LC85 or LS150

Hi there

I am new to this forum and indeed to Tokai guitars.

I have always been a Les Paul man but sold my Standard 3 years ago to pay a bill, and have been surviving on my Mex Strat ever since.

I recently played a Tokai LS150 belonging to a freind of a freind, and was amazed by how good it felt and sounded. Also the finish was flawless.

I have looked around ebay and seen a couple of models I liked the look of, and I am tempted to go for an LC85S as I really dig the custom type finish.

I noticed though that the pups are different to the ones in the LS150 though and I am just wondering if they still sound the part. They are PAFMK2 in the LC85S and Gotoh Custom PAF in the model I played.

Anyone have one of the LC85S???
Any feedback on the sounds???

Thanks all

The PAF MKIIs in my LC85S (called the LC80S when I bought it in 2005) sounded better than the Lindy Fralin PAF replicas I put in my LP Classic, and much better than any Gibson pickup I ever heard. I sold them recently, but only because I wanted the look of open black pickups to complete my Mick Ronson Tribute.

Either guitar will wow you with its quality of build and sound

The LC85 will be a poly finish tho?

Makes just about a blind bit of difference to tone. Emporers new clothes, and all that

Makes a big difference to the feel of the neck though - nitro feels vastly better to me. Also, nitro ages in the same way that the originals that are being copied used to age. So 20 years on, a nitro finished guitar will have aged better - it's as though the wood can breathe properly.

And the guitars we're discussing here are the sort of guitars that we will still want to play in 20 years, aren't they? It's nothing to do with the Emperor's new clothes - nitro is better - manufacturers wouldn't go to all the bother of using it on their top models if it wasn't.

There are manufacturers who use polyurethane in their top custom models, because they claim it's better than nitro. Both are plastic based finishes. I have never been able to hear or feel any difference in either, excepting that polyurethane is harder to mark and dries quicker. Also, people get confused between polyurethane and polyester finishes. Polyester = crap. Used on Mexican Fenders and Korean/Chinese guitars Too rigid and brittle. Drop your guitar and the paint splinters. Polyurethane, used on most Japanese guitars and USA Fenders, has give in it. It will move with the wood. Hence the reason it is used on the likes of sailing dinghies, where the wood has forces on it far greater than anything we can throw at a guitar.

Your point about the feel of the neck can be turned around. I hear lots of people complaining that Gibson nitro necks in particular have a sticky feel to them that they can't get rid of. You don't get that with polyurethane finishes.

My hands seem to sweat more with a poly finished neck - for example a Fender CIJ neck - it's almost as if the sweat gets absorbed a little by the nitro, whereas it just runs off the poly. I've never understood what people mean about a sticky nitro finish - I've never found that on many Fenders, or on my Gibson LP Special.

Bear in mind also that I hear a lot of high end Fender owners extolling the virtues of their "nitro" finished guitars, citing the usual "it lets the wood breath" quote. Strange that, considering it is a nitro top coat over polyurethane base, even on the very highest models :wink: Almost all guitars wood is sealed with sanding sealer before the finishes are applied. That stuff dries like rock, so I'm sure this pretty much stops the wood breathing at all.

A suggestion for the sticky necks could be that some peoples sweat reacts with nitro. Unlike polyurethane, it never truly dries out, so acids in the sweat could make it turn sticky.

Either way, both finishes are good for guitars. Polyester, on the other hand, is a pile of *****

BaggyPants said:

Bear in mind also that I hear a lot of high end Fender owners extolling the virtues of their "nitro" finished guitars, citing the usual "it lets the wood breath" quote. Strange that, considering it is a nitro top coat over polyurethane base, even on the very highest models :wink:

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Not true. The newer US RIs have a poly undercoat, but the older ones are all nitro. I'm not exactly sure when the change was made, but certainly my 86 and 88 Strats are all nitro, and so are the current Custom Shop Time Machine series.

stratman323 said:

Not true. The newer US RIs have a poly undercoat

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They're the ones I'm talking about. It's quite funny reading their gibberish about the nitro on them giving a better tone than the polyurethane American series and deluxe guitars, when they have a polyurethane guitar with nitro on top themselves :lol:

I feel without dought that Nitro is superiour in the tone department, & I mean all Nitro & not of the sillyness they are doing today, I love it when Nitro sucks into the grain after 20 years & on. .My Nitro 1982 Fullerton 57 RI I had was a wonderment in Strats,,only bettered by my 1976 Fernandes 72 copy. Ever Nitro LP I have is superiour to its Poly cuz. They all hang side by side & all get play time. My AM DLX strat is amazing to look at, but is a dead guitar & NO pickup is going to save it..beutifull blue trans ash, but dead, WAY to much poly, basically looks to be dipped in the shi.............thin MIJ poly guitars of old & new are nice, they seem to be able to shoot these things very thin when wanted..Basically I am in the Nitro camp, all Nitro, let it get twisted into the grain & check & all that ,,For the life of me can not understand the Nitro over poly gig..marketing ploy ....sticky Nitro..? I dunno..maybe inthe 1st week or so,,or chemical reaction with players sweat, but I have not experienced it, warmer feeling yes, sticky no, at least for me..Poly & Nitro necks are world apart IMO...I love em all, guitars that is, but boy I like Nitro, even the smell of it....

JandG, I agree with every word you said, except that I don't get this "smell of nitro" thing you mentioned - other people have mentioned it as well. Could you explain? I suppose I should know the smell, but I can't say I do, & I can't work out why I'm missing this.

You had a 1982 Fullerton RI? And you sold it? Is that one of those great regret sales? I know what you mean about the US Deluxe being dead - I've found most of the US Standard Strats to be the same.