NGD 1981 LS-120 Solid Top

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Pegcityrocker

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Just got this 81 LS-120 with solid birdseye flametop back from Luthier. It had a headstock break and he repaired it, and refinished the entire neck. It's got one of the coolest solid flametops and the color is my personal favorite. I couldn't resist. I took the circuit board out and wired it up with 50's wiring. The Dimarzio PAF's sound great - I had to source these separately as it had a set of non-original pickups in it when i got it.









 
Wow. Very similar. I wonder what the difference between the 100's and solid topped 120's was? I think they both had dimaezio paf's.
 
Pegcityrocker said:
Wow. Very similar. I wonder what the difference between the 100's and solid topped 120's was? I think they both had dimaezio paf's.

?20,000 hahaha
 
A question I've asked on mine as well, with a circuit board but no decal ...



I don't think it would be weight, because there are LS-150's + LS-200's ranging from about 3.85 kilos - 4.6 kilos. (~8.5lbs to about 10 lbs)

Pegcityrocker, does yours have a 120 decal or are you basing the model number on the seller's description ?
 
Mine doesn't have a sticker as it has had a headstock repair. The seller thought it was an LS100 but the case it came in had a label that read "1981 Tokai LS120". It could be either I guess???
 
I wouldn't be at all surprised if most, (or even all) of the reported 1980-83 solid topped LS-120s were in fact LS-100s.
I haven't found any solid top examples with model # decals, and there were none reported with earlier fretboard stamps.

edit: I did eventually find pics of a 1981 LS-120 solid top with a decal,
so a very small number do indeed exist, including a few 1984 non-catalog examples.
 
So there are no documented solid flame topped LS120's with the decal still intact or a model number stamped on the fretboard? That is very interesting!

What I find crazy is the kind of guitar that you could get for 100,000 yen in the late 70's, early 80's from Tokai. I mean what kind of coin would you have to drop for an equivalent Greco or Burny? EGF-1800? FLG-150?
 
There may be a few, as MIJ exceptions do come up often,
but I haven't found conclusive proof of solid top LS-120's outside of a few 1984 non catalog examples I have found.

These figured solid top examples were pretty uncommon and rarely offered for sale, so confusion surrounding them is not at all surprising.

How much simpler things would have been if Tokai had continued to stamp model #'s somewhere, instead of switching to removable decals. :)

All personal opinions ... YRMV
 
Beautiful top and colour! Would like to have one like that but my Cherryburst '79 will have to do.

Villager has a 1982 LS120 Solid Top on his site.
 

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