Hello everyone,
I bought a rather sad-looking Korean Love Rock on eBay some time ago. This guitar has had quite a hard life, an ideal project guitar. I was looking for a guitar that I could upgrade on a budget, so really perfect for my needs.
When I started to look for information about these guitars, I was quite astonished with the lack of knowledge on guitar forums; many people owned Tokai guitars on these forums, but knowledge is so very scanty.
I think my guitar was made around 2003, judging by the guidelines laid down on this forum, although it looks 'much' older; truss rod cover and 'Made in Korea' stamped on the back of the headstock; however, it doesn't have a dimple on the open-book headstock, which is a little odd. A model made exclusively for the local market and not for export?
Does anyone know 'anything' about the pickups that came with this guitar? The catalogues for the 2003 period list the pickups as PAF Vintage Mk4, but what are the specifications for these pickups?
They have chromium-plated covers:
The baseplate of one has 'F' stamped on it, with a grey wire, the other 'R' with a blue wire (front & rear - Neck & Bridge?
On removing the cover, one thing becomes apparent, a huge amount of wax used in the potting:
Also, 2 spacer bars and a very dark magnet, would this be a ceramic magnet?
Does anyone know where these pickups were made and by which factory? I thought that being Korean, they might be made by G&B, a large pickup maker, but I have doubts about this. A post on one forum suggests that the PAF Vintage Mk4 are the same pickups as the 50's Classic fitted to Korean Epiphone's?
I'm thinking of changing the covers to thinner ones made of nickel and if the original magnets are ceramic or even Alnico 5, perhaps changing them to Alnico 2 in the bridge and 3 in the neck? I'm just wondering if anyone here has tried upgrading them in any way? Are they even worth upgrading?
Sorry, lots of questions...!
I bought a rather sad-looking Korean Love Rock on eBay some time ago. This guitar has had quite a hard life, an ideal project guitar. I was looking for a guitar that I could upgrade on a budget, so really perfect for my needs.
When I started to look for information about these guitars, I was quite astonished with the lack of knowledge on guitar forums; many people owned Tokai guitars on these forums, but knowledge is so very scanty.
I think my guitar was made around 2003, judging by the guidelines laid down on this forum, although it looks 'much' older; truss rod cover and 'Made in Korea' stamped on the back of the headstock; however, it doesn't have a dimple on the open-book headstock, which is a little odd. A model made exclusively for the local market and not for export?
Does anyone know 'anything' about the pickups that came with this guitar? The catalogues for the 2003 period list the pickups as PAF Vintage Mk4, but what are the specifications for these pickups?
They have chromium-plated covers:
The baseplate of one has 'F' stamped on it, with a grey wire, the other 'R' with a blue wire (front & rear - Neck & Bridge?
On removing the cover, one thing becomes apparent, a huge amount of wax used in the potting:
Also, 2 spacer bars and a very dark magnet, would this be a ceramic magnet?
Does anyone know where these pickups were made and by which factory? I thought that being Korean, they might be made by G&B, a large pickup maker, but I have doubts about this. A post on one forum suggests that the PAF Vintage Mk4 are the same pickups as the 50's Classic fitted to Korean Epiphone's?
I'm thinking of changing the covers to thinner ones made of nickel and if the original magnets are ceramic or even Alnico 5, perhaps changing them to Alnico 2 in the bridge and 3 in the neck? I'm just wondering if anyone here has tried upgrading them in any way? Are they even worth upgrading?
Sorry, lots of questions...!