Product: Tokai 2001 Limited Edition Love Rock Goldtop
Price Paid: US $685.00
Submitted
06/26/2001
at
09:08pm
by
Mary Sims
Features
:
8
Korean made guitar features a thin maple top finished in vintage gold and a multi-piece mahogany body with a solid mahogany veneer back for that one piece body look. The neck is a two piece mahogany with rosewood fretboard and nice pearl style inlays and kluson copy tuners. P90 style soap bar pickups with nice tone.
Sound
:
7
I'm playing it through a tweed blues jr and the tone is on par with my style of blues, however an upgrade to Duncan soap bars may be in order.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
7
I really expected this guitar to be as good as any real USA Gold Top or at least Japan Made Gold Top copy but it's just not the case , but it's not bad ether. I've since compared this guitar to a recent Epiphone 56 gold top les paul and I found that the "56 Gold Top" Epiphone was far superior in many ways, the epiphone body was the correct thickness for a Les Paul, while the Love Rock Gold Top was slightly thinner as well as the body of the Epiphone was a solid two piece body with no fake veneer back while the Tokai has at least 3 piece body with a rear mahogany veneer for a fake solid body look. The craftsmanship was not as good as the epiphone, while the 56 Gold Top has very nice tight fit & clean pickup routs, the Love Rock Gold Top pickup routs were not so clean or tight. The Tokai Gold Top fret work was much better than the epiphone LP56 gold top. If I had it to do over again, I would purchase the Epiphone 56 Gold Top for about $100 less and it's an authorized copy.
Reliability/Durability
:
8
I'm sure that this guitar is a good as any Korean made guitar, overall quality fit and finish with just the ususal lack of detail work that goes into the Japan Tokai guitars. My guess is that this is just a Korean Samick or Cort made guitar so it should last.
Customer Support
:
5
It appears that Tokai Japan is still in business, I wonder about the Love Rock model's from Korea, there is little or no mention of this product on their web page and I understand that this product is not for US distribution due to our copyright law and the Gibson company's ownership this headstock design.
Overall Rating
:
7
I've always wanted a Tokai Love Rock, and I am still looking for a flame top les paul but It will have to be a Japan Model to really fill that need. I believe that this would be a nice $399-$499 korean made guitar, on par with the Hamer GOldTOp Import or Samick made Epiphone Les Paul copies, not really a $685 value. If I were buying a Korean Made P90 Gold TOp Guitar, I'd probly just buy a Dean EVO 60 Gold Top for about $375 and be happy.
