Inked Serial Number Fender Copies

[Sigmania]

Logging examples to try to figure out when they began and also the numbering scheme.

It appears clear that the first two digits are the year of mfr.

First inked serial numbers occur in 2009 in the last few months of the year.

I found an example preceding that with no serial number and date stamps of September 17 & 24 of 2009.

 

[Sigmania]

No serial number.

Date stamped.

'09 9.17 (Sept 17, 2009)
'09 9.24 (Sept 24, 2009)

Seems very Fujigen like.

Description

Hey now! You're looking at a super cool guitar.
This is a 2009 Tokai Japan Goldstar Sound Sunburst Guitar.
It weighs 7 lbs 12 oz. 25.5" scale, 1.69" nut width.
Tokai is well known for their attention to detail and quality workmanship.
This Goldstar Sound Strat is nothing short of awesome.
Alder body, maple neck, rosewood board.
Bathed in a beautiful 3-tone sunburst finish.
The pickups grab up this excellent Strat tone and you'd swear you're playing a Fender.
Shimmering chords, excellent note articulation.
It's in next to mint condition as you can see in all the photos.
Just setup - the neck is straight, the frets are clean, and the action is set to just about 3/32" at the 12th fret.
It includes the Fender G&G case you see in the photos.
This is a great opportunity to get your hands on a great playing Strat for the price you want.
Thanks for looking!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/3743215458...0rhz/o1zvfaJsK7D64bufHKnY=|tkp:Bk9SR_KvpvSeYQ

 

[Sigmania]

SN 096057

Number 57 in 2009?

Hi All,

I bought last week new from a music shop a Tokai Goldstar Sound (presumably TST50) strat copy. They had it in the shop for years and I finally decided if noone else was having it then I would.

The strange thing is, I thought Tokai were not making these fender copies in 2009, and that they were still manufacturing for fender japan at the time?

There are a few other features of the guitar that make it stand out from my other two TST50s (a 2011 sunburst and a 2013 mary kaye), namely:

-Very bright 'amber' sunburst
-One piece swamp ash body
-Parchment pickup covers/knobs
-Deeply tinted maple neck
-Plain unstamped (gotoh presumably) saddles
-09 serial number

Is it possible with the above features this was part of a limited run? The (apparently) one piece body in particular is very unusual.


https://www.strat-talk.com/threads/2009-tokai-goldstar-sound-strat-is-this-one-a-rarity.267937/

http://www.tokaiforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=21521

 

[Sigmania]

SN 100170

Number 170 in 2010?

Date stamped neck pocket:

"10.2.28" Feb 28, 2010
"10.3.4" March 15, 2010
"10.3.15" March 15, 2010

AST65 BB/M

https://reverb.com/item/32106689-tokai-ast-65-goldstar-sound-2010-japan-black

 

[Sigmania]

SN 110622

AST70 GS/R

https://www.ebay.com/itm/3141145696...w8fkv4RtCcrchT0kW0E/XzNMbK|tkp:Bk9SR_KvpvSeYQ

 

[Sigmania]

SN 120761

https://reverb.com/item/471945-tokai-goldstar-stratocaster-mint-natural-japan

 

[Sigmania]

SN 150240

AST104 R

Description

Made in Japan in 2015, the AST-104 was the Tokai modernisation on the classic Fender Stratocaster. Alder body with a U shape maple neck and a rosewood fingerboard (22 frets, 648mm scale length, 9.5" radius), it weighs 3.6kg's. Bone 42mm nut, Tokai ST-Vintage MK3 pickups and Gotoh machine heads give this thing the look and feel of a very high quality guitar. Body and matching headstock finish is a very dark blue with some metallic flake in it (although it looks black in the pics). 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1753022711...oe3gRlHjNt2fgxQCwDu31uQz8=|tkp:Bk9SR_KvpvSeYQ

 

[Sigmania]

SN 161039

https://reverb.com/item/19805992-tokai-tst50-goldstar-sound-strat-japan-golden-sunburst

 

[Sigmania]

S/N 160322

https://reverb.com/uk/item/12192255-tokai-tst-50-goldstar-sound-fiasta-red

 

[Sigmania]

SN 210681

https://reverb.com/item/52038612-tokai-goldstar-sound-stratocaster-tst95-gs-r-2021

 

[Sigmania]

2014 AST98 BBSR (listed as 118)

SN 140072


Number 72 in 2014?

https://mmguitarbar.com/products/20...-body-blue-burst-japan?variant=42335658508544

 

[Sigmania]

2010

SN 100710

Number 710 in 2010?

https://tagelily.top/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=36

 

[Sigmania]

Another 2010

SN 100160

Number 160 in this 2010?

Unmarked hardware.

https://aucview.aucfan.com/yahoo/e1065293183/

 

[Sigmania]

2019 TST95

SN 190231

https://reverb.com/item/27655430-to...-white-stratocaster-type-made-in-japan-tst95a

 

[Sigmania]

SN 190578 ?

I don''t think it is an TST50 as advertised. 8)

Description

The absolute hammer! After almost a year of waiting, we couldn't wait to receive this Custom Order Tokai. We are presenting the guitar in a small number of pieces and absolutely exclusively for the Swiss market with the following ingredients: Body - light swamp ash with 60's body shape with a beautiful shimmering blonde finish Neck - one-piece fat C-shape neck with 9.5" radius and in flamed maple and beautiful tinted vintage finish and of course with original F***** headstock hardware - from Gotoh and kept in gold throughout. Try it out immediately and give yourself a huge gift is the order of the day. The photos may not correspond to the guitar in stock. Please ask us for photos of the available instrument.

https://reverb.com/item/28910935-tokai-tst-50