And then there was Saito....

[Orvillain]

Anyone know anything about Saito guitars? Japanese made "simple" guitars, from what I am told. I tried one out, and I really liked it. It's a bit different to my usual thing.

It sounded pretty full and fat. It costs around £1300, which is twice the price of the Gibson Tribute I was considering.

22 frets. 25.5inch scale. Alder body. Maple neck. Rosewood fingerboard. GOTOH locking tuners. GOTOH trem bridge - GOTOH 510T-FE1.

Benefit with the Saito is - I could take it home in a suitcase!

 

[unix-guy]

There are a few Japanese brands that look interesting to me:

• Saito
• Momose
• VOLA

Most of the Saito stuff I've seen listed has looked appealing but no hands-on with any of them.

 

[Eagle]

All these are Ibanez prestige quality. .

 

[2112]

• Momose

These are ridiculous, especially the ones they make for the Japanese market. I toured their factory when I went to Japan and the shop is very old school with minimal automation and lots of great craftsmen.

 

[laxu]

These are ridiculous, especially the ones they make for the Japanese market. I toured their factory when I went to Japan and the shop is very old school with minimal automation and lots of great craftsmen.

I saw several of these when I was in Japan last month and all the ones I saw were really nice. If I didn't already have a pile of electrics, I would have definitely bought one.

Of course, finding lefty guitars is far more difficult so that's going to limit options in a big way for Orvillain.

 

[Eagle]

These are ridiculous, especially the ones they make for the Japanese market. I toured their factory when I went to Japan and the shop is very old school with minimal automation and lots of great craftsmen.

I think you would be surprised how much is done by hand in any guitar factory.

 

[SKU]

There are a few Japanese brands that look interesting to me:

• Saito
• Momose
• VOLA

Most of the Saito stuff I've seen listed has looked appealing but no hands-on with any of them.

Those Momose les pauls look amazing. Never had the pleasure of trying one though ... I think it's the high end custom shop for the Deviser group.

 

[2112]

Those Momose les pauls look amazing. Never had the pleasure of trying one though ... I think it's the high end custom shop for the Deviser group.

That's right!

I actually forgot I did some video while i was there. Lovely crew.

 

[Eagle]

Don’t forget FGN .

 

[SillyOctpuss]

Anyone know anything about Saito guitars? Japanese made "simple" guitars, from what I am told. I tried one out, and I really liked it. It's a bit different to my usual thing.

View attachment 20712
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It sounded pretty full and fat. It costs around £1300, which is twice the price of the Gibson Tribute I was considering.

22 frets. 25.5inch scale. Alder body. Maple neck. Rosewood fingerboard. GOTOH locking tuners. GOTOH trem bridge - GOTOH 510T-FE1.

Benefit with the Saito is - I could take it home in a suitcase!

That's not usually my thing either but damn that looks cool. I love the black top look vs having the whole thing black, the natural ash body and maple neck visible is classy. The hardware is quality stuff and no rear trem cover =

I also like the matt black with no fret markers.

 

[Orvillain]

Well... I went back today. The shop is Taniguchi Gakki, which has an entire floor of left handed guitars to try. So I tried it out again, and I dug it. Quite a bit.

But then I asked them if they had any Les Paul's I could try - in the most stupid broken Japanese you could imagine.

After rolling around on the floor laughing their asses off at me, they brought over two MIJ Tokai Les Paul's.

Which clearly wiped the floor with the Saito in terms of final tone.

So now I'm back in Les Paul consideration land. You'll neeeevvvveeerrrrr leaaaavvveeee!!

 

[SillyOctpuss]

Well... I went back today. The shop is Taniguchi Gakki, which has an entire floor of left handed guitars to try. So I tried it out again, and I dug it. Quite a bit.

But then I asked them if they had any Les Paul's I could try - in the most stupid broken Japanese you could imagine.

After rolling around on the floor laughing their asses off at me, they brought over two MIJ Tokai Les Paul's.

Which clearly wiped the floor with the Saito in terms of final tone.

So now I'm back in Les Paul consideration land. You'll neeeevvvveeerrrrr leaaaavvveeee!!

That store sounds awesome for left handed players. At least you know for sure what you want now and can concentrate on LPs.

I'd love to visit some of the guitar stores in Tokyo. Now we're back in Norn Iron I don't even bother visiting the guitar stores here because they're beyond shit. I only ever really go into one now when we visit my wife's family in california.

 

[Warmart]

Well... I went back today. The shop is Taniguchi Gakki, which has an entire floor of left handed guitars to try. So I tried it out again, and I dug it. Quite a bit.

But then I asked them if they had any Les Paul's I could try - in the most stupid broken Japanese you could imagine.

After rolling around on the floor laughing their asses off at me, they brought over two MIJ Tokai Les Paul's.

Which clearly wiped the floor with the Saito in terms of final tone.

So now I'm back in Les Paul consideration land. You'll neeeevvvveeerrrrr leaaaavvveeee!!

Damn, sounds like a great "problem" to have!

I have to get there someday, OMG, seen and heard all about the Tokyo ones and it's always boggled my brain. Can only imagine what it's like in person.

 

[laxu]

I have to get there someday, OMG, seen and heard all about the Tokyo ones and it's always boggled my brain. Can only imagine what it's like in person.

It's like this:

Except all the green bits are Fenders and Gibsons.

Only then can you find the actually interesting stuff.

 

[Orvillain]

It's like this:

Except all the green bits are Fenders and Gibsons.

Only then can you find the actually interesting stuff.

You're a bad bad man, Laxu.

 

[norminal]

So now I'm back in Les Paul consideration land.

Well, I mean you can still fit it in a suitcase if you just get it over with and break the headstock now.

 

[unix-guy]

Don’t forget FGN .

Actually, I did!

 

[laxu]

You're a bad bad man, Laxu.

But seriously, it boggles the mind how many Fenders and Gibsons pretty much all Japanese stores have. While some of the Fenders might be MIJ, you'd think Japanese domestic brands would be more prominent. I guess it's the "grass is greener" thing where Japanese folks want the US brands and US/European folks want the Japanese brands.

 

[Orvillain]

But seriously, it boggles the mind how many Fenders and Gibsons pretty much all Japanese stores have. While some of the Fenders might be MIJ, you'd think Japanese domestic brands would be more prominent. I guess it's the "grass is greener" thing where Japanese folks want the US brands and US/European folks want the Japanese brands.

I walked around Ochano a couple of times already in the last week. Yeah, tons of Gibson and Fender, which I don't mind too much tbh. But outside of Taniguchi Gakki, left handed guitars are really hard to find this year. Wasn't always so!

The "Used Guitars" shop part way down the road, opposite where Ishibashi is (green sign) is where I bought my Orville by Gibson from in 2008. I got it for a totally silly dick price, which equated to £380 back then. Such an amazing find at the time.

I feel like this Gibson Tribute and Tokai LP's are a similar deal to be honest. £660ish for any of the three, is a pretty good steal!

 

[laxu]

I walked around Ochano a couple of times already in the last week. Yeah, tons of Gibson and Fender, which I don't mind too much tbh. But outside of Taniguchi Gakki, left handed guitars are really hard to find this year. Wasn't always so!

The "Used Guitars" shop part way down the road, opposite where Ishibashi is (green sign) is where I bought my Orville by Gibson from in 2008. I got it for a totally silly dick price, which equated to £380 back then. Such an amazing find at the time.

I feel like this Gibson Tribute and Tokai LP's are a similar deal to be honest. £660ish for any of the three, is a pretty good steal!

I was mainly hunting for pedals and read that Ochanomizu area was not the best for those so I skipped it completely. I'm going to Japan again in August so might check the area then.

Digimart.net makes it a lot easier to find what store has what, so you don't necessarily need to even visit or go through a bunch of websites. If you haven't already, I recommend you try using it to find used lefty LP style guitars.

I mentioned them earlier, but the Hard Off stores in Akihabara might be worth a visit too. There's a few pretty close together so it doesn't take long to go through them. Their prices at least for pedals were cheaper than what you find in music stores. The guitars on the wall ranged to surprisingly high end for this sort of store, there was a Custom Shop Fender in one of the display cases for example, and a beautiful Momose Tele for around 2000€ hanging on the rack. I would have bought that if I hadn't gotten a Tele last year.