NGD - Tokai 165LS Goldtop with P90's

  • Hi all,


    I ordered a Tokai from Lance just over a week ago. Today I had a knock on the door today and the postman kindly brought me this:-


    [Blocked Image: http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a634/Gary_W_/IMG_2726_zps0vs60hrq.jpg]


    Alas, work beckoned so I've had less time with her today than I'd have liked. I got a few more pics whilst the sun was actually shining:-


    [Blocked Image: http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a634/Gary_W_/IMG_2296_zpsjqnzusts.jpg]


    [Blocked Image: http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a634/Gary_W_/IMG_2297_zps9lk4zbwh.jpg]


    My wife is away this week and I hate dining alone so she joined me for dinner. Yes, I do go a bit strange in the house by myself :S


    [Blocked Image: http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a634/Gary_W_/IMG_2737_zps7euych5l.jpg]


    And after that we had a couple of hours together. She needs to settle in for a few days so a completely fair / full assessment isn't possible right now but first impressions are very favourable. Neck feels lovely..... the setup is great (it's moved a little since this morning as it's getting used to the climate but so far so good and, considering it's been half way round the world, I'm amazed at how well it plays). I can see what the fuss is about in terms of the fit / finish (this is my first Tokai). Sound-wise, this is really nice.... Nice ring to it unplugged. With the Kemper, you've got jangle through to anger via lots of cool stuff in between. And she's a real looker. A bit of hiss and hum but these are P90's so 'par for the course' on that score. Output of the neck seems a little hotter than my PRS Stripped '58, output of the bridge seems a little lower than the PRS. Of course, the frequency range differs from that guitar and it's enough of a difference to keep these two from crossing swords. They're both doing their own thing which is nice!


    Loads of profiles sounded great - she seems to have a real thing for MBritt's A-Hole :whistling::D


    Many thanks for all your help and for getting this here so quickly, Lance - your reputation is well deserved. First impressions are that this is a lovely instrument :thumbup:

  • Now that's what I call a guy who treats his new guitar like a lady, wines and dines her on the first date. :thumbup:


    Great photos, she looks beautiful.


    Remember Michael Britt uses his P90 Tom Anderson to make all his Profiles, no surprise his Profiles sound just right.
    All the best with the guitar, I think you're going to fall in love big time with this babe. :)

  • Very nice. Personally, I'm not a fan of P90's - but I love goldtops.
    I recently acquired a Tokai LC200 from Lance - and it is a perfect guitar. For me there's no comparison to the US made brand.
    I've owned several G's over the years - the attention to detail on the Tokai is just superb. They are flawless guitars.
    In fact, I love my 2 Tokais (also have a LS-100F) so much, that I have a third one on order with Lance.

  • I saw the LC200 Black and Gold monster on here and dribbled a little - it looks lovely. What colour is your LS-100? And what have you got on order?


    For P90's, I get where you're coming from. They have their own unique thing going on which you either like or you don't :) I happen to love that sound but then again my taste in pickups is towards the vintage / low output end rather than the high output stuff....


    And Lance is right about the M-Britts; I liked them a lot anyway and this guitar seems to enjoy them. Growly when pushed and on the lower gain ones this sounds jangly / twangy rather than plinky :)

  • Lovely guitar Gary. I love a good goldtop. Just a classy classic look imo.


    I've played a few Tokai's (and own a Loverock LP) and have always been blown away by the build quality, finish and feel. Have been less impressed by their stock pickups though (only played the humbuckers). How do the stock P-90's sound?


    Also, you may have just inspired me to put a bit more effort into my dinners. Not a result I expected from browsing the Kemper forums! :)

  • I saw the LC200 Black and Gold monster on here and dribbled a little - it looks lovely. What colour is your LS-100? And what have you got on order?


    The LS-100 has an Iced Tea finish.
    The guitar I have on order with Lance is a quilt top in Heritage Dark Cherry with Honduran Mahogany body and neck and a Madagascar Rosewood board - really looking forward to this one :)


    Congrats on the goldtop. FOr me it was a close call between the goldtop and the QUilty Dark Cherry

  • Schneidas - thanks for the reply. Just looked up the Ice Tea finish.... Very nice and I bet the Dark Cherry is going to be a stunner.


    apr13st - no idea I'm afraid but I'm sure you'll get an answer from others here in the know :)


    Ingolf and rothko61 - many thanks for your replies. Happy bunny here.


    greenblob - regarding the pickups, it's always soooo hard to say. With any guitar IMO a pickup change will for sure make it sound different but whether that's different in the right direction or not is a closer call!!


    I've replaced pickups in other guitars and mostly it's been an improvement but I've also had the experience of spending money to move sideways - it sounded 'different' not 'better'. On this Goldtop, they are sounding really nice to me but of course I wouldn't be able to tell you whether they're doing the guitar its full justice or not unless I paid a boutique guy to wind me a set and then a/b'd them. I've done just that with a Godin I have because the pickups were (for my taste) way too hot and just spoilt the character of the guitar. For me, the improvement with that guitar was vast but I guess for the shredders? I would have spoilt the guitar by turning it 'vintage'.


    The only guitar I've had where I haven't, for a second, thought about switching the pickups is my PRS Stripped '58. For my taste they are perfect. All other guitars, you wonder :) Most I haven't gone through with it but you always wonder for sure if the pickup does the guitar justice.


    I need a bit more time with these before calling it..... There were some profiles last night where I thought 'that's a bit muddy' on the neck. Guess what? I swapped to my Stripped '58 and it was a bit muddy on the neck of my PRS as well and that thing is very, very clear..... Changing to a more appropriate amp profile, the Goldtop neck sounded amazing. So it's too soon to call 100% but so far, no immediate urge to push the 'buy it now' button on a new set as the sounds have been very pleasing :)


    Lance - a question for you if I may. The Vintage series Goldtop has 'LP Old' pickups. This Premium series has 'LP Old MK1'. Million dollar question for the curious is 'what's the difference?'


    As to the food - if only my ability on the guitar was as good as my cooking :) My wife and I have been together for 27 years now and, when we first moved in together, I started work pretty early and got home before she did. So, in our freezing flat, I learned to cook. If you like eating good food and you have to cook to impress your new lady, you get pretty good at it in a short timescale. I'm guessing if I had to play guitar to eat I'd get better at that too ;)


    My wife is visiting relatives with our daughters this week and she's not a seafood fan. She also struggles with the amount of chilli I enjoy so the plan for this week is cooking anything with enough chilli to kill a horse and then putting in half the fish counter from the supermarket. I then follow that with making as much noise as possible in my little studio room. I don't go in the living room at all - the TV doesn't get a look in :D

  • Gary


    I have no idea what the actual technical differences are between the Premium Series and Vintage Series P90s...MK1 is apparently better than MK2 in the P90 range.
    I can count on one hand how many people I know who have changed the stock Tokai pickups on any made in Japan Tokai model...the MK11 humbuckers sound awesome.


    You'll notice a few 'Custom' specs on your guitar that makes it very unique.
    The "Reborn Old" on the headstock is done for me by special request, usually it has 'Love Rock' on the headstock.
    The frets are also a custom spec they do for me, it's a larger fret than regular 'Vintage Frets'....much more comfortable to play...it's a 6100/6105 fret size.

  • You'll notice a few 'Custom' specs on your guitar that makes it very unique.
    The "Reborn Old" on the headstock is done for me by special request, usually it has 'Love Rock' on the headstock.
    The frets are also a custom spec they do for me, it's a larger fret than regular 'Vintage Frets'....much more comfortable to play...it's a 6100/6105 fret size.


    Wow - thank you :) I knew the headstock looked cool and I knew they usually said 'Love Rock' so I must admit it was a nice surprise that it looks like this


    [Blocked Image: http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a634/Gary_W_/IMG_2294_zpspaylpve6.jpg]


    As to the frets? You must be a mind reader if these are your doing as they are certainly to my taste. Thanks again :)


    No plans on changing the pickups - having a quick break from playing at the moment and it's hard to get a bad sound out of it when you combine it with the Kemper.

  • I wanted to follow up on my early impressions of this guitar as it's lived here for nearly 3 weeks now and I've spent a fair bit of time with it.


    I absolutely love it in terms of playability / feel - it's a lovely, lovely neck that feels just right. It's a heavy guitar but then again it's basically a Les Paul so me stating that it's heavy is as obvious as stating that it rains in England ;)


    Unplugged, the instrument sounds interesting...... there are some nice little harmonic overtones you can hear if you put your ear near the neck and they are in different registers to my PRS which is good - that guitar is a lovely player too so this one needed to be a great player but a different sounder and it is :)


    Plugged in, the P90's are fabulous when paired with the 'right' profile. And there are lots of 'right' profiles. I seem to be having most luck with the M-Britts with this guitar - maybe that's because he also uses a P90 equipped guitar when he profiles / refines? I don't know. But the Friedman A-Hole 1 is a particular favourite (noisy bugger but I'll forgive it!). And the Little Walter? Wow. Good fun has also been had with a stomp box I made a couple of years ago which is based on the Analogman Sun-Lion (it's a vintage Germanium Fuzz Face in the same box as a Germanium RangeMaster treble booster). That plus a 'just breaking up' Marshall profile plus the P90's sounds pretty immense. Yes, it sounds immense with humbuckers too but these things are more focussed in certain directions. Sometimes humbuckers will do a better job, sometimes it's these. Just different flavours of great fun.


    Another nice thing? The interactivity of the tone pots and the volume pots. On a two humbucker guitar, I'm generally guilty of flipping between bridge and neck, ignoring the middle position for the simple reason that however good it sounds, it doesn't sound as good as either 'neck along' or 'bridge alone'. The weird thing on here is that with volumes maxed out I agree with my usual findings - it sounds good but it gets bypassed. What is really nice is the middle pickup with volumes rolled back in an unequal manner. Neck on 7, bridge on 5 for instance, gives some really interesting tones. The tone controls are also very nice - they're actually worth playing with and that isn't the case on every guitar I've ever played as some aren't worth having on anything but 10 :)


    So overall I'm a very happy customer. If you are in the market for a P90 equipped guitar and you like the Les Paul body shape, it's well worth considering one of these. The quality, sounds and playability are really impressive.

  • Glad to hear you're loving the guitar, Gary...and glad to hear you're comparing it to your PRS. :)


    Keep in mind.
    In most countries of the world, definitely the USA, you can't go into a music store and play a Tokai alongside a PRS, Tom Anderson or G.
    In my country you can, and never once has a Tokai fallen short against any of the big boys, in fact quite the opposite.


    Fewer and fewer guitars are being made in Japan these days, the famous old Japanese manufactures don't exist any more and the modern newer Japanese manufacturers make very few models in Japan.
    Tokai on the other hand are still a family owned business, always have been, still operating in the original factory opened in 1947.

  • Just an update.


    I have some new beauts in stock with custom specs specifically made for me by Tokai Japan.


    LC136E (Ebony fretboards) "Customs" in Black, Wine Red & White

    LSS124 "Reborn Old Special" in Wine Red & Vintage Blonde

    LS132S P90 Gold Top


  • Here's a Kemper demo we did using the LC136E "Custom" and LSS124 "Reborn Old Special".


    External Content www.youtube.com
    Content embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.
    Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.