Jackopie1

Here it is. Had to do the relic thing as I sanded through the auto paint I used!

Yes - I have! I built their P Bass kit. They're actually surprisingly solid, with straight necks and fine truss rods from what I can tell. The frets were OK The pickups are rubbish, and I ended up sticking in something else. The strings and tuners were also cack, and the bridge felt pretty flimsy, too. As a process though, I really enjoyed it, and as a gateway into the first steps of luthiery (soldering, fret-levelling, finishing, drilling for and installing new tuners and bridges if you end up upgrading them) it's great. The nut on mine also needed alot of work, as it was very high and ruining the intonation. I managed to mess that up a couple of times... Like someone else has said though, it is not value for money if you're looking at the bass you get out of it. I felt it was value for money for the experience! I'm a teacher, and ended up giving mine to the school band, as after gigging on it once, I realised I probably wouldn't reach for it too often. I'll post some pics in a sec. Jack

Hi all, I'm pretty new here, and new basses do not come around too often for me, so I'm excited to share this - a new Made in Japan Hard Puncher TPB97. But first - what a lovely, respectful community you have here; I've thoroughly enjoyed stumbling upon this website, and the couple of dealings I've had with people on the marketplace have been first class. I love Ps, and have only gigged on two basses prior to this - a second-hand Godin PJ that lasted me 15 years before age-induced niggles made it worth upgrading, and an American Fender pro ii precision, which I owned for a year, but never really gelled with (and a number of little quality control issues were enough to put me off - although that's a story for another day). Since summer, I've been getting around the country, visiting shops, and generally playing as many Ps as I could get my hands on. It's been great fun, making a day of it with friends on a number of occasions. This Tokai was one of the first I played, and for me, none of the subsequent Ps I played felt or sounded as right to me. It also has a feel of sturdiness and quality to it, that many of the basses I played did not. The fit and finish are genuinely first class, and it has a hand-wound pickup apparently, which has a really resonant, piano-like vibe. It cost just north of a grand, so not exactly cheap, but it is lovely. Apparently, Tokai do a factory setup, and then export models get a second set-up at the closest distribution centre to the shop, so it has a nice action out of the case. It was very hard to find anything at all about newer Tokai basses online, or on English speaking forums, so hopefully this will be useful to someone who is curious about their quality. I also played some of the cheaper new Made in China Tokais, which were not nearly as nice. I've had it for a week, and I'm not gigging until NYE now, but can't wait! All in all, just a very well made P Bass, but for those who like some specs: U-shaped neck, but it measures 22mm at the first fret, so not too chunky. It suits me just right. 42mm nut. Rosewood fretboard. It comes with Gotoh hardware, GHS boomers on it, and has a compound radius (7.25 - 10). The only downside so far is that the tweed case it comes with looks lovely, but there is a bit of play in the sides, and I wonder how sturdy it will be long term.

Thanks Alfie!

Phil sold me an EBS pedal- it came quickly and well packaged. Great to deal with!

Played on one of these at Andertons the other day. I agree that the neck felt lovely. Congrats on a great bass!

Thank you so much for the information. I've recently moved on a P Bass because, despite being in love with the aesthetic and sound, the neck was just a little too big in my hands for the 2 hour + gigs I sometimes find myself slogging through. That's amazing that the neck makes such a difference to how the sound feels- I'd never even thought of that! It'll primarily be a live bass, so that's great advice. Stumbling across Mark and Limelight seems a little too good to be true! I've bever ordered a custom bass, so it's an unfamiliar process for me, but quite exciting. I suppose you just have to deal with the fact that you don't know whether you're going to love it until you get it?! Thanks again. Jack.

Hi Limelight owners. I was wondering whether one of you could answer a question for me? I am very interested in ordering a PJ bass with a jazz neck - I've read great things about fit, finish and setup. They sound great from the videos I've seen, too. I like fairly skinny necks (the most comfortable neck I've played is a Godin, which has a jazz neck measuring 20mm at the 1st fret - I know this isn't the be all and end all as to how a neck feels). Mark has told me that the necks they use are similar to an American Standard Jazz. For those of you that have played the jazz necks, how do they feel? Are they fairly thin feeling? Cheers. Jack

Have been bass shopping recently, and by far the nicest rig I played through was an ABM 300 and one of the Ashdown 210s (Not the Neo, maybe the Rootmaster). I have always thought the tube preamp thing didn't give too much of a tube feel, but that thing felt and sounded so much like a full-blown tube amp- it's definitely something for me to save for now!

Lovely story! It’s very easy to reach for things that are more familiar, too. Do you mind if I ask whether you’ve ever had any issues with getting enough neck relief, as another user reported?

Yeah, that is a bit worrying about the relief. Unfortunately, the shop I found it in is in London, and I'm in Cornwall, but I'll give them a ring. Thanks for the heads up!

Thanks for the advice everybody- the Fender is going up for sale, and a deposit is going down on the Tokai. I thinl the hesitation comes primarily from not often dealing in these amounts of money!

Last year I came into a little bit of money, and so naturally my mind turned to basses. I'd played and gigged almost solely, for 15 years, with a Godin PJ that I picked up from a charity shop as a teenager, but I'd always loved the idea of a real Fender P Bass. I've always loved the precision sound. I walked out of PMT not soon after with a spanking new Pro ii P Bass, which I think sounds lovely, and plays well. After a year of gigging though, I like it, but can't say I absolutely love it. I just don't feel like it's 'the one' if that makes sense? And for the money it costs, it really needs to be my main bass for many years to come. Well, today I had a play on this lovely thing, and was absolutely smitten. I know it's just a p bass copy, but it played so beautifully, sounded warm and rich, and had a lovely low action. It's a 2021 made in Japan version of the Hard Puncher. £1,100. It was light, too. Am I mad for wanting to sell the Pro ii, take the depreciation loss and get the Tokai? Has anyone got any experience with these? Is this just the start of the endless GAS that, so far, I've largely avoided? Opinions welcome!

Hi John. I've had an eye on one of these- gigging with a P Bass which I'm perfectly happy with, but never owned a jazz bass so I'm definitely curious. What is the neck like? Chunky? Jack

There are clearly some cracking cheapie pedals out there. I'm relatively new to the world of effects, but 60 quid for a new EHX bass chorus seems absurdly cheap compared to what I was expecting! I think I've had some bad luck when it comes to the other 2 cheap pedals though. I jut had both a cheap Chinese tuner, amd a TC Nether Octaver, start playing silly buggers in the space of a couple of gigs- the tuner even when bypassed, so I think the universe has told me that there needs to be a limit to my thriftiness...

Ah Ok, thanks. That is also a beautiful bass.

Thank-you!

That is beatiful! Is that a G&L style j-pup?

I'm a simple man! Fender Pro ii. I know they can get a bad rep when it comes to value for money, but it feels and sounds lovely to me. I just can't settle between rounds and flats...

This was my only bass for a decade and a half, so I've always been partial to tele-ish headstocks.