Product: Tokai Talbo Custom
Price Paid: $2200 (AUS)
Submitted
04/07/2002
at
07:30am
by
Andy
Features
:
9
Custom made in Jan 2002 in Japan from Tokai Gakki. 22 Frets, Alloy body in Platinum/See-Through black color. Pickups are SSH config with a ESP sustainer on the neck. Controls are 1 volume knob, 1 sustainer mix/volume knob, 5 way selector switch for pickup, 2 toggle switch for systainer system (one for on/off, the other for harmonic/normal mode). Passive electronics, except when you want the sustainer on, 2 9V battries required, else the sustainer works as a pickup only. Neck is made of mahogany w/ Rosewood neck, in a see through black finish (to match the body.) Wilkinson bridge with vintage style Gotoh machine heads. A Strat style neck with Regular sized frets.
Came with fitted case. Adequate for a custom order.
Sound
:
7
It suits my style quiet well (I play Japanese Rock.)The guitars goes through: Modified Crybaby->Zoom GFX-8-> Marshall JTM30 with a BOSS equalizer and flanger in the loop. It's not that noisy at all.. just gives a lot of bright end, which I like. The sustainer works well.. and it's great for an ESP sustainer, except it eats up battries like crazy. There seems to be a bit of howling/squealing with the guitar, because of the alloy body, but it's not too bad as the inside is actually covered with a styrofoam. I like the bright punchy sound but you can only use it for certain songs, I'd say.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
10
The guitar wasn't set up in the factory (as with most Japanese made guitars) so it was up to the shop to set it up for the person buying the guitar. In my opinion the setup from the shop I got it from wasn't at all that great, as a matter of fact I had to re adjust. Apart from that nothing else was wrong. There was little pin pricks in the alloy, but that is natural and it's from the Platinum coloring process.
Reliability/Durability
:
10
The hardware seems good, I think it'd go a good run in the tour circuit. The finish.. I'm not sure about that... as it's alloy so I'd imagine it would tend to scrape off etc etc... so I'm guess a repaint after a while.. but then again... it happens to all guitars.
Yes I'd use it without a backup. Everything else about this is solid and it has a solid feel. Love it. Heck, it's made of metal.
Customer Support
:
10
Came with a 1 year warranty, and Tokai are very nice, and responsive. At least the Tokai distributor in Australia is, replies are pretty much straight away (and I had heaps of questions), and he will ask the Japan side any queries that he does not know about. 100% awesome.
Overall Rating
:
9
Been playing about 9 years now... and this is the 6th guitar that I have... It doesn't match up against the ESP Edwards I have but it's a close second... I like it.. it has a very much "stratty" feel to it, especially the neck and stuff, but it's looks different enough. The sound is distinctly different so it might take a while to get used to and also the body as it's made of metal. The only thing is I have to change the hardware to black, but it shouldn't be a problem as the distributor will help me out with that. How's that for service? =)
Takes a while to get used to, but I think I'll grow to love this guitar.
