lordriffenstein
New member
An ES-335 has been high on my whishlist for a VERY long time. Tried some Gibsons and as usually you have to go thru a bunch of them to find a decent one. Tried some Heritage and liked them but there was always something that didn't tickle my fancy. One of the best ES-335s I ever played was the old Tokai owned by a good friend. I WAS plugged into a Dumble when I was playing it but the feel of the guitar was killer and the tones amazing.
So this past weekend, a Tokai ES-120 popped up on some classifieds sites here in Belgium. Contacted the seller and talked a bit about it. He bought it in 2005 and it never left his house, was in near mint condition. Although it originally came with Gibson Classic 57s, he replaced those with Peter Florance Voodoo '59 pickups. I know these and loved them in a fat tele I had so this was definitely a plus. And then there was the color, my favorite color for an ES-335 is natural and this one was indeed a natural with flamed maple front, sides and back. The price was right as well so my GAS was thru the roof.
I checked it out in person on Monday evening and only needed 10 minutes to fall in love with it. I was afraid the neck might be to much but it has a very nice medium C neck, just like my Tokai LP. Acoustically is sounded very full and balanced which was a good sign for things to come when I plugged in. The pickups needed some adjustment but other than that it played and sounded amazingly good. So I took it home, plugged it into my '73 JMP and wailed for 2 hours only using a boost to get the Marshall over the top.
Compared to my Tokai LP, the ES-120 sounds a lot more open, it doesn't have that grab-you-by-the-balls low end of the LP but it sounds big nevertheless. It definitely nails some tones I was trying to get from the LP but couldn't totally nail. The pickups sound amazing, the neck pickup sounds big and smooth but has plenty of clarity, the bridge rocks harder, very balanced and articulate.
Here are some pics:
So this past weekend, a Tokai ES-120 popped up on some classifieds sites here in Belgium. Contacted the seller and talked a bit about it. He bought it in 2005 and it never left his house, was in near mint condition. Although it originally came with Gibson Classic 57s, he replaced those with Peter Florance Voodoo '59 pickups. I know these and loved them in a fat tele I had so this was definitely a plus. And then there was the color, my favorite color for an ES-335 is natural and this one was indeed a natural with flamed maple front, sides and back. The price was right as well so my GAS was thru the roof.
I checked it out in person on Monday evening and only needed 10 minutes to fall in love with it. I was afraid the neck might be to much but it has a very nice medium C neck, just like my Tokai LP. Acoustically is sounded very full and balanced which was a good sign for things to come when I plugged in. The pickups needed some adjustment but other than that it played and sounded amazingly good. So I took it home, plugged it into my '73 JMP and wailed for 2 hours only using a boost to get the Marshall over the top.
Compared to my Tokai LP, the ES-120 sounds a lot more open, it doesn't have that grab-you-by-the-balls low end of the LP but it sounds big nevertheless. It definitely nails some tones I was trying to get from the LP but couldn't totally nail. The pickups sound amazing, the neck pickup sounds big and smooth but has plenty of clarity, the bridge rocks harder, very balanced and articulate.
Here are some pics:
