Highly rated Japanese copy of Gibson Les Paul. 22 fret rosewood fingerboard, and aesthetically and feature wise, a replica of a Les Paul. This particular example was a secondhand example from approximately 1990.
The finish is good, and the Love Rock really does look the part. The plastics felt flimsy and the pick guard had cracked, whilst the plastic mounting the jack plug did seem flimsy and I had concerns about how much abuse it would take. The action is ok, but not brilliant on this particular example with strings choking in the higher reaches, and frets protruding enough from the edge of the fretboard for the top E string to get trapped under the edge of the frets on occasions.
Review: Tokai Love Rock LC-107, LS-130F & LS-160 Kitarablogi’s year starts off with some really tasty guitars – three Japanese Tokai Love Rock models. Handcrafted Love Rocks just like these originally laid the foundation for Tokai’s legendary reputation as a maker of high-quality copies of vintage guitars.
Sound wise, it sounds similar to many of the mid-priced Les Paul copies. I personally find it lacked the subtlety of the genuine PAFs of an original, and certainly doesn’t sound as sweet. Cranked up through a rock style back line (Marshall, Boogie, etc), I think would be ok, but for cleaner styles, I felt it lacked something, and to my ears, didn’t sound similar enough to the Gibson.
My main problem with this guitar was the stability of the tuning. This particular guitar literally would not stay in tune for more than a couple of songs. I don’t know if all Love Rocks are like this, but seeing as the guitar belonged to a friend of mine, my advice was to stick some heavy gauge strings on and use it for rhythm work, otherwise sell it.
Conclusion
I like to think that I’m not your guitar tech-head gear snob, in fact, I’ve played some lousy expensive guitars over the years and some great mid range ones, however for me, it is simple as being able to get a tune out of a guitar. Obviously, other factors come into it such as tonal response, action, sustain, etc, but unfortunately, I really struggled to get a tune out of this example. I don’t know if this one was particularly bad, but the only way I could live with this one would be to replace the pickups with some Seymour Duncans, replace the machine heads, and put some heavier gauge strings on it – probably to the tune of £300 or more. With secondhand Love Rocks asking in excess of £800, that’s some considerable investment, hence my advice to my good friend. Sorry, I wouldn’t buy one based on this.
Video demo (complete with string choking) below:
Comokanu
Senior Member
![Rock Rock](/uploads/1/2/5/6/125694806/209843308.jpg)
I'm not sure if it's already been discussed, but the search function on the forum doesn't work on the iPhone for some odd reason and the laptop I have is prehistoric, so apologies if this has already been debated.
I've heard that MIJs are very good, and I've heard very good things about the Elitist Epiphones and Tokai Love Rock series.
The guitar looks nice and the MIJs are at a sort of premium price($800) and from what I have heard, Gibson do charge a lot for their name and that the quality of the guitars Gibson sell now have been somewhat unimpressive.
There is not a single store near me that sells the Love Rock so I am unable to try them out so for now I would like to ask how these Tokai Love Rocks compare to Gibson Les Pauls?
I've heard that MIJs are very good, and I've heard very good things about the Elitist Epiphones and Tokai Love Rock series.
The guitar looks nice and the MIJs are at a sort of premium price($800) and from what I have heard, Gibson do charge a lot for their name and that the quality of the guitars Gibson sell now have been somewhat unimpressive.
There is not a single store near me that sells the Love Rock so I am unable to try them out so for now I would like to ask how these Tokai Love Rocks compare to Gibson Les Pauls?