from 2007. It has a natural finish, no added colouration. I play it all the time, it's been to plenty of gigs, so definitely not mint but not mistreated at all. Plays and sounds amazing. I still have the original pickups, pots and orange drop caps stored but it now has Seth Lover pickups, CTS 50s style pots and BumbleBee caps. Do you like it? I'm not selling but does anyone have an idea what it might be worth?
6cbuXQ7
6cbuXQ7
 
Pics not coming through. You might need to use a photo hosting service like IMGUR.com
 
When I bought it they told me it was the only one they had seen in this finish but I have seen two others for sale that looked similar over the years so there are definitely more. The top was so cool I went for it instead of a lacklustre Cherryburst and Antiqueburst they had which were not that figured. It was bought new and you'll probably spit out your favourite beverage to hear it was only £700. It has a brown case which is burgundy or a dirty pink kind of colour and a brass plate that says "Reborn Old - Tokai Electric Guitars" on it. Here's a pic of the back which is natural finish too. The neck and body are much more similar in colour than in the photo but this is the best I could do with my phone and the light in the room. Excuse the carpet, it's the room I rehearse and keep instruments in, up in the loft of my house.
VZnGv8G.jpg
 
8) so you are from uk? how are you? hello from japan! as far as i know, LS150F is a super cool limited edition model around 2005~2007? specially made by the tokai CEO & kunishi furuhashi.(the ex-tokai engineer from the 80s who was also responsible for the legendary LS320 series, now the owner of the guitar shop NEO of nagoya-japan.) when tokai had a lot of stock of the 2A grade quality figured maple which they cant use for the plaintop or 3A grade flamed top models in those days, the tokai CEO asked furuhashi for the good idea. furuhashi then came up with the idea of a very cool vintage looking figured top model based on the LS150 plaintop model and they called it LS150F. its ofcourse sold in japan and also exported. the reputation was great everywhere it really did for the great tokai name & reputation. its basically nothing but LS150 with a super cool looking maple top and the colors were probably violin finish, cherry sunburst, dark cherry sunburst, and natural! its a japan premier class model so it ofcourse came with the brown tokai hard case. some tokai forum members have it so ask for their pictures. they love it so much and you be happy to know that. congratulations for your rare LS150F!
 
:D Thank you. That's really interesting. The guitar not only looks beautiful but plays incredibly well too. I'm a lucky boy! Is there any way of finding out how many were made and do you have any idea what it is worth on the second hand market? As I said, I would never sell this guitar, I enjoy playing it too far much.
 
8) 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.
 
8) 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!
 
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?
W39q71M.jpg


Neck
JXOYkHb.jpg


Bridge
5YgEt3E.jpg
 
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.
 
8) " 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 !!!!!
 

Similar threads

A
Love letter to my Love Rock Doublecut II
Replies
1
Views
521
Sigmania
Sigmania
Sigmania
Mystery Strat
Replies
1
Views
310
Sigmania
Sigmania
M
1980 Tokai Les Paul Reborn LS-100 with Dry Z pickups
Replies
13
Views
2K
thechadz03
T
F
NGD LS196 GT
Replies
8
Views
3K
FordFanJpn
F
Voidoid56
Surprise of the year 2023: Elk Wildcat from 1965
Replies
2
Views
361
Puck Luck
Puck Luck

Latest posts

Back
Top