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This is correct. Same thing happened on my 03 LS80... twice. Because of the Tokai top carve (which is 'historically correct') I'm not sure if it's a good idea to replace them with radiused rings, though; the carve in the rings will most likely be too strong fro the relatively flat top carve (so...

I agree. I was never satisfied with the bridge Gotoh on my 03 LS80, but I think the neck model sounds great, especially clean. In fact, I'm using the Gotoh in the neck at the moment and I have no intention of changing it - and this guitar was loaded with Timbuckers before. The pots are quite...

Factory strings on my 2003 LS80F were definitely 9s. Switched to 10s straight away, which is what I've been using since.

Nah the hardware is all stock (at the moment the entire guitar is stock, with the exception of the pots+caps and the bridge pickup, which is a Wolfetone Marshallhead). By the way, as far as I know even the glossy new Japanese Tokais come with nickel hardware.

Thanks for the comments! Hans-J?rgen: the hardware is nickel.

Saw someone here earlier who wanted pictures of a matte LS80 or -85. I think another member posted some photos of a very nice matte cherry sunburst LS80, but since there aren't that many pictures around of satin Tokais around I thought I'd add some pictures of Matte Violin Finish (MVF) . It's...

Solone: the newer PAF Mk2's are wax-potted. Yours (a 2002 by the looks of it) will probably be potted as well. They are decent pickups (especially the neck isn't half bad), but replacing them with something better can truly be worthwhile.

JSD is correct. I wonder why Mike's Music continues to mislead customers by mentioning Tokai in every guitar auction he posts on eBay. Crafter, Renegade, everything has "Tokai" in the auction title. Bad business practice as far as I'm concerned :-?

I think only the english importer calls them USG (just as they call the LS models ALS). For the Japanese market they're still called the SG 70 as far as I know. This is the same guitar as the SG 60, until the MSRP of the entire Tokai line was raised slightly and the model numbers changed along...

A friend of mine has Mighty Mite in a Cort Strat he owns. They sound ok-ish... a bit flat and dull to my ears. Based on that, I wouldn't spend more than $30-35 on a pair of Mighty Mite humbuckers.' I have heard some good things about GFS Pickups, though. Guitarfetishstore sells them on eBay...

I don't know how much you're looking to spend, but if I were you, I wouldn't bother with the Epi or Tokai pickups - unless you can get them very, very cheap. There's many great second hand deals to be had on eBay for great pickups, or you could go 'adventurous' and have someone like HighOrder...

Sorry, can't help you :( All I know is that I don't really like the Mk2s. The neck model is ok, but I don't like the bridge version at all. Big improvements can be made to Japanese Love Rocks by taking hte Mk2s out and replacing them with something else, unfortunately.

Looks like a 96 SG60 to me (though I didn't know Tokai put "Made in Japan" stickers on them back then). List price for those is 70.000 Yen these days, if I'm not mistaken. Price in stores should be 10-20% less.

It's Korean, which is why it doesn't have a serial (I think Koreans only got a serial in 2002 or 2003, so yours is older than that). Looks very nice, though :)

I think it's the only way, really. You might also ant to consider the influence of string height on the tone of the guitar (higher strings tends to equate to a slightly nicer tone, though that hardly helps if it makes the guitar unplayable :)) Basically they're just getting louder or softer...

How's that a fraud? Looks like regular Korean Tokais to me. The only questionable thing in the auction that I can see, is this statement: "ALL DUTY AND CUSTOM CHARGES ARE COVERED IN THE PRICE AND BY OUR COURIER!". Very hard to believe.

I just rewired my 03 LS80F completely with normal shaft CTS pots (audio taper). Those are the ones to get, though I should note that you can expect to do some slight work to get them in: The holes in the top of the Tokai are too narrow to fit the CTS pots, so I used my Dremel to ream them out...

I think your best bet is through a dealer. Most people here have had a hard time getting a reply to e-mails from the Tokai factory, though Luis (also a forum member) has been able to contact them in the past to order his LS-320s. He's also had a tour of the factory, so maybe it's best to wait...

It's indeed still in operation :)

I'm not an expert, but that doesn't look like a Tokai to me. The head stock looks off and slightly too big (especially if it's supposed to be 60s style, which it looks like with the truss rod adjustment at the heel) and the bridge doesn't look like a Tokai. I could be completely wrong, though.