Eastwood Guitars Hummingbird Tokai Reissue

i got an eastwood hummingbird build in 2007 with great indigo finish,
p90s maple neck and rosewood fingerboard. 3way toggle switch.
just basic, but its ok.

the p90 sound great, they are noiseless and got a lot of power,
but i going to place a humbucker to the bridge.
i just need an easy feetback response, the p90 got that too but just to little

perfect set up, even after a flight from england to austria the guitar was in tune,

i going to use the guitar for live, but it will be hard for her to become number one,
i got a restored vintage vox phantom which is my main guitar, a vox teartrop which is my spare.
i have 2 vintage hagstoms ( a III and a deluxe),
a 73 fender tele and a 85 fender strat from japan with a tokai breezy sound neck.
that will be some kind of competition.

the hardware is fine but i dont trust the original tuners. will see if i have to replace them with locks
then i have to get used to that jumbo frets.
the rollerbidge seems to be fine, the vibrato too

bought it on ebay, its from bens strange guitarscouk in england.
nice guy, refund me some money because there are 3 scraches on the backside

im playing since 20 years,
i choose this guitar because i like 60s gear,
im playing in a garage psychedelic band called the parascopes and the guitar looks perfect in our shows

This Eastwood Hummingbird is a beautiful instrument! The setup is fairly simple - 2 pickups with a 3 way switch, 1 volume knob and 1 tone knob. 22 frets plus the zero-fret. I ordered online and could have chosen red, blue or black, but I chose the black because it looks so good with the pearloid pickguard. The body style and headstock are both totally unique and the feedback I've gotten after playing only 2 shows with it so far is "bad-ass" and "horny" (because of the ridiculously long horns). It's kind of like an SG, but in italics. This guitar requires an extra-long case, but I picked that up with the deal.

My only complaints about it are that the 3-way switch gets in the way when I'm strumming fast hard chords, the strap button is situated underneath the top horn (it's quite functional, it just looks a little goofy) and my high e-string tends to come out of it's saddle when I pick it too hard (probably a fault with my playing more than anything).

This guitar sounds great. I use it live and I plan on using it in the studio when we record our album. All three settings sound clear and the tone settings give this instrument beautiful dynamics. The P-90 pickups are a great choice for this guitar and I would not replace them.

I play through an old Yamaha Hundred 115 amp (solid state) and I also use both a Boss X-Tortion pedal and a Boss Digital Delay Pedal and, after a little tweaking, I have found it to be responsive and clear.

I had it looked at and set up by my favorite Calgary Guitar tech - Mike from Guitar Connection after I got it. Very little difference in the before and after, but he corrected a little buzzing on the low e-string when I held down an F#. Other than that, it sounded very good right out of the box.

Whenever I close the case, I have to depress the Vintage Tremolo Bridge so that it's spring is loaded whenever it is in its case. I'm not sure whether or not this will be bad for the guitar over time, but we will see.

I have used this guitar for playing live and it has performed beautifully. I'm also planning on using it in the studio.

I am going to have to adjust my playing to the position of the toggle switch (I'm used to playing a Telecaster Thinline which I think has a more sensibly placed toggle switch....) and the high saddles. I always use a backup when playing live, to minimize time during string breakage, but I would definitely say that this guitar is reliable and very well put together.

Mike set me up with this and I was very well looked after. It arrived in perfect condition and shipping was only about 3-4 days. I have a 1 - year warranty, but I wouldn't want to change a thing on it yet.

I have been playing for 15 years and I have been in 2 bands and plan to start lots more. I own a classical (Yamaha), a Simon Patrick accoustic parlour guitar, a Fender Thinline Telecaster and this Eastwood Hummingbird. I also play drums (started 3 years ago) and have played over 100 live gigs - hard rock for the most part.

I love this guitar. It's very well engineered and looks just crazy enough to work. There's no mistaking it for a "regular-looking" instrument. I have had lots of positive feedback and I would definitely recommend it.

I got this Korean Tokai from myrareguitars as one of the demo's from the Montreal Jazz Festival. I got the blue sparke model. It's an ash guitar with two really nice sounding p-90 clones and a raw maple neck. There is a three-way toggle and single volume and tone knob. If I'd change one thing about this really cool guitar it would be to move the strap button on the upper horn to the back of the guitar on the plate.

At first I played this guitar with 9's and through the clean channel on my amp and wasn't too impressed. In fact it's been sitting in the corner of my bedroom for the last four months. I recently set it up with elevens and gave it a proper set-up and now this thing RAWKS. The dirty tones are where this thing truly shines. You get great p-90 crunck and this thing is an all out tone monster. I've got no complaints at all.

This guitar was a demo, so the set-up left alot to be desired. The plastic knob on the toggle broke within ten minutes of playing as well. Well after I gave the guitar a scond chance and set it up myself it really came to life. I'm probably going to replace the tuner with some locking Gotoh's that I have to be able to use the whammy more often, but I can't complain.

This thing is a tank aside from the cheap hardware, but I had more expensive guitars that had more issues than this thing and besides the tone more than makes up for it. I quickly installed strap locks after I started to really dig this guitar, b/c I just don't trust the position of the upper strap button.

Michael Robinson is the real deal. I've dealt with him before and he's a really good person.

I've been playing for 12 years and this guitar really stands out. I've always had a soft spot for odd ball guitars, b/c my first electric was an orange creamburst Ibanez Talman. Anyhow, I think I may just start buying the entire color scheme for this guitar, b/c it's really cool.

Made in Korea, 2004 or 2005, 22 Frets, solid body, appears to be one piece but, like Fenders, is most likely more than one. One Tone and one Volume control, three way pickup switch (neck/both/bridge), Tokai P-40s, alder body, maple neck with rosewood fretboard, gloss black body, clear (satin finish) neck.

I love the Mosrite/Burns vibe of the guitar shape. It was available in several colors, but I chose the black since it just looked so damn good with that aged MOTO pickguard.

Nothing special about the guitar or unique (other than it's looks) so I give it a 7 for the P-90s and body shape. Ok, another "1" for the vintage looking pearloid pickguard.

The P-40s in this guitar with the combination of woods and electronics meets my musical style which, for the most part, is 60s instrumental rock and surf. I play through vintage tube amps onlyand the effects I use would be a Fender reverb tank, and the occasional use of some light distortion, chorus, delay.

The guitar is not noisy at all, but I take care to ensure proper grounding in my setup. Playing in the immediate vicinity of the amp makes no difference.

THe P-90s are quite similar to those in a vintage SG I sold several years ago, so if you're familiar with that sound, you know what I'm talking about. The bridge seems to be a bit "stronger" than the neck, but hieght adjustment of both has balanced that out. With the tone all the way down it doesn't get muddy on either pickup, and with the tone all the way up and with the guitar and amp cranked it really pulls out all the stops and gives that unique tone we expect with P-90s. It had reasonable sustain as received but after some tweaks the sustain increased to match some of my best sustaining guitars.

I have no issue with the sound at all...it's exactly what I expected and exactly what I wanted.

The guitar came set up with some wire wound 10s with reasonably low action and spot-on intonation. Other than being tuned down for shipping, it was ready to play out of the box.

I'm a little fussy with my setups and do them myself, so I tore into it to make things better for myself. I pulled the neck to shim it a little; this increases the break angle over the bridge which will sometimes result in greater sustain...it made a big difference with this guitar. I replaced the strings with something more "period", a .011 set of Thomastik-Infeld Jazz flats (sorry, these are so much better than Black Cats or Gibsons), gave the neck a bit of a tweak, and after then setting the action and intonation I now have a guitar that's second to none in playability, tone, and sustain. The action is so low, in fact, that I had to raise it. What was impressive at this point was that no frets were revealed to be high or low; it's just an excellent fret job. The neck is super fast and while a little on the thin side (at least compared to some of my other guitars, is very comfortable and plays well.

The fit and finish on this guitar, as recevied, is excellent. There are no flaws that I can detect and, for those who consider the neck pocket fit on bolt-ons to be important, this guitar has what may be the best fit here on any guitar that I own.

It was mentioned in one review that it was a shame that the headstock wood didn't match the neck at the joint, but in all fairness it must be *very* difficult to match such clear maple. I hadn't even noticed this until I read that review.

I would've like it if the original "Humming Bird" logo had been applied to the body, but the painted headstock with the very nice MOP inlay sort of makes up for it.

The one down side was the head of the nut that holds the trem arm on. It had a sharp burr on it that immediately tore into my palm when palm-muting the strings and drew blood, making this axe a blood brother forever. The burr had been chromed over so it should've been picked up well before I found it. A little filing took care of that, however. Thus the "8". If not for the blood I would've given it a "10", it's that nice.

I see no reason why this guitar wouldn't withstand live playing. This guitar is a brute, nothing delicate about it. At 8 pounds, 8 ounces it's a middle of the road weight and is put together extremely well. Many people (perhaps with good reason) like to immediately replace the pots on Asian electrics, but I've *never* had a problem with this before and don't expect it with this one.

The finish is excellent and does not appear to be fragile. I assume that the clearcoat is a poly compound, so it'll last longer than I will.

Strap buttons are larger than normal, and appear to be set very well into the wood.

Overall, although the guitar is fairly new to me, I would expect it to be very dependable. When a guitar fails during a gig it's generally a surprise, so gigging without a spare is probably not a great idea. That being said, I've never had a guitar fail since I've been playing.

With the body shape and points

Mike at Rareguitars.com is great to talk to and was extremely helpful in answering my question and sending additional pictures prior to my making the purchase. I don't even recall asking about a warrenty, but should anything go wrong within a reasonable period of time I doubt that I'd have any problems whatsoever.

I've been playing on and off since the very early '60s and own a number of vintage Fender and Burns axes, and am also a big Dean guitar fan. There is nothing that I failed to ask that wasn't answered completely by Mike and I asked a *lot* of questions.

I love the tone, playability, comfort, and looks of the guitar. If I was in a position while being robbed that I couldn't get to my gun this guitar would make chopped meat of any scumbag. Those are some serious horns!

I can't really compare this to any other guitar I own, which is why I bought it. It has the '60s vibe with a very nice and smooth P-90 tone which can really put a bite on if so desired. It's unique and in a class of it's own.

If it were stolen or lost I would most likely buy another just like it. I have too many guitars as it is, but this one is very unique and I really, really like it. The thing I like least about it is the trem which is just fine, but I would love it to be a direct copy of a Jaguar/Jazzmaster trem which is my favorite. But that's not to take away from the stock trem; it does what it's supposed to do just fine. My opinon on the trem is just that - a personal opinion and shouldn't detract someone from a purchase. Those that love a Bigsby (although this is a different system) will probably be very comfortable with it.

My rating of a "9" in this category may not appear to reconcile with some of my previous scores, but taken as a whole I think this guitar really does rate this. No one guitar can be everything to everybody so it's really hard to give it (or any other guitar) a "10".

Highly recommended!

Most has been said before, it`s all good.
For me the big Jackpot is the Roller-bridge and the whammy-bar. I have enourmous problems with the Tune-O-Matic ,Stop-tail combo and for me roller-bridges t he only way to go If I wanna keep my strings in one piece.
The whammy is simple and basic, the way it should be.
The Tokai P90 REALLY do justice to the looks of this Geetar, It looks like a horned Devil from hell and sounds the same.(in a good way)

I play Garage Rock (dirty, stripped down, fast and simple but catchy) and my fingers glide around the neck like they would on a newly greased chicken... THIS THING IS FAST. No Noise whatsoever. Sound is increadible , full and bright. I play this thing trough a circus of various 16" amps that get their sound from alot of splitt-cables so I wouldn`t really know how if would sound on real amps... But for me, I love it.

Action: low
I got it dellivered with the whammy without the spring on it... no biggie just loosen the strings and pop it in place.
I don`t really know how well the pickups were adjusted, they weren`t rubbing on the strings and they sound great so I ain`t gonna screw around and f*** them up. No flaws exelent perloid and the black is really... black.

I play like a frikkin` monkey and I hammer down REALLY hard on each string, gibson and fenders never stand the pain, but the Hummingbird takes it like a man and punches back with a killer sound. It feels like a really solid build, I`m sure this thing will outlive me by decades.
the strap buttons are huge, never seen strapbuttons this big, solid as hell. I feel comfortble enough to gig the Hummingbird with no backup.

Mr. Robinson is the MAN!, bought an old japanese geetar from him about a year ago i think, he`s the real deal

Screw overpriced gibson and Fenders! if you are thinking about buying on of these babies. DO IT!... GReeeeat value for money.

If i had an origianl Hendrix Fender. I would have sold it on Ebay and got myself the hole color-range of Hummingbirds.

This is the new 1967 Tokai Hummingbird Re-issue. The Hummingbird was one of Tokai's first creations-- their answer to the Mosrite. The body is contoured ash in a beautiful sunburst finish; very similar in shape to the Mosrite except it has sharper, more menacing horns. The neck is two-piece maple with a wicked matching sunburst headstock reminiscent of a blade on a pole-arm. 22 vintage-style frets and a 60s style zero fret. 25 1/2" scale. One volume and one tone pot. Two premium Tokai P-90s. It has an adjustable roller bridge and a classic reissue 60's style tremelo similar to a bigsby. Very appropriate to call this guitar an axe, because between the body, the headstock, and the tremelo, you can poke holes in things and possibly sever limbs!;)

I play an aggressive style of original surf rock that blends diverse elements from various other genres including punk, noise, prog rock, reggae, and jazz (www.daikaiju.net). This guitar is capable of handling all of that. The sound is very full and balanced across the strings, and it has excellent sustain. I can get a nice aggressive bite without any annoying harshness out of the bridge while neck pup enables me to get mellower, darker sounds. The middle setting is classic surf quack. I generally roll back the tone knob to about 6, but I like having the option of getting brighter, treblier sounds when needed. I have not had the pleasure of personally playing a Mosrite, but I am easily able to get the fat, clean sounds of classic Ventures recordings. I am also able to get the surf sounds of everyone from Dick Dale to The Astronauts. The guitar also handles overdrive/distortion very well.

The guitar came set-up very well with the action set to just about how I like it. In fact, it was more or less in tune out of the box having made a trip from Ontario, Canada to Huntsville, Alabama, USA. The guitar was equipped with 10s, but I had it set it up with 11s. There is a very tiny lump in the finish, but aside from that it is flawless. My only real complaint is that I wish the wood grain on the back of neck was matched better so that the point where the two pieces meet is not so readily apparent. Aside from those minor cosmetic quibbles, this thing was put together very well-- solid.

I just played my first gig with this guitar a few days after having received it. It performed exceedingly well. It held its tuning very well despite some trem bar wanking and sounded great through all the effects combinations I triggered. The only thing that took me a bit of getting used to was the tremelo as I have not had much experience playing guitars with bigsby style trems. The guitar feels solid-- very well put together.

I purchased this guitar from Michael of Eastwood Guitars at www.myrareguitars.com. It was a pleasure to deal with him, and I look forward to doing business with him again. I have never dealt with Tokai directly, so I do not have any insight into their customer service.

This guitar is my new number 1-- the top of my guitar heap which consists of a number of Stratocasters, a Telecaster, and a Jazzmaster. Sure, it cannot do everything those other guitars can, but as an all-around compliment to the sound I am trying to achieve coupled with a very unique and sexy look based on the Mosrite, and a very reasonable price, this guitar is tops!