RobRam wrote:
What would you consider as a "good price" for a tokai love rock? ?
http://www.gumtree.co.za/cp-musical-instruments-in-eastern-pretoria/tokai-vintage-series-loverock-ls-92-guitar-435201481
This is pretty decent. R7500
There are a couple of ranges in the Love Rock series.
The Vintage series, like the one above (same as mine) is slightly lower spec'd than the premium series. I'll try and summarise:
Vintage:
- Made in Japan
- Multi-piece (2 or 3) but solid mahogany body
- Standard heavy hardware
- Polyurethane finish
- solid maple cap, flame veneer on the flamey ones - I think
- run of the mill capacitors, Gotoh pots (on mine)
- MkII pickups - on the humbucker models
These retail for around R11k last I saw (so you could prob walk away with one for about R9k or R10k new)
Premium:
- Made in Japan
- Single piece solid back
- Solid flame maple cap on the F models
- lightweight Alu hardware
- Nitro finish
- Orange drop caps, CTS pots
- MkII pickups - on the humbucker models
- Comes with hardcase - I think
Edit: Basically the same specs as a Custom Shop Gibson R8 / R9 but at half the price and a silly name on the headstock
These retail for about R16k, walk away for about R12k - R14k I would guess.
There's also the Traditional series which are the Chinese made models and they cater for the same market as Epiphones. I have no experience with these.
I have looked and played a whole lot of them and haven't seen a flaw on any new one, except for a setup that needed tweaking. They're all great, some are truly spectacular (like Singemonkey's LS150). I probably left out some details. TokaiSA is prob not allowed to post but maybe Singemonkey can add something in.
They're a bit heavier than most Gibsons you pick up in the shop because they're solid and doesn't have any 'resonance chambers' or 'weight relief'.
Edit: My retail price estimates may be a touch low, haven't been to a shop in a good while