I was always a Fender-player. I had plenty of heroes playing Gibsons but I never connected with them. But that changed and at some point I decided to hunt down a killer Les Paul. I played a big number of Gibsons, in stores as well as 2nd hand but I was never 100% happy with them. A couple of friends owned older Japanese copies by Tokai, Greco etc and they told me to look for one of those. I got to play their guitars and was amazed. They really nailed the old-Gibson vibe.
They directed me to a website with a lot of 2nd hand Tokais, Grecos etc and there were a couple I really liked. I’m not big on the fancy tops on guitars so I looked and found a nice plain jane. It is nicely aged, not surprisingly as it’s was build in 1980 and has a really nice and sweet Teaburst. It’s your typical Les Paul with a big slap of mahogany with a maple top. It is not very heavy which is also a big plus.
When I got it, I took it straight to rehearsal and it was glorious. Big LP tones all over the place. WHY did I wait so long to get a LP??? After giving it some TLC, new strings, tweaked the setup etc and it was the one for sure. There was only 1 small problem. Although great sounding, the original Tokai pickups were microphonic. Not a problem if you keep volume and gain low but where’s the fun in that? I read up on some of the boutique pickups that are out there and decided I wanted BareKnuckle Pickups The Mule. I found a set for sale 2nd hand. I installed them and they were amazing. Big juicy tones with plenty of clarity and bite when needed. The bridge sounds big and fat with a lot of clarity and articulation, it crunches like there’s no tomorrow. The neck pickup has no muddiness whatsoever and sounds syrupy sweet. The in-between tones are yummy and much more usable compared to the original pickups.
