Tokai Love Rock - Can someone help identify the model?

hoofhearted

Hi guys, 

I bought a second hand MIJ Love Rock today and its amazing. But I'm trying to identify the model number to get an idea of the value (I paid €795).The serial number seems to date to 2002 (0306xxx).

I checked inside the bridge and neck pickup cavities and it has EZ-22 VF or E2-22 VF written inside. This doesnt sound like the typical model numbers as they seem to typically start with LS.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks!

pics of guitar
https://photos.app.goo.gl/7uhtWVfENhuMcGCV6
https://photos.app.goo.gl/haRShrzmZEJNhWbb8

pics of neck/bridge pup cavities (very hard to make out sorry!)
https://photos.app.goo.gl/gTMVFSWVUVCNUxk58
https://photos.app.goo.gl/SnnSZpFaEYrHgN24A

Funkfingers

IIRC, the one I owned twenty plus years ago was an LS-60. It had a flame sycamore top with narrow “tiger” striping. 

Your example appears to have a plainer top. Hence, it could be an LS-50.

StefB

You’ll have more luck tracing the exact origin of Coronavirus than finding info on any Tokai guitar. It’s as though they are owned by the North Korean government. 

Doug

Try  www.tokaiforum.com      I used to have a LS90, plain top, (beautiful guitar) Tokai model numbers used to equate to 000's of Japanese yen/price on the Japanese domestic market.

Kittyfrisk

Looks like it could be a 2003 ( if the serial numbers are impressed in the headstock) but as to the model, as @StefB said its a bit of a lottery.
It's hard to see from the photo's but it looks to have the headstock dimple, so is an export model, but nothing wrong with that.
Sorry I can't be of more help, but I had the same wild goose chase with my LS-85 & only managed to sort it out by much detective work & help from previous owners.
Hope you get lucky, but more & clearer photo's would help 

hoofhearted

Thanks folks yeah it's a bit annoying how it's so hard to distinguish the models, it's got the serial imprinted so looks to be a 2003 jap but so many variations it's hard to value. There's a nice big maple cap on it and it sounds fantastic (bareknuckle cold sweat in the neck and BN nail bomb in the  bridge.) Would be nice to find out more about it if possible

Nikc

At a guess its a Tokai Love Rock worth close to £800 - I base this view on the fact that you paid that and any object is only worth what somebody is prepared to pay for it - enjoy

hoofhearted

Nikc said:

At a guess its a Tokai Love Rock worth close to £800 - I base this view on the fact that you paid that and any object is only worth what somebody is prepared to pay for it - enjoy

Ha well yep I know what a plank of wood is worth to me anyway!it seems to kick the arse of the Gibson's I've had but these tokais are a bit of a mystery after doing some research so I'm kinda intrigued

Deadman

I'm not 100% certain but the writing more likely relates to build date, not model number. But the VF is certainly your 'V'iolin 'F'inish. The stamp confirms it's a 2003 build.

The 2003 model catalogue is here:

https://www.vintagejapanguitars.com.br/en/tokai-2003-catalogue/

Rather confusingly, for that year Tokai added an 'A' prefix to their Japanese models (which normally identifies them as Korean builds). So yours appears to be the ALS 65 - Japanese - 2 piece maple cap - mahogany back - mahogany set neck- VF. And as @Doug said above, it means it would have had a list price of 65000 yen (£500ish).

Nice guitar, I had an LS85 and it played and sounded great.

hoofhearted

Thanks for this @Deadman this is really helpful

sawyer

I had a 2003 LS85F with a flamed veneered sycamour top. That was nothing to denote this other than I bought it NOS about 2007ish. Payed £630 with a Gator case. Excellent guitar which I sold when I aquired a Gibson Standard. Tokai was just as good except I prefered Burst Buckers and I struggle to have two guitars the same. Don't know why they dint at least write the model number in the cavity. If yours has a solid maple top with full thickness figuring visible in the pickup cavity, it would be higher spec.