Oh shit what have I started now?
Guess I gotta finish it.

I wanted to add some faded brown to give this more of an aged faded burst vs the uniform ambered colour it has stock from the factory as you see and know.
Once all the hardware was off however I decided I didn't like the convexed hump down the center of the guitar between the pups so I decided to sand it out flat like the old Bursts. I block sanded it back, studying a whole bunch of bursts and replicas, to the tail posts so it was all uniform and also tackled the slightly higher hump on the treble post side, since these are all hand carved tops.
So here we go down the rabbit hole!

After playing a few friends LS80's & LS100's etc I always dug these old Tokai's.
The lacquer finish just feels old and worn in like a favourite t-shirt or shoes.
I ended up buying this 1980 LS80 last summer but finally had it shipped this past week.
Weighs in at 9 lbs 7 ounces (not one of the lighter Tokai's that seem to be more common) & the stock Gotoh pickups were nothing special on this one however.
Not sure why Tokai, if modelled after a true 1958 Les Paul, squared off their neck heels?
Not a huge fan of them vs a true well rounded heel but it is a minor gripe I suppose.

Appears the previous owner played this a lot and it showed but it was quite a bummer to see he had it on a shitty rubber stand that melted the lacquer on the lower body and little rubber flecks have randomly melted into the finish throughout. Ah well, adds to the overall mojo I suppose. :D

Decided to swap the pups for some old double cream Tokai X stamped pups I had. Same font as the Z's and they sounded great but I really wanted the new set of A3 Mojotones in there.

While it was unstrung I did a quick re-crown and fret end dressing as these frets, while at about 60%, were a bit worn.

So back on the bench it went for the double cream A3 Mojo's and they shall stay for now, such awesome best bang for your buck pickups! I think I have 4 sets thus far and when they go on sale I jump at em.

That is all for now folks, off to work...