New to this board

Hello everybody !
I have just recieved my ?85 LS80 directly from Japan. I am not new to tokai, as I had a Limited edition "super-strat" in the mid eighties ( sold to buy american guitars we all thought was better....), and my brother had a few, early 80?s Springy sound and two 80?s Love Rocks. My youngest brother has one of the Love Rock?s still (?82 LS50), But I do not know where the others went.

Through the years I have been lucky to find several vintage guitars at low prices, and still own the most of them, I have even built myself six electrics that I have been playing the last ten years. The last three years I have been collecting vintage Boogie Mark series amps, and probably wil continue with that for a while.

When I started to watch out for Tokais on Ebay I decided I just had to have one. I saved up some money, and decided to get one for christmas. It arrived yesterday, and what a guitar

While the guitar was in the air, I spent my days looking for info, and found this site. I have spent hours reading through most earlier posts, and learnt a lot ! I decided to become a member today.... so here I am !

Merry christmas everybody !

null

Welcome to the board.

Hi Loverocker UK !
The LS80 was bought from "Katana". It seems to have a One piece back and neck ?cept for wings on the headstock. Frets are laying over the binding, unlike the high end models, but actually that is how I prefer things. The top is a light but tight pinstripe flame pattern, and the grain is straight to appear quater-sawn. The ebay info said nitro finish, but it certainly is not. But I alredy knew that when I placed the bid. Would be great to get a real battered one and make a nitro refinish....

It is actually easy to stain a good sunburst if you rub in the red/brown with a cloth from an old t-shirt... Just practice on scrap wood until you know how you want it ! I usually use a swedish brand "Herdins" stains. just blend the powder with boiling water... The red is actually spot on gibson Cherry, and the yellow is like certain PRS tops...you know... blend some orange and rub on your desired burst... If you want brown blend a very light one ! Thats the easy and fun part. Adding and polishing the nitro laquer is the hard work... But the relic fashion actuallly makes it less hard .

For the Booge part... I also started out with a mk3, and had a hard time. I still have it, and use it occationally. Speaker is the macic point. The stock EV alone Can be pretty harsh and "pointy", but works great together with a Celestion. I have one in a homemade copy of mesas ported Thiele design 1x12" cab, and use this with any of my boogies. I don?t know what you play, but the trick is to turn down things a bit, as it is very easy to use all that gain in there just because its there, especially the volume 1. Most people use the "Sweet spot" around 7... turn down to 4 or 5, and take the rest from there. It makes the rythm 2 more useable, and you still have lots of power for your lead. I use treb. around 7, Bass around 5 and vary mid from 0-3. Finetune with precence. Can sound strange without EQ (trad V ) on, but if you turn it on things should work for classic rock. Just my opinion , but give it a try. Mine is a simul class though (15w class A or 75w class A / AB).

Just remember that the amp was designed in the heavy metal days, and that classic HM, really clean country and jazz is what it does best. If you want that vibrant classic "omph" you will find it, but not at once like an early Fender or Marshall, or the mark 1... they are very different amps ! But again try different speakers !

By the way, does yours have an export power transformer ?

How do I add pictures in these posts ? I do not have a URL to use.

Merry Christmas !

Stian

Head over to the main site (www.tokairegistry.com) and check out the pictures page, there are instructions on how to send you pics in.

Ned