A 2012 Crews KTR Standard w/NFS Weep BB/ZB pick ups and a 1981 Tokai ES100J!
Man, these guitars are SWEET!
“30 years air drying” South American Mahogany neck on the Crews. North American plain hard maple top(lots of grain!), Asian Rosewood board & African mahogany back. This guitar holds its own against my 2 early 80s Love Rocks with OX4 and Throbak PG102s! Big fat ‘58 style neck. Very comfortable. Not overwhelmingly big. Fills the hand nicely. Was planning on immediately selling it, because the Tokai became available. Made the mistake of plugging it in! It’s a keeper.
And now the Tokai.
The Tokai “Jazz” pick ups are really, really sweet! Neck is slimmer than I was hoping for. Actually feels smaller than my Gibson ‘63 RI. Still an amazing and killer guitar! A new favorite! Really light as well. Neck pickup is classic PAF neck. A touch hollow, cleans up with a slight turn of the volume knob, but has a great bluesy Tone. Bridge is a great rock pickup, despite the Jazz moniker. Not over the top, but has enough bite and punch for Clapton/Cream.
Electronics are surprisingly good on both guitars as well. Heard the Crews electronics were sub par. Not finding that here. Same goes for the Tokai. Pots are nice and broken in and turn so easily on the Tokai! Both guitar’s Tone pots roll off the highs, but don’t kill the attack like on my Gibson(still have to figure out why that is). Volumes clean up in a nice linear fashion like my replacement CTS from Creamtone. Usually, the first thing I do is swap out harnesses. Have Bees and Black Beauties in my other MIJ guitars.
Happy camper! Going to go back to putting them through their rounds!
