Gibson vs Tokai - BLINDFOLD CHALLENGE

We have a special guest, Daf, on the show today to see if he can tell the difference between the Gibson Les Paul Standard and a Tokai Love Rock. Just a bit of fun in a Blindfold Challenge.

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[thecaveofthedead]

"There's something more full about this one." I also own both. Tokai make them more like they were made in the '50s. The sound people expect. A modern Gibson Standard is quite different from an old fashioned LP. He could only tell from the modern features of the Gibson. I love both of mine, but the Tokai is more like the guitars that made me want to play Les Pauls in the first place.

[allgoo]

If it goes out of tune, you know it's a Gibson.

lol

[boboutelama]

I'm a french guitarist and bought a Tokai in the 2000's, where Gibson's where judged to be rather over-expensive in regard of the given quality.
I had several Gibson's myself before, and had the pleasure to play on numerous Gibson's on my "quest of the good old Les Paul" sound. And it's the upper range Tokai that putted a stop to this quest. They look like nothing special from far, but they are incredibly well crafted and a pleasure to play. The sound is all what you expect from an old Les Paul. I don't say that it smokes Gibson guitars. But my 2'000 bucks LS195S is an absolute equal guitar to a Gibson 1960 VOS that would have been carefully select from a bunch of a dozen other VOS. Its that good.

[rsmallfield]

Having the reverb so high would have made it harder to tell them apart, don't you think?

[oscarestrella]

i have an upgraded tokai love rock and i did the same thing with a guitar luthier blind folded and he picked tokai as the les paul, those tokai are so well made, mine was not cheap at all.

[paulmitchell]

If the neck feel is the only give away, that shows how good the Tokai is.

[jimbobwalton]

I read in an article that Billy Gibbons owns and loves a Tokai Les Paul. So if one of the all time greats and one of the most respected guitarists in rock history is impressed, then i call bull shit on the Gibson snobs who look down their noses at anything that doesn't say Gibson on the headstock. Gibbons is used to playing a '59 Les paul which would easily fetch $ 250, 000 if it ever went to auction, so if a Tokai had the tone and playability to impress Gibbons then there must be some very special models floating around out there. Just my opinion.

[daw]

I've had both now. Still have the tokai. Re: the comments below, everyone wants to play with the hottest pickups they can find, and you put a PAF in guitars and 15% of the players (usually the better players who want to record or play in a serious band) will prefer the old setup with the lower output pickups, but the other 85% of the market where the maker needs to make the money - they just want hotter and hotter pickups and the promise of lower actions and thinner necks.

Those super-hot pickups don't sound that great on a record, though.

The difference that I can see between tokai and gibson is gibson's standards are about 2k used now (mine is now gone, but when I bought it in 2004, it was $1600 used, and I bit it a little and sold it for $1400 a couple of years later). I got a tokai HLS -160 that is as good of a guitar, and it cost less than half as much.

The person who would change the stock pickups on either would probably change them on both (instead of learning what they like and playing them just as they are), so there's not much difference between the two except you're gambling sometimes trying to get consistent quality out of Gibson. They got me on a '61 reissue SG that never should've left the factory and could never be made right for less than the cost of just buying another one.

[markrosenquist]

I’ve been a Gibson player for 40 years. I’ve played a few of the Les Paul copies Edwards- Burny- Orville and Tokai. The Orville and the Tokai are the closest that I’ve found to a genuine Les Paul. These are Customs that I’m talking about. The Tokai especially have the proper neck profile, most of the other ones have been very thin necks. I like the Tokai so much I’m looking to buy one you really can’t go wrong with the Japanese quality and what you get for the price is incredible. That was a cool video would have loved to see it done with a 3rd guitar of a different brand. I’m currently looking to get a Tokai LPC 156. Beautiful guitars!

[davepark]

I have the same desert burst. mine is a 2012 and I love it, its getting a worn in feel now after 10 years.

[martinopinto]

That Gibson is absolutely stunning though..

[AudreyDurden]

Funny he feels a "real Les Paul" with the Tokai. I've been reading about these Tokais and how they are more like the original Les Paul's than the modern Gibson Les Paul's

[mordokch]

Of course you can tell the difference - the tokai plays better every time (assuming equal pro set ups)

[chuck]

And this is supposed to be a test? Play a note, with the reverb turned up?

[cjohnson]

Reason why I own one, and before its over.... will own another Love Rock. This one currently is a complete P90 beast. Have 4 super die hard Gibson guys ready to buy it if I ever sell it.

[KsiazeIgor]

Love this distinctive Northern twang on the ligo, lads. Nice review BTW!

[stuartmiller]

Daf lost the bet on everything that actually mattered 😅. A bit like... which one smells of vanilla? 😁.

[jeroenvanlelieveldmusic]

Just blindfold yourself and feel what guitar has the most fuckedup frets..
thats the gib !

[vaultmasterhd]

he preferred the tokai tone but only noticed the gibson by the neck so for me he preferred the tokai which i do

[sandergroenhuijsen]

On a scale from 1 to 10, how close does the tokai gets to a real gibson?