Love Rock materials / parts.

I would be interested to know how much the materials/parts differ from "LoveRock" to "LoveRock".
f.ex.

- microphone brands
- tuning system parts
- other electrics
- fretboards(material)
- neck(material)
- body(material)

/simo
Helsinki - Finland

[Anonymously Posted by: 'simo.seppala']

Simo,

Check out the Tokai guitars page on the main site the chart.

[Anonymously Posted by: 'Trick Fall']

Korean is Korean, Jap is Jap. When it comes to keeping its value, I'll buy Gibson, thanks. What do YOU want to buy? A diamond or a rhinestone? Tokai's are copies, pure and simple. The Jap made models may be nice, but you won't get squat on the market when you want to sell. Are you people smoking **** or what???

[Anonymously Posted by: 'paul']

Well, I've actually owned and played all of them and I do prefer Tokai. They are excellent guitars (the japanese models), I've never seen a bad Tokai but I've seen several crappy US Fenders and Gibsons! I bought my first Tokai (Love Rock) in '84 and it's better than any Gibson LP I've tried. I also had a '64 Fender Tele, but the Tokai '64 Tele replica I have today is a much better guitar! Tokais are often selling at higher prices today than many US made Fenders or Gibsons. I can't say that I like Korean guitars though, but I've never tried a korean Tokai or for example the korean PRS.

[Anonymously Posted by: 'ultra']

I saw lot of crappy Rick, Gretsch & Ibanez too over the years and as guy who worked at a dealer who sold Tokais in the 70's & 80's... hey I saw a couple of dogs there, too. Sure I'm being a dick on your home turf, but I am so amazed at guys willing to fork over $$ for imitations. I have owned over 200 guitars since the '70's and still own about 25... and some are "the real thing" and some are copies or parts guitars. But I will never tell people "hey man, this is a better guitar than..." because the truth is that its just a copy. There's no pride in owning a copy is there really? And I'll tell you guys what... my 3 LP Std.'s are going hold their value in 10 years a whole lot more than any Tokai love rock... and my Strat will be the same way, too. Seems like you guys just have a cute little support group here to keep yourselves feeling good about buying copies. That guy at Mike's Music must be laughing all the way to the bank!

[Anonymously Posted by: 'Ned']

Gibson had plenty of their 'dogs' too and I'm surprised at how many people say they have owned Tokai and Gibson and they prefer the Tokai's. It's not people 'smoking ****' either as a lot of big name players bought them too. I have no shame about buying a guitar that is only a copy when it was better in some ways to the 'real' equivalent and don't forget that Fender owners owe a lot to Tokai as Fenders of the time were getting really shoddy and they crapped themselves when the Tokai's first came out. At this point it was the Tokai's that were the diamonds. After that the quality improved but they are certainly no better than the Tokai's.

I would have bought a Gibson Les Paul if I could have afforded it but now I'm glad I didn't as I would have got absolutely nothing else for the extra money I'd have had to shell out for it! I wouldn't even have felt proud at owning a big name brand guitar as in my opinion Gibson's are just standard guitars that, unfortunately, there is nothing special about anymore. They may have smelt of class years ago but they are outperformed by many fine hand crafted guitars these days, many of which are made from finer materials, are better made and cost less money. They are rhinestone's in themselves compared to the competition. The fact that people pay big money for them is their problem as they are not worth it.

I bought my first Love Rock 14 years ago and I still have it. It is worth three times what I paid for it and is lighter than the Gibson equivalent and has a slimmer neck (i.e. not a baseball bat like the Gibson). It has also aged beautifully and one day will be vintage in it's own right. My local guitar techie, who set it up wanted it badly as it was better than his 70's Gibson LP and he isn't the only one who has been interested in it. He is no idiot either as he is involved a lot in guitar manufacture and currently makes pickups for various manufacturers. If I can't wake you up then take a look on Ed Roman's site and see what you can get for the price of a Les Paul and still have change left over from. Sadly I think they are becoming a 'has been' company who can't compete anymore in the market place. They had some very fine designs, the Les Paul will never be improved upon, but now they only survive because of the Gibson name.

This site is not a support group as no one here has any problems owning a copy. Most have had to save just to buy the cheaper Korean Tokai's, which many are happy with. You don't really expect us to buy Epiphone's instead do you? When I started playing 16 years ago I wanted a Gibson Les Paul Custom badly but 800 GBP back then was A LOT OF MONEY. I still can't afford one and I dare not even look up the current retail price. I'll have the Tokai thanks and buy extra gear with the $2000+ I've just saved.

Love them or loathe them Tokai are now a part of guitar history and it is that to which this site is devoted.

[Anonymously Posted by: 'Skybone']

Well said Rob,
I currently have five Tokai's, two of them I bought new in the 80's and three were bought used recently. I actually bought all three of them without having seen them and they all turned out to be as good as you'd expect a Tokai to be, excellent tone and sustain, wonderful necks etc. Tokai have always used high quality wood in their guitars (don't know much about the korean ones), for example all the 80's strats and teles have alder bodies. My '84 Love Rock gold top is all mahogany with a thick maple top. Before I bought it I tried a number of 70's and 80's Gibson LP's but no one sounded and felt as good as the Tokai. They were all heavier and lacked sustain.

And when it comes to copies - of course all the classic models will be copied, they are after all wonderful designs. The strat for example is in my opinion one of the best looking and most comfortable guitars made (but I really prefer a humbucker in the bridge position). It's hard to improve the original designs.

[Anonymously Posted by: 'Skybone']

Dude - I am not smoking ****, but you are certainly talking it !.
I have two Gibson guitars, and a Tokai LS70F.
The only problem I have with the Tokai, is the embarrassment when I think of how much I paid for the Gibsons. I don't care about resale value, as I will never want to sell the Tokai. Rob is right about Gibson, they are living on their past reputation, the quality of current models, is at best average, and at worst very poor, and at the price this situation is a disgrace.

[Anonymously Posted by: 'Don Keevney']