Kasuga Deluxe LP
When in the 70's Tokai found that it couldn’t keep up with demand, it found a factory that could meet its quality standards: Kasuga. Another joint venture was established between Tokai USA and Kasuga called Kasuga International. In ’72, Kasuga guitars began to come into America and later to Europe. Guitars were copies of the most popular Gibson, Fender, and Martin acoustic and electric solid body designs.
My guitar is by the full name Kasuga Les Paul Deluxe Gold Top Dark Back . Originally only Kasuga Les Paul Deluxe. Year model -74? There is no serial number on it, only the Made in Japan tag behind the headstock. The first thing that catches the eye is that Deluxe should have the small pickups, but since this is a copy, it is ok to have the bigger ones. The body is not fully solid and it has the "sandwich" structure; it is clued together from several pieces of mahogany and it is hollow from the middle (70's Gibson's were also clued from several pieces). This makes the collectors run away, but the main thing is that this is a very good guitar; in fact maybe the best bolt neck LP I have seen. Pickups are Maxxon brand and it is said that in worst case you can find Maxxon Humbucker look-alikes that have only singlecoil inside. Well I'm not going to open these pickups to check it out. To me they sound like on any other good humbuckers.
This guitar is fully original and it came with original black case with Golden bindings on it. Anybody who has been "holding" a guitar more than 10 years can say that this is well made guitar with quality vintage feeling. There is no cheapo "smell" on it, but like often on the copy models, the tuners could be better. This Guitar is rather heavy like LP should. The paintjob is first class (my girl friend thought that it was a new guitar when I did show it to her for the first time). The gold plating has started to go of from the stop tailpiece, but it only makes the guitar look more ROCK. The neck is very thin as you can see in the pictures and the headstock shape is the "right" one (pre lawsuit).
I have seen a pictures from a top of the line set neck Kasuga LP with a tree of life inlay on the fretboard, but for me Gold Top with a dark back is the most beautiful Kasuga LP model.
