Product: Tokai Cat's Eyes CEV290-OM
Price Paid: GBP 900
Submitted
11/25/2007
at
02:09am
by
Graham
Email: berenbaby<at>aol dot com
Features
:
9
This is an OM guitar. A replica of some vintage Martin, I think.
It is all solid woods. Spruce top, rosewood back and sides. Rosewood fingerboard and bridge. Tortoishell(like) scratchplate.
Soundhole rosette, floral head decor and fret markers are in abalone.
With herringbone decor around the perimeter of the soundboard.
Body, neck and head are all trimmed in white.
It has open, vintage Waverley tuners.
Sound
:
10
This guitar has a genuine, tight Martinesque OM sound. Very punchy, with rich, harmonic overtones. It sounds great with new, and more importanatly, old strings.
It really has an individual tone that suits finger and flatpicking. It's rich harmonic sounds, sound very good solo and it's tight, punchy tone fits in perfectly with ensemble playing.
Hard to fault really.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
9
Came very well set up from the shop. The 11-52 strings may seem overly light to some but this guitar is so solid, tonally; they suit perfectly.
The overall finish is of a very high standard.
Reliability/Durability
:
9
This is one solid guitar. The standard of materials and manufacture is of the highest quality.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
N/A
Overall Rating
:
10
The Cat's Eyes guitars are handmade (in Japan) Tokais and it shows with this beauty. It is almost certainly an homage to some Martin model. Which? I don't know. But I've played enough Martins to know that this baby is well up to Martin standard.
It's detailing, build quality, individual tone and playability are of the highest standard. The other OM I own, is a Yamaha LS500. Which, I suppose, could be seen as Yamaha's equivalant of the Cat's Eyes series. Both are fantastic, OM style guitars, yet so different.
The Yamaha has a sweet, vibrant tone and is slightly easier to play.
The Cat's Eyes is strong and rich and is slightly better for fingerpicking. If I were to compare them to drink. Then the Yamaha would be a top Champagne and the Cat's Eyes, a single malt whisky.
I@ve been playing well over 30 years and play mainly folk/world music influenced, acoustic rock. I've recently culled my acoustic guitar collection from 9 to 4. This Cat's Eyes is a manstay of my more streamlined selection. Love it.
