Axe pix

[Soloist]

I've known Al since 1987, and currently, he is the bass player for Firehouse. So I don't knock any musician for their choice of instruments.

    Harley 8)

+1 on the Firehouse Harley, we cover
"All She Wrote". Great late 80's tune.

Nice axe RG!!  Don't you just hate having to hide it from your gf. So proud of the deal you made but can't share it with the woman. Man, I hate it when that happens 

[tomy]

hey RG, nice axe, will you switch the bridge PU for super distortion ?

[MarshallJMP]

Well I also thought at first glance it was a Charvel.Looks great RG.

[rabidgerry]

Hey RG,

   There's nothing wrong with that. Interesting fact that Tokai guitars have become collectible. That's something I never would have guessed at.
   The bottom line is that it plays and sounds good. It also looks like it's in very good shape for it's age. At first glance, I thought it was a copy of Jake E Lee's Charvel guitar.
    It doesn't matter what brand a musical instrument is, as much as how well it matches the musician who plays it. Case in point:
A long time friend and local musician named Al MacKenzie, used to get teased and haggled about his Hohner bass guitar that he played with every local band he was in here. I've known Al since 1987, and currently, he is the bass player for Firehouse. So I don't knock any musician for their choice of instruments.

    Harley 8)

Oh yeah, Tokai's are well saught after, I don't think mine is like top of the list like certain models but I know it would be on it regardless.  It's pretty rare which helps.  Like the guy I bought it from just collected 80's japanese guitars, so it had some status with him for example.  The reason why the early Tokai's are saught after is because they are famous (and perhaps you didn't know) for making "better" guitars than the brands they were copying.  So early 80's Tokai's are actually famous for being better than the Fenders and Gibsons of the time.  I think they are known as "lawsuit era"  for obvious reasons.  And a little more history.  I'm pretty sure Fender bought over factories belonging to brands such as Tokai and Orville and others which then Squier and Epiphone where born from.  So Fender went "hang on if we can't beat these guys lets join em and get 'em working for us".  So early Japanese Squiers are now also collectible as are the Korean models.  Japanese probably more so although the Koreans have a very good rep.  In saying that I have a chinese Squier and it's probably one of my fav guitars I own.

Hohner, I have cme acorss over the years,  I think they have a famous steinberger copy guitar which was suppoosed to be quite good.  I know all to well about brands not mattering Harley  :)  it never put me off any of my axes so I'll not knock a guy with a Hohner.  All power to him in fact, that's cool.  Think a buddy of mine had a Hondo les Paul or SG copy one time, and it sounded great!! 

Nice axe RG!!  Don't you just hate having to hide it from your gf. So proud of the deal you made but can't share it with the woman. Man, I hate it when that happens

Hey Solist, yeah I'll come up with some story to fit it in there.  The deal was I could sell two guitars before I bought any new ones.  Well I kinda bought a new one and didn't sell any lol  I can go public soon though I hope :)

hey RG, nice axe, will you switch the bridge PU for super distortion ?

Hey Tomy, I think I might leave this guitar as it is.  The pickup sounded sweet to me.  It's highoutput according to the info I got from the '88 Tokai catalogue.  It sounded really good I thought.  Hopefully get some recordings with it soon.

[rabidgerry]

Well I also thought at first glance it was a Charvel.Looks great RG.

Yes I think it looks like a few of those guitars.  Charvel or the Jake E Lee signature model.  It's closest to the Jake E lee however his was a standard vintage trem my axe has a single locking trem.  The bridge allows the string to be fed in and maintain the ball end.  I'll post some more mics.

I have an Axe that looks just like a Charvel San Dimas.  No idea who made it.  I personally think someone bought a kit guitar and sold as a "Jack Butler" guitar.  Which I now know is the character in the movie "Cross roads" starring Steve Vai as Jack Butler.  Thanks to Soloist for that info    I'll post picks of that as well :)

[tomy]

Looks really nice man!  :wave:
Good bargain too 

[rnolan]

Hey RG, very nice score  :whoohoo!: . I was thinking to respray my Profile Tele but like your Tokai, the white has gone a really nice shade over the years, so now mm I don't know, maybe not LoL.

[Harley Hexxe]

Hey RG,

   Yes, I do know the Hohner Steinberger copy you are talking about. That isn't the one Al has though. His is just a plain sunburst copy of a P-bass. It does the job though.

   I have noticed the early Japanese Fender prices have gone up quite a bit. As for Korean Fenders, I already own three of them, Two H-H guitars, and one S-S-S model. All three are set neck guitars, 24 fret, African Mahogany body and neck, (even though Fender claims the body is Basswood). The construction of these guitars is very good, but the hardware and electronics that come with them is lame. They came with Duncan pickups, but those too are wound to the Fender Extra-wimpy specs, so they were the first things to go. I have DiMarzio's in the H-H guitars, and recently purchased Burns Tri-Sonics for the S-S-S guitar. I'm going to start work on remodeling that guitar soon, when I get a few things I still need for it. I may document the rebuild here.
   I see Korean made Squires and Fender sell for dirt cheap prices on Ebay  all the time. There is one Japanese Fender that I would have liked to have gotten my hands on back in the day. Too bad I didn't, they are super hard to find these days. Maybe I'll get lucky one of these days.
   It's too bad your GF doesn't understand your passion for the guitar, that does complicate things.

   Harley 8)

[rnolan]

I may document the rebuild here.

Hey Harley,  That would be good  :wave:

Hey RG, did you get anywhere with redoing the doco for the MDRT upgrade ?  Mike will probably do his soon so we can road test it for you.

[rabidgerry]

Hey RG, very nice score  :whoohoo!: . I was thinking to respray my Profile Tele but like your Tokai, the white has gone a really nice shade over the years, so now mm I don't know, maybe not LoL.

He Richard, yeah that aged white is a priceless colour so why mess with it?  You sticking with it?

@ Harley,  I own a few Korean Squiers.  Two Squier Stagemasters are the set/through neck versions, and boy o biy they sound different from the bolt ons.  I've upgraded them both recenty.  One I bought of a dead guy who was having his collection sold off after he had passed away so it was brand new!  There are photos of my cobalt blue version of the same guitar on this same thread somewhere.  Anyways I kitted the gold one out with  brass block last week, and a while back I put on proper steel floyd rose saddles.  The cobalt blue version I put in a brass block, and swapped the whole trem out for a brand new one (which had steel saddles to begin with).  I'm now at the point where I like the stock pickups, but I want to see what others think on here about whether I swap them out for some super distortions.

About my GF not getting my passion, well she does, but I stupidly agreed not to buy anymore until I sold some on that I don't want    I will admit that I do have too many, but I just love them all, and I dunno why the cheaper ones appeal to me as much.  I love upgrading I suppose and customising.

@ Richard, I thought Mike had went ahead with the install?  Ok if he is hanging on for the new guide I'll get to work on that.  I let other shit pile up on me man over the last few weeks so I promise I'll have a start on that by the weekend.  I have shit load of photographs so it should be pretty comprehensive.


Whilst searching for proof of authenticity with the tokai guitar I found this under the hood.  Cause for concern guys?  Didn't feel loose or anything but it was still a shock.



Not to detract from the possible problem above with the Tokai,

but here is the Green Axe.  I would love to know what the story behind this guitar is.  I know it's cheap, but you know what some stuff on it is decent quality.  For example the trem, it's all steel.  It has embossed on it the Floyd rose logo, which I find interesting because there is no real Floyd rose that shape.  I have many other licensed FR trems this shape but none of them have the official FR logo embossed on them.  Another thing to take note, it came with one control.  I could have this, so I got a concentric pot and added a tone control :) and orange drop cap.  It didn't fit in initially so I had to sand down a circular area around the hole where the pot fit through.  This allowed the concentric pot to seat low enough down that I could get the bushing through the other side and then fit the nut and washer so the pot could be mounted correctly.  Also the pickups say Wilson, which is a brand???  Bizarre.  My theory is, someone somewhere bought a kit guitar and got some hardware themselves from somewhere, then stuck it on ebay trying to make a bit of cash.  I think my girlfriend got it for under the asking price which was £150 initially.  I think she got it for £120 but she wont tell me :) Anyways check it out guys.

[Harley Hexxe]

Hey RG,

    I can't find anything on Wilson Pickups, other than a Danish brand that are transducers for Violins, Violas, Cellos, and upright Bass.

   Interestingly enough, I did find your green guitar on sale on Ebay in the UK only it seems. Same guitar, but the pickups listed are Wilkinson. From what I can tell, these are not kits, but made by a company in the UK. Probably discontinued now. This was called the Jack Butler Green Meanie, and was sold by www.rockstarguitars.co.uk. As for the Floyd, it may have been a subcontracted model. Overall, it's very difficult to pinpoint an origin for where it was actually made.

   My guitars, (Korean made Fenders), aren't Squiers they are called Showmaster, and they were made from 2004-2008(?). They look like they were made with exotic woods, but really only made of Mahogany with a printed laminate top on the body. The quilted Maple, and Bubinga looks good, but the rest look really cheesy. The one I plan to modify has a laminate they called "Flame Alder" but it looks more like a pin striped checker pattern to me. I'm trying to find a way to strip that off the top without damaging the mahogany underneath, and just leave the mahogany by itself. If it looks like the wood grain I see on the back of the guitar, it should look fine if I stain it and finish it like that. I'll get a couple of pics of it and post it in the Axe pix thread.

    As for the Tokai, yes, I would be concerned about the wood at the posts there. That will only get worse with heavy tremolo use. I think a good Luthier, would probably consider routing out that whole area, and replacing it with a block of hard wood, then re-mounting it. I guess if the intonation comes out wacky at some point in time, and you can't get it back, then you'll have to consider it, but for now if it works just leave it be.

    Harley 8)

[rabidgerry]

Hey Harley, I probably should have said, I got that guitar of ebay, well the GF did.  And the item you find when you do a search for it through google is the same seller who sold her the guitar.  They sold one more after mine only with a maple fretboard as I watched it go wondering how much it would sell for.  Here is the listing

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Jack-Butler-Meanie-Guitar-With-Floyd-Rose-Trem-/331520942698

there have been no more since.  Anyways Wilkinson?  You don't know them?  The make trems and roller nuts, the company John Hornby Skews owns the brand.  The make "Vintage" guitars, who are quite a big brand now and have plenty of guys playing them like the Saxon guitarist playing one of their tele's and Bernie Torme playing one of their strats.

Check here.

http://www.jhs.co.uk/wilkinson/

So I know the pups are branded, they're insanely high output.  Still dunno about them but they are definitely a brand, no idea what model they are though!

As for the Tokai!!!!!!!!  DAM  >:(  More f**king money!  Oh well I'll have to take it to my local guy then and see what he thinks.  It's a great guitar so it probably deserves the repair work.

Your Fenders are Showmasters?  They are in the same family as the Squier Stagemaster/Showmasters.  Look it up.  The thru necks stagemasters are the deluxe model but then they changed the name to showmaster for some copyright issue with I think Kramer.

[Harley Hexxe]

Hey RG,

   I do know about Wilkenson, I just don't know much about Wilson, which is what you posted. Also, you did mention that your GF got it off ebay, which is why I searched in different ways, to find some kind of origin for it. I'm well aware of Trevor Wilkenson's products and many of the guitars that are using his products. I'm not too fond of his tremolos.

  I believe the Showmasters I have were a separate entity apart from the Squire Showmaster, and Stagemaster guitars. I believe Fender was trying to go for a more traditional type of guitar with some modern features added to it. These were definitely NOT meant to be Metal guitars in any way shape or form. The Duncan pickups they came with were all way to wimpy for any of that,

   Harley 8)

[rnolan]

Hey RG, The only slight quandary I have with the lovely aged white is all the pick guard screw holes, not a biggy so I'll probably leave it.  Although I have a similar issue to your Tokai on one of the FR mounts.  It's a schaller FR which came (many years ago) with 2 big screw in mounts (rather than the sheath/bolt mount like you have). So problem is the one on the bass side angles forward now (causing minor problems, that screw goes all the way into the spring cavity (which I suspect isn't helping)).  So I bought new sheath/bolts and am hoping this fixes it (the sheaths (I think) are bigger than the big screws so fingers crossed will fit nice and snug  ). Otherwise I'll have to route it out and inlay some hardwood  , and then it probably will need a respray ?

Hey love the green meanie  and nice job with the concentric pot.

[rabidgerry]

Oh right, I thought you hadn't heard of Wilkinson otherwise I wouldn't have bothered explaining.

Never tried their hardware other than tuners and they seemed ok.

Yeah I noticed none of the Fender Showmasters have a locking trem.  As for a metal guitar?  Dunno about that, have seen a few that could easily pass for a shred machine

http://medias.audiofanzine.com/images/thumbs3/fender-special-edition-showmaster-blackout-hh-460638.jpg

this one looks similar to my Thru neck stagemaster minus locking trem of course.  The Fender though has an arch top where as the Squier is flat on top.