NGD - Tokai EVH Bumblebee

[aivoryuk]

I picked up this 80’s Tokai Evh Bumblebee.
Remarkable condition considering the age. It has a scratch plate as routing has been done for a neck pickup.

Needs a bit of a setup but the neck is very comfortable.
I have no idea what the pickup is but is sounds surprisingly good. Certainly no need to change.

Bridge isn’t great but I’ve got a vega trem which should work with it.

 

[DrewJD82]

Hell yeah, congrats!!

I started digging into Tokai’s a few months ago and there’s really a treasure trove sitting over there in Japan. While 70’s Fenders are jumping up about a grand a year in price, 70’s Tokai’s, Greco’s and Burny’s are just doing a slow climb.

 

[Jarick]

Looks awesome, what a unique guitar.

What kind of bridge is that? Kind of looks like an old PRS John Mann of some kind.

 

[aivoryuk]

Hell yeah, congrats!!

I started digging into Tokai’s a few months ago and there’s really a treasure trove sitting over there in Japan. While 70’s Fenders are jumping up about a grand a year in price, 70’s Tokai’s, Greco’s and Burny’s are just doing a slow climb.

It was a good price - I didn’t need this guitar at all but the bumblebee has always been my favourite of the early EVH designs. But I’ve never fancied the fender EVH version. This is at least a bit interesting and different.

 

[aivoryuk]

Looks awesome, what a unique guitar.

What kind of bridge is that? Kind of looks like an old PRS John Mann of some kind.

I’m not sure. The saddles are brass
The low E action was really high but lowering it basically made the saddle flat on the base plate and the e String was quite a lot lower than the a string but a little change in the bridge 6 height has evened it out a bit.

But I think I’m going to use my vega trem that is lying around.

 

[EOengineer]

You REALLY cannot beat 80s Tokais. Even their new MIJ stuff is great but man 80s is like god tier stuff in many cases. I see their strats pop up all the time for WAY less than they should.

 

[greatmutah]

Bridge looks like a copy of a keyhole saddle brass vintage tremolo like Kahler made for Charvel. Which makes sense for a lot of reasons.

Some info on bridges of that era on the early USA Charvels:

www.usacharvels.com/id/pg17.htm

Great looking bumble bee. Looks just like a Charvel of that era.

 

[itchyfingers]

You REALLY cannot beat 80s Tokais. Even their new MIJ stuff is great but man 80s is like god tier stuff in many cases. I see their strats pop up all the time for WAY less than they should.

I was just reading a thread somewhere where a guy claimed that the vintage inspired Tokai stuff from the 80s was so good it was being used by scammers to fake legit 50s Fenders. That sucks and everything, but that's also pretty impressive on Tokai's part!

 

[aivoryuk]

I’ve fitted the vega trem to it now