Love single P90 pickup hardtail SG Juniors and have played enough to know they play and sound great too. I’ve always loved the look of early Polaris White ones but was put off by the steeply rising prices ($18k at time of writing!).
This came up on Facebook marketplace when I wasn’t expecting it. When the seller mentioned, almost apologised, for the big neck, I knew had to have it.
It was very fairly priced but the accompanying Gear4Music croc case was badly damaged at the headstock end during shipping. It took the brunt of the impact, the only damage to the guitar being a single chip on the top corner of the headstock which reattached invisibly.
Good friend and luthier Tony Berrington kindly also did an amazing repair job on the case so that more considerable damage is all but invisible too.
Like many modern Far Eastern guitars, it’s well made and excellent. More of a pale putty colour than Polaris White, looks great.
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- Tokai USG90 front
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- Tokai USG90 body
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- Tokai USG90, Faber bridge
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- Tokai USG90 headstock
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- Tokai USG90 back
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- Tokai USG90 in case
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- Gear4Music croc hardcase
It plays superbly and the stock pickup is remarkable for a cheap guitar. I removed the very pretty black/white/black laminated pickup height shim for another day and the increased distance from the strings really opened up the sound without significant volume loss.
The acoustic sound is ringing, clear and open. It has plenty of snap when played clean and sings through overdrive.
The original wraparound tailpiece is an accurate replica of an early sixties ‘stairstep’, so accurate that it has the intonation for a wound third string, which makes it useless for modern setups with a plain string. It also came with an intonable Tonepros unit, which was better but I subsequently retired it for a lightweight Faber and matching studs, which sounds wonderful.
This guitar is a scrapper – despite its relative modesty in my collection, it plays and sounds great wherever it goes.