Please educate me on the new high end Love Rock range

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goddardo

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So I've been looking at LPs... The Gibson R8, the Standard and the Traditional and the more I think about having to pay big bucks for one of these, especially an R8....I'm starting to wonder if my money would be better spent on a high end Tokai, but I'm a bit confused at the range and the specs.... Please can someone enlighten me on which tokai LP I should be aspiring towards. Cheers guys
 
villager said:
an LS-320 1997-2003 is about as good as it gets.. better than an R8 by a fair way..

Yo Mark, a few hours before you posted that I was thinking the same thing.

LS-320 will get you everything for lumber spec that a late '50s Gibson has
(1) Honduran mahogany body & neck
(2) eastern hard Maple top
(3) Brazilian rosewood fingerboard
(4) BONUS = long neck tenon (which vintage Tokai LS do NOT have)

having said that my 2000 Tokai LS-320 has a thinner neck thickness which is more in line with a '60s slim taper neck :cry:

Oh well; you can't have every fvcking thing

:lol:
 
Does anyone have any info on alternative models as well. Rarity and cost might prohibit me from getting one of these
Cheers for the info so far guys
 
It's probably easier to put down what you HAVE to have on the guitar you are looking for and go from there. Do you have to have nibs ? Braz fretboard ?? Solid flame top ?? One piece back ?? There are many Tokai's that are higher quality from all time periods. If you are looking for an R8 equal Tokai as long as you can live without nibs there are many models that fit.
 
I laugh at these kind of threads when folks start comparing other guitars to Gibson.

R8 will have nibs, 1 piece body, long tenon, solid top, a newer variation of the old original without the correct timbers, or PAFs.

Yep, it's all about compromise & lying to yourself. :D
 
Some people can afford a 1958 Gibson Les Paul. Then there's the rest of us. I don't think anyone is fooling themselves.
 
Top tokai's are generally all the guitars of the Premium range. Those are starting to a fair price, actually around 168'000 yens for the LS168 you will have a simple but efficient plain top, with top construction and fairly good woods. I honestly don't see the attraction for the Honduras Mahogany. The regular african mahogany is of high quality on the Tokais. If a flamed top is important, you have the LS200 5A that is available. So not even 40'000 yens of difference and you are served.

A good plan is to search a used premium range from the early to mid 2000's. Because their sale price was lower, and so, interesting in the use market of today. A Tokai LS150 for example, was the equivalent of the actual 200. This is a price diff of around 500$. You will be able to offer good money to the seller, and in the same time, you will win some money in the process.

I made several bad experiences with Gibson guitars. I can't recommend this brand in any way. Even the RI and custom shop models that could be okay, I would be really careful not to buy them blindly, and I would not recommend them to an un-experienced buyer that can't know exactly if the guitar he's having in front of him is good or not. And in the internet age of consumption, it will probably be the case of a lot of us.

But I can recommend Tokai, Nik Huber, Jägers guitars and Warrior instruments. Those are brands that I didn't experienced a bad product of if you are willing to pay the price, and the contact I had with all of them was professional.
 

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