Happy new Tokai ES158 day to me!!!!

ezietsman

I only have a potato quality picture-taking device right now, so here's something else to tease the tastebuds until I get my grubby paws on a real camera later, at home.

This is my actual guitar, but I didn't take the photo ?

proze

SG incoming!

ezietsman

For those scallywags who know, don't spoil it now.

rikus

I don't lean enough in that direction to tell from the headstock, but it's a Tokai with an open book headstock, so it'll be a stunner I'm sure... ?

ezietsman

Here you go. One pic. Need to play. Will take more for you later ?

Tokai ES 158 with flame maple top, back, and sides. Also, CTS pots, aluminium tailpice, Tokai Mk II pickups, nitro lacquer and, most importantly, finished in the only colour suitable for this kind of guitar ?

studmissile

wow!

Danny-B

most beautiful, mazels

morph

Beeootifuul ?

proze

Ah. lovely! I thought it was only the SGs with the flowerpot. So you learns...

ezietsman

Honeymoon and all that BUT, this guitar is badass as fvck.

Of course I'll have to gather all my patience and wit and change the wiring to 50s spec. This will involve fishing out the electronics through the F-hole, making the change and doing all that in reverse without dropping anything into the guitar, which will lead to a severe deterioration of my language. These guitars don't have access panels on the back like most.

Also, I'm going to change the amber knobs to black and silver reflectors.

el-guapo

Biiiiiitching!

Wow, she is a stunner. ?

el-guapo

Prettier than her cousin, too!

ezietsman

el guapo wrote: Prettier than her cousin, too!

Yeah, this one definitely stood in the front of the queue when looks were being handed out. Haha.

ezietsman

Here's some more for ya. The new red machine with another red machine. They like each other.

aubs1

Congrats EZ ...... that's so cool.

PeteM

:yup:

Chabenda

Very nice indeed! ?

morph

ez wrote:
Of course I'll have to gather all my patience and wit and change the wiring to 50s spec.

What is the difference between the current and 50's wiring spec?

ezietsman

Greg Perkins wrote:
ez wrote:
Of course I'll have to gather all my patience and wit and change the wiring to 50s spec.
What is the difference between the current and 50's wiring spec?

With the modern wiring scheme most guitars have the tone control is wired before the volume control, this however causes the volume and tone circuits to act like a low pass filter. So, when the volume is turned to 10, the cutoff frequency is at some high value such that all the audible frequencies from the guitar is let through to the amp, but when you turn the volume down that cutoff frequency quickly moves into the audible range, and it is quite low when the volume is at its minimum. With the 50s spec, the volume is wired before the tone circuit, so you do not get the treble loss but you now have the volume control interacting with the tone control, the tone circuit's sweep is different at different volume settings.

The end result of the 50s wiring is that you can turn your dirty amp into a clean amp by turning the volume on the guitar down, without sacrificing all your trebles. This is nice. Not everyone likes this but I really do. The other option is a treble bleed circuit instead but that's a bit more fiddly to install.

singemonkey

It's a necessity, IMO, if you control your drive with the guitar's volume controls. You do not want your tone to thicken up when you're trying to go clean. You want to go from clear, defined driving lead to bright, springy cleans.

I don't even understand why modern wiring is still preferred. I guess if you keep your volumes on 10 at all times you may never notice.

I should mention that, even by Tokai's high standards, EZ's new guitar is killer. It's a joy to play and sounds like a R50k guitar. The amount of vibration going through to the headstock is astonishing. So jealous. >☹