Cabe
Member
Hi to All,
I wanted to post this message just for information for others based on my experience. I accidentley stumbled onto Tokai Registry and started to read messages and research Tokai's a little. I am a big Jimmy Page fan and always wanted a Les Paul, but couldn't afford one. I play just for fun, as a hobby. I'm not that great, but I can play a few things pretty good. I currently have 2 ESP guitars, a Flying Vee and an Explorer. I also have an Epiphone cheapo SG copy and a Fender acoustic, my wife also has a Takamine acoustic. I was a little scared after reading posts of korean tokais being sold as the japanese ones (which I understand to be much better). So I finally contacted Yoshi, the guy at Guitar Universe, which I do beleive is very close to the Japanese Tokai factory. The guy was extremley nice and answered all my questions. I ordered an LS70F. Not quite sure which Les Paul this is modeled after, would be nice if someone who knew would tell me. I ordered using EMS, which is basically United States Postal Service (It was a lot cheaper than UPS). I also had it insured, just in case there was any damage in shipping. I also ordered a Tokai case to help protect it. It arrived to me in North Carolina USA in less than a week. I had to pay no additional duty fees, it just came straight to me. I was nervous when I finally recieved it. When I cut the tape from the box, inside was a kinda wild looking guitar case. It was a mottled print,kind of brown in color with orange spots on it. I picked it up and noticed a gold plate on the case with the "Tokai Love Rock model" and full company name on it. I unclicked all the latches and when I opened it I was dumbfounded. The guitar was so beautiful, I was shaking. I lifted it up....God was it heavy. And the smell of fresh polyuerethane from the new finish. The guitar is cherry sunburst with the most awesome flame job. When I first tried it, I thought it buzzed a little. But after I got home, I realized it tuned down a step or two I guess for shipping. When I tuned it to A440 everything was dead on. The action is incredible. The guitar stays in tune so good. I am so proud of my Tokai guitar. The finish is A#1, the action and quality of the hardware is the best I've seen. I'm not a collector or an agent of any guitar compnay. I'm just a regular guy and wanted to share this because I had so many questions when I was wanting to order one. Plus, I guess the yen is taking a little beating recentley, the LS70F was 480$. Shipping was about 140$. Case was about 119$ (which I am impressed with). I have NO knowledge of past guitars or Tokai's from the eighties or nothing like that. But if you want a dream guitar, they are still the best thing around.
~Cabe
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: cabe on 2002-03-11 21:25 ]</font>
I wanted to post this message just for information for others based on my experience. I accidentley stumbled onto Tokai Registry and started to read messages and research Tokai's a little. I am a big Jimmy Page fan and always wanted a Les Paul, but couldn't afford one. I play just for fun, as a hobby. I'm not that great, but I can play a few things pretty good. I currently have 2 ESP guitars, a Flying Vee and an Explorer. I also have an Epiphone cheapo SG copy and a Fender acoustic, my wife also has a Takamine acoustic. I was a little scared after reading posts of korean tokais being sold as the japanese ones (which I understand to be much better). So I finally contacted Yoshi, the guy at Guitar Universe, which I do beleive is very close to the Japanese Tokai factory. The guy was extremley nice and answered all my questions. I ordered an LS70F. Not quite sure which Les Paul this is modeled after, would be nice if someone who knew would tell me. I ordered using EMS, which is basically United States Postal Service (It was a lot cheaper than UPS). I also had it insured, just in case there was any damage in shipping. I also ordered a Tokai case to help protect it. It arrived to me in North Carolina USA in less than a week. I had to pay no additional duty fees, it just came straight to me. I was nervous when I finally recieved it. When I cut the tape from the box, inside was a kinda wild looking guitar case. It was a mottled print,kind of brown in color with orange spots on it. I picked it up and noticed a gold plate on the case with the "Tokai Love Rock model" and full company name on it. I unclicked all the latches and when I opened it I was dumbfounded. The guitar was so beautiful, I was shaking. I lifted it up....God was it heavy. And the smell of fresh polyuerethane from the new finish. The guitar is cherry sunburst with the most awesome flame job. When I first tried it, I thought it buzzed a little. But after I got home, I realized it tuned down a step or two I guess for shipping. When I tuned it to A440 everything was dead on. The action is incredible. The guitar stays in tune so good. I am so proud of my Tokai guitar. The finish is A#1, the action and quality of the hardware is the best I've seen. I'm not a collector or an agent of any guitar compnay. I'm just a regular guy and wanted to share this because I had so many questions when I was wanting to order one. Plus, I guess the yen is taking a little beating recentley, the LS70F was 480$. Shipping was about 140$. Case was about 119$ (which I am impressed with). I have NO knowledge of past guitars or Tokai's from the eighties or nothing like that. But if you want a dream guitar, they are still the best thing around.
~Cabe
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: cabe on 2002-03-11 21:25 ]</font>