Product: Tokai Hummingbird
Price Paid: US $698
Submitted
01/20/2005
at
03:41pm
by
Russell Workman
Email: russellworkman<at>optusnet dot com dot au
Features
:
8
2004 model made in Korea by Tokai however the guitar itself is still of a high quality. The name on the headstock looks to be made of mother of pearl!
Volume and tone controls (Obviously!)
Has a contoured ash body, neck is maple and a rosewood finger board thats easy on the hands. 22 vintage style frets. The pickups are P-90 Tokai pickups and LP Speed Knobs. Only accessorys were a free nice
t-shirt from myrareguitars.com and an allan key (which I can't seem to find a socket on the guitar for).
Sound
:
10
The Tokai Hummingbird felt perfectly comfortable in my hands. I ran it on both clean and dirty channels but in my opinion its on the clean channel that it sounds best. It has a suprising range of sounds and tones which can suit a wide range of music (I Put this down to the pickups as well). It exceeded my expectations.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
8
Everything was well set up except for the tremelo arm had to be fitted which meant I had to detune and retune it which was a bit of a pain. Also the nut is not great and could cause some problems later as it isn't cut that well.
Reliability/Durability
:
9
The finish is good, it seems like it'd stand most live playing so long as you don't throw it around too much but being a bit of a heavy guitar I wouldnt throw it around anyway (it feels almost as heavy as a LP).
Customer Support
:
10
The company I bought it from (www.myrareguitars.com) was great! The owner replies instantly to e-mails even though he is 12,000 miles away from me. I would buy another guitar from them but because of distance I'd of course have to get it repaired locally, so I'm not going to worry about warranty.
Overall Rating
:
9
I would have asked about customs duties as it cost me an extra 15% which bought the overall cost up more than the original price which was $599 US. but even so it was good value. If it was stolen or lost I would buy another as I feel these guitars are going to be collectable. This Hummingbird is a reissue of the original 1960s Hummingbirds made in Japan; the only features that are missing is the word "Hummingbird" across the body and two roller wheel controls. Still it is a very good reproduction of a guitar I've wanted for a long time.
