A Tokai LS-100 handcrafted in 1981.

Tokai declared that they would use birch and satin sycamore for the dressing board of LS-100, but I have never seen such a LS-100.

In 1978, Tokai started to produce the ‘Burst replicas for the first time in Japan and had a good reputation for their quality.  But from around 1980, Greco and Fernandes started to produce The Super Real Series and The Revival Series, and Tokai was influenced by that.  What was worse, it became hard to get good guitar materials by that, especially figured maple.

It is disappointing that the quality of Tokai Les Pauls was down after 1984 when Corporate Reorganization Law was adapted to Tokai.  TLS-200s produced in 1983 were topped with freckleless figured maple.  So I can say that the quality of Tokai Les Pauls handcrafted before 1983 were close to the ‘Burst.

It is also disappointing that the ‘Burst replicas made by Greco and Fernandes weren’t equal to Tokai’s except for custom made models.  Only Tokai adapted non-plied figured top to 10,0000JPY class Les Pauls.

It may be impolite to say that it was the same phenomenon of “bad money drives out good money”.

Pickups are DiMarzio PAF. 4.00kg(includes strings). (Updated 2016.8.26)