butrus said:
LS320 from 2000
LS230 from 2007
But have seen it on other MIJ LPs too...
Before we go anywhere!!
Are they both your guitars?
If they are, one guitar with one inlay on a dried out fretboard on a guitar made 11 years ago and what looks like a picture of an LS95/135F (which looks like it could also use a drink) from the Vintage range, rather than a Premuim series LS230, are hardly enough actual physical evidence to bring the quality of Premuim Series Tokais into question.
If they are LS320 and LS230's and both yours, then maybe the question has some validity, and apart from creating or attempting to perpetuate an urban (internet) myth if they are not, is helping to spread misinformation.
There are some folk here that have seen many, many more new Japanese Tokais than me. In all honesty, I can not say I have seen and handled more than a thousand, but it is close.
Does not mean that anything I post has any more value than anybody else. It does mean that I can randomly chose 4 boxes of Japanese and check out 16 guitars.
So, in this thread, I can only post from experience, rather than photos of dubious providence.
The answer is no.
Do I get a red card, because I'm an Aussie :lol: