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Tokai: Love Rock LS75Q
List: $1,400
Gibson fans, stop reading here, before you get overwhelmed with rage. The Tokai Love Rock is a blasphemous copy of the Les Paul. Tokai painstakingly reproduced the guitar in question with exceptional accuracy; you`d weep to think that you`d spent a fortune buying the original incarnation. But why should we settle for this blatant imitation?
Before that concern is addressed, be informed that this Love Rock (LR) model would pass a Gibson Les Paul blindfold test, anytime. Being repelled by Gibson Les Pauls naturally (sorry, not a Les Paul fan, but they are super fine guitars), I`m in fact drawn to this guitar because it feels like the real thing. Even the lacquered overcoat gets top marks for its duplicate feel. It`s immaculately fitted & finished, you`d wish that all midrange priced guitars would adhere to this high standard in finishing but as it stands, it`s purely individual corporate philosophies. From the looks of it, the people at Tokai have one that makes them dangerous imitators: We clone you & make a mockery of your capacity.
If you are after physical/ functional flaws from this guitar- ZILCH. Please look elsewhere, maybe from another imitator. The only erroneous appointment I saw was that the neck pickup was set in too deep into the mounting ring. With that in mind, I was rather taken aback when I plugged this guitar in, the tone in the neck remained very sweet & balanced with the bridge counterpart. The overall tone from this LR is pure Les Paul, no surprise as it was conceived to imitate just that.
I will now move away from evaluating this guitar against the original Les Paul… The first brush with a tube amp unleashed too much ill-defined single note definition, the neck humbucker was repulsive- mud city. However, if you revere a rounded treble response, you`d worship this LR straight away. Clean, the neck unit surpasses the bridge relative in terms of warmth. If you do jazz, this pickup easily passes the trial. The bridge pickup fared better definition-wise in drive mode. Both power chords & individual notes have sufficient clarity to take you to cruise control. Default action was rather low, very shred-friendly; it`s easy acceleration from the start. However, it had enough clearance to prevent chocked notes during bending. A fine player in its entirety, money well spent if you decide to invest in one. Roll the volume off a little & you`ll hear Cream-era Clapton. It seems that this guitar is capable of some good tones. The pickup selection on offer is of course, a-la Les Paul. A very familiar layout of volume & tone control knobs (2V, 2T) adorns this guitar. In fact this model sports the vintage type triangular marker which I appreciate; helped me know how much of volume & tone I`m dealing with.
I just have to hear the guitar`s performance from a non-tube amp as I personally believe that it needs more treble definition to make it more reputable, not that it had very little to begin with. True enough, the LR proved to be an unstoppable tone machine, the default midrange manifested itself better in a Marshall AVT head. The Gotoh pickups have enough character to exude both vintage & contemporary tones to make this guitar a worthy buy.
This blatant imitation would be off limits to you if you have a strong preference for the original. You`d steer away from this guitar because it challenges your legal ethics- one shouldn`t embrace piracy in all its manifestations. However, if you are after impressive tones & believe that the single cut, set neck design is the only cup of tea for you, be glad that the Tokai brand name offers you more for less (money). Should you settle for this imitation then? You should, not because it replicates the revered LP looks in exceptional details (the quilt top on this one is killer...), but because it`s a good guitar per se. Too good to be true…
PS: My real rating for this guitar is 9.5/10, of course, the stars here don`t reflect that score...
