The workhorse. I’ve gigged this guitar more than any other. And it’s my all-time favourite. A Tokai LS150 made in 2010. I finally restrung it and cleaned it up after shamefully having done neither for more than a year. It’s got plenty more work ahead of it this year.
I’ll take a ‘plain top’ Les Paul over a veneer top any day. The mystery of maple’s fungal growth patterns is that it changes depending on the angle of the light and how you look at it. Every slab of wood is completely unique. In just the right light, the faintest hint of flames becomes visible on the top of my 2010 Tokai LS150. And patterns that mean that it’s completely identtifiable - like that odd little curl and the deeper flame near the toggle switch. This is a workhorse rock guitar. It’s been banged up and played hard. But it’s still the best guitar I own against some pretty stiff competition.
Since I’m going to be home alone with no one to annoy, this seems like a good chance to record my real amp. They’ve gone an amazing way towards perfectly simulating vacuum tube amplifiers now. But they still suffer from the problem where you have to dial in the settings for a particular thing say, lead on the bridge pickup, that then won’t sound great playing rhythm on the neck pickup with the volume rolled back on the guitar. The original 1940s tech does not suffer from this problem. A good, 1960s style tube-amp with a great loudspeaker, and a good guitar with great pickups, and you need to work pretty hard to make it sound less than great. I want to record an old Otis Redding number that really needs me to be able to switch between stuff on the guitar.
The couch is getting crowded with different kinds of stuff to practise. I’m tempted to bring down a fourth for some rockabilly stuff I’m working on too.
Snapshot of this old girl - finally gig-ready 35 years later. It’s still got the ridiculously low frets, but I’ve changed everything else - pickups, tailpiece, tuners, bridge, knobs, control pots. Nothing I can do about the 5.2kg in weight except wear a wide, fat strap. Amazingly it’s “weight-relieved,” and easily weighs a kilo more than my all-solid Tokai LP.
I’m old enough to remember when ‘Made in Japan’ was code for cheap and shoddy goods. Even then it was out of date. I own American originals and this guitar smokes ‘em.
Yes. The perfect sunburst Les Paul does exist. And it’s made by Tokai Japan.
#guitar for #saturday’s #gig.
#testing my #gig #rig for the #weekend.