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Believe historyisjunk refers to 'Japanguitars', trading on Reverb among other places. Whilst he usually has a few nice used examples, I've always thought his prices were a bit punchy,
The LED was full honduran mahogany and the select was chambered honduran mahogany. I currently have a chambered Gibson historic R8 and whilst it is a great guitar I regret selling the Crews KTR (Gas attack) as I preferred it to the Gibson.
I'm sure their teles are just as good but you have many models. They are all very good, byt the vintage line ones are the highest spec and super expensive.
The consensus on Crews vs Momose is that in general both makes are quite nice, but most seem to slightly prefer the Crews.
Here are both of the ones I had:
By the way @historyisjunk is right when he says that Navigator and Grecos (if you choose the right ones) are also great. There's other really high end brands... like G'seven or Fullertone and many other very very expensive, high end japanese brands. All great really. They have an awesome market.
Japanguitars, has some examples, but you're substantially better off buying directly from japan, both in price and choice. Either Digimart or go to the japanese yahoo auctions and use a proxy. You'll take the hit of shipping and customs, but most time it's worth it, I've done it more than I care to admit.
Momose, have a pure vintage spec line with ‘correct’ headstocks,
and another line (with their own headstock design) where they make subtle ergonomic improvements on original designs (eg a less bulky heel, as on my strat).
I think that there is a Momose factory tour video on YouTube
. They still use thin poly finish (& although they have nitro top coat ; this is their one drawback I think)
To me, Crews, Momose, and high-end Tokai’s are the creme de la creme of modern Les Paul builds, and compare extremely favorably to Gibson Historic Custom Shops. I almost always replace stock electronics and pickups with boutique counterparts, so I’m the wrong person to comment on that, but the wood and craftsmanship are incredible. As to which is best, it’s 6 on one hand, half dozen on the other- I oscillate between which is best on an hourly basis. Crews and Tokai seem to have more variety in terms of price points and models, and seem to be easier to come across than Momose. But the two Momose guitars I own were well worth the hunt.
https://youtu.be/XSUtWjse2vM
Meanwhile, here are three Crews with Monty’s, Doyle Coils, and Sigil Snakebite pickups respectively:
https://youtu.be/h94S_hQYU3Y
https://youtu.be/J6VbxldEiDo
https://youtu.be/06g7tYHQQQc
I did change the pickups and knobs but other than that, it's as it came (I still have the original pickups, which are also blacktops). These are a custom Bare Knuckle set with a Stormy Monday neck and an A5 Mule bridge.