Tokai Love Rock & Other Japanese Les Paul copies

Never played a Tokai, but I have a 1976 Ibanez Lawsuit Les Paul Custom that I love great guitar, BUT its not a Les Paul, totally different build, pancake body, chambers etc. Fun guitar has one of the best necks  ever played but it doesn't have the same Beefy woody tone as my les paul. Great guitar none the less and I got it for next to nothing, I think it had the orginal strings on it when I got it about 10 years ago.

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Fuzzblues - Edwards makes a variety of LP clones that are all very nice guitars. Not sure what is the availability where you live (UK?) but you can find them online. Also, check the Ishibashi or Kurasawa sites. There are English language portals to those Japanese sites. In Japan, excellent Edwards LP clones can be had for around 1,000 USD (give or take a bit) (that is new, used can always be found cheaper). If you are interested in a really high end LP clone check out the Navigator series. IMO they are better made than the Gibsons. However, they are very expensive (3,500 USD and up). Both the Edwards and Navigators use Seymour Duncan pups. Great guitars. Wish they said "Gibson" on the headstock...

Link to a site advertising Edwards guitars - http://www.guitarjapan.com/edwards/index.html

Living in Japan I also see Tokai, Burney, Orville and other LP clones (actually, "Orville by Gibson" were licensed by Gibson so I presume they were not actually considered "clones"). Most are very nice. Good luck with the search.

Gibson + Marshall =

I have a Fernandes Les Paul that's about 22 years old. They were originally made in Japan and, at the time, were touted as being the next big thing after Ibanez. It has a stunning flamed Cherry Sunburst finish and the best neck I've ever played on any guitar I've had. That includes the Gibson LP Standard Plus I  have just now. Soundwise, it's a little bit brighter than the Gibson but it's a really nice guitar to play. Weightwise, it's about the same as the real thing.

They don't make them now but if you ever come across a used one you could do a lot worse. Still my favourite.

think you need a lot of money to buy a good Gibson LP these days, the lower range Gibson's to my uneducated mind (on matters of the guitar) do not appear good value, and some just don't play well.

This year we (myself and son who is the player) did the rounds of a lot of shops including Denmark Street and apart from receiving little or no advice that was of any value (some shops just don't have a clue about customer service) we concluded that there were some very good LP clones around. We made a short list and found a shop that covered the list, sat down and played them one by one. Son was adamant that the one that felt best for him was a Micheal Kelly Patriot Custom, - so despite me preferring a PRS LE he got what he wanted in black fade, and it has coil tap HB pickups so he can in some emulate the thin Fender sound on occasion, - most of his class have Fender Stat clones.

http://www.michaelkellyguitars.com/patriot_custom.html

He struggles a bit with the weight of it but as his teacher says "he will get used to it". He certainly still desires the Gibson name, but he will have to wait a few more years.

Ian

Well, I've had the tokai for 5 days now and I love it. The neck is lovely and the pickups are much better than I thought they would be. The bare Knuckle mules are on hold for now. It came with 9s so I screwed down the stop tail and fitted a set of 10s using the wrap around method. Plays better with the 10s.

One concern I had was the posts which the tunomatic bridge sits on. They look a little weak and I have already bought a heavier duty gotoh bridge which I will fit in the next few weeks. There is a little drilling to be done to the body for the bigger posts so the local guitar tech will get that job.

All in all it is a great guitar. Should I have gotten a les paul ages ago. Absolutely. I have an epi 56 gold top reissue which now has a firebird pickup in the bridge and a bigsby fitted but I could never get the sound I wanted. The tokai brings me closer and once I get a decent bridge on it I will sleep easier. The pickups no doubt will be changed at some point.

I have been saving money for ages and was going to buy a PRS David Grissom next year. I may just have to reconsider. A Bonamassa Les Paul maybe? Anyone know if they will be bringing out any burst models?

Fuzzblues (Avery pleased Tokai owner?

hey all

The tokai is an extremely good choice.. the quality of these guitars is known to be outstanding. A lot of people actually prefer the Japanese models over actual gibsons.. I own a LS125F (59' replica) and I've herd that in terms of quality its closer to the gibson historics rather than USA line..  I would say yours would be up there too!!

have fun and enjoy it

oh and a little trivia for ya... billy gibbons actually used one instead of his real 59' because he was to worried about damaging the real 59' and even SRV used tokai strats (the strat on the cover of the texas flood album is a tokai)

how about the epi elite/elitists?  i like the 2002-03's the best 

Do yourselves a favor and check out Agile Al3000 and 3100 series guitars from Rondomusic.com...