i know somebody who is a person in direct contact with Tokai, I would like to share the following:
1.) In the late 50s and early 60s, Mr. Adachi bought the best Gibson guitar he could find. The family did the same thing with Fender a decade later. These guitars serve as "master" guitars, which still hang on the wall of the Tokai factory up to this day. All Tokai guitars are built to the specs of these master guitars.
2.) When Tokai was threatened with lawsuits from the big companies, they kept all the wood in the factory. Those aged in storage. When they resumed making Fender copies three years ago, those were the same wood that were used. I consider the people who bought their Tokais from Lyric back in 2010 lucky, as those were the guitars from the 2009 batch.
3.) Mr. Adachi never meant to copy Gibson and Fender, but rather instill Japanese production methods for utmost quality to surpass American standards.
..at the end of the day, whatever guitar, whichever, suites your taste is the guitar that is...
