Joined: 15 Aug 2003 Posts: 234 Location: Hartlepool, U.K.
Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 10:48 am Post subject: Latest GAS Attack Result
After quite some time of agonizing, deliberating, pacing the floor long after midnight, and great financial sacrifice, I finally got myself a brand-spanking new Tokai Love Rock. I'm reliably informed that it's an LS80F violin finish model and I have to say that, as far as I can feel and hear, this is every bit as good as the Gibson Les Paul I owned for 10 years (my opinion, naturally - it was my cash after all ). I fully expected to have to replace the pickups but so far I have to say I'm satisfied with what came as stock. It's got that biting Beano album Les Paul sound using the bridge pickup (11.3K) and the neck pickup (7.3K) needs no encouragement at all to produce a lovely creamy Warren Haynes sound. No mud whatsoever. The only change I've made so far is to fit a Gotoh aluminium tailpiece with the strings reverse-fitted. The guitar was in dire need of a set-up but this wasn't really too much of a problem and actually, with the new Gotoh tailpiece set up as it is, it takes a fair amount of tension off the strings and the action is just perfect now. I've had it a month and I can't stop playing the thing. Checking inside the cavity for the tone and volume pots I noticed that the Tokai people had done a really good job. Top notch soldering and wiring. I'm very impressed (but then again, I'm at a funny age)
Anyway, see what you think of her (the violin finish has a reddish tinge on the photos which isn't there in the flesh - er - wood. It's more of a natual honey colour): http://s113.photobucket.com/albums/n223/nineacres/ _________________ "Creativeness often consists of merely turning up what is already there. Did you know that right and left shoes were only thought up a little more than a century ago?" - Bernice Fitz-Gibbon 1894-1982
Joined: 15 Aug 2003 Posts: 234 Location: Hartlepool, U.K.
Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 1:57 am Post subject:
Thanks for the compliments, guys. But really the credit goes to the clever chaps at Tokai who made the guitar ...
Ron - isn't it strange, I've always been drawn to Les Pauls ever since I saw Eric Clapton with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers at the KD Club in Billingham, on Teesside back in April of 1966. Since then I've always had that Les Paul sound in my head, and even now, when listing to that early, dare I say, primitive Clapton sound, I still get goosebumps. I reckon that whatever guitar sound linked to whatever significant musical experience started it all off for you never leaves you. You always go back to it - well, at least that's true for me. I own a Strat and really enjoy playing it, and I like the sounds I can get out of it, but, as mentioned by Aeolian recently, I've always found that in a live situation, the Strat tends to sound thin and somehow weak. Clearly, there is a lot of difference between the two guitars, but I was wondering, how do you Strat guys feel about this, and what steps have you taken to resolve this (if in fact you feel there is even such a problem ) _________________ "Creativeness often consists of merely turning up what is already there. Did you know that right and left shoes were only thought up a little more than a century ago?" - Bernice Fitz-Gibbon 1894-1982
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). I fully expected to have to replace the pickups but so far I have to say I'm satisfied with what came as stock. It's got that biting Beano album Les Paul sound using the bridge pickup (11.3K) and the neck pickup (7.3K) needs no encouragement at all to produce a lovely creamy Warren Haynes sound. No mud whatsoever. The only change I've made so far is to fit a Gotoh aluminium tailpiece with the strings reverse-fitted. The guitar was in dire need of a set-up but this wasn't really too much of a problem and actually, with the new Gotoh tailpiece set up as it is, it takes a fair amount of tension off the strings and the action is just perfect now. I've had it a month and I can't stop playing the thing. Checking inside the cavity for the tone and volume pots I noticed that the Tokai people had done a really good job. Top notch soldering and wiring. I'm very impressed (but then again, I'm at a funny age)
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