Body - Alder Neck - Canadian Maple, set neck Fingerboard - Rosewood, dot inlays, 22 frets Hardware - Black Bridge - B-03 Bridge Pickups - 2 * TB-H Controls - 2*volume, 1*tone
The Tokai TB48 is based on the classic 'Thunderbird IV' bass guitar made by Gibson in the early 60's, designed by a car designer, to rival Fender Precision Bass Guitar.
With a striking appearance - a reverse body, the lower bout is larger than the upper bout - neck thru body design and 2 powerful humbucking pickups, this is a pretty amazing bass guitar.
The headstock is massively oversized, with a curl facing upwards at the end, the opposite of Fenders headstock, and 4 in line machine heads. The front is plain gloss black, with a large truss rod cover which has Tokai's signature logo on.
The back is plain, with 4 in line machine heads, unbranded, finished in black, and the guitars serial number printed in gold.
The Canadian Maple neck feels quite slim, a broad D profile, nut width is 42mm. It has a gloss finish to the rear, and an unbound Rosewood fingerboard with white dot position markers. Fretwork is to a high standard, and the board itself is also smooth, polished and slippery, all making for a very nice guitar to play.
The construction of a Thunderbird is a neck thru joint, meaning that the neck is all 1 piece of wood that carries on down to the end of the body, with Alder pieces then glued to either side of this to form the body shape.
The neck joins the body at the 16th fret on both sides, the shallow cutaway on the treble side means you can only really get to the 19th fret.
The body shape is gorgeous, smooth, sleek lines and gentle curves, very comfortable to play, and extremely eye catching. The lower bout has a long white 3 ply scratchplate, with the Thunderbird motif printed on.
Underneath this are the 3 control knobs, 2 volumes, 1 for each pickup, and a master tone, and the output jack socket.
The bridge and pickups are located on a raised centre strip, the thru neck. The bridge is a fairly simple 4 saddle arrangement, finished in black.
The Thunderbird has 2 passive humbuckers, one very close to the bridge, the other midway between the end of the fingerboard and bridge.
The TB48, all Thunderbirds in fact, is not the most versatile bass guitar ever, the passive electrics give a good, rich deep tone, excellent for blues, rock and metal. But if you're after a bass for jazz, pop or something lighter, look elsewhere!
A classic bass guitar with classic bass sounds, good value for money from Tokai, and with rare left handed choices.
£279




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