Hi I noticed that no one replied to your question about the tokai 335.
The answer is the Japanese stuff is very high quality indeed and not inferior to Gibson.
For the Japanese its all about pride in workmanship and not loosing face by putting out something below standard. My advice is try one of the Japanese models you will be glad you did. Stay away from the chinese made tokai stuff its just not even in the same league.
I can't find that thread you posted on messing with your finish. I'd like to see pics!
and if you wanna tell me more about how.. if it's not in the thread, I'd be interested!