New to the forum, new Tokai owner

[madcat]

Hi All,

What a great forum ! I found it a few weeks ago and it was very helpfull when I started to search informations about Tokai guitars.

Let's introduce myself, I've been playing for about 20 years and I can say that I'm a guitar lover. I like to play, but I also like the instrument, chasing tone, looking for new and vintage gear, etc ... I'm not a big collector, but since a few time, I try to have less guitar, but better quality instruments. That's why I jumped into the Tokai world, as the vintage (50's & 60's) fender strats are just out of my price range...

I would like to share my fresh experience regarding the Tokai guitar

First of all, I got a lot of informations on the forum and I was quickly decided to find a good Tokai ST-100. I found one in the Koiz guitar shop. I can say it was not cheap, but I decided to take the risk to buy it (even if the communication with Sat was not the best at the begining). I always wanted to have a nice 50's copy, well used, 1 piece ash body, but I did not wanted to buy a fender custom shop as I already own a Fender Gilmour strat.

And guess what ? This guitar is fantastic It has a Great vintage feeling, it is vibrating as no other of my other strats. I think Tokai used premium wood to build these guitars. The craftmanship is brilliant, no other words ! In term of acoustic, in my collection, only a Gibson Les Paul custom shop can compete with it. I have owned a fair number of strat in the past, but my ST-100 is now my best strat ever. Btw, I just sold my deluxe strat and I think to sell my SRV as well to find a good ST-80 to replace it.

I have one question for you all, I'm wondering how this "copy" compare to the original

Did someone had one time the chance to try a 54 or a 57 Fender original strat to compare with a high end Tokai ?

Thanks for your comments and greetings from Switzerland.
Best Regards
Chris

 

[madcat]

Let me know what you think about it

 

[JohnA]

Absolutely beautiful!! Congratulations, and welcome

 

[bluejeannot]

Fabulous guitar.Here`s something strange , your guitar is made of japanese Sen a wood that Fender never used and yet although considered a second rate tonewood by some ,to my ears anyway it sounds just as good or better than Ash or Alder ,go figure!Gabe.

 

[madcat]

Thank you for your comments.

You are right bluejeannot, Sen wood is not considered as the best wood. But I can tell you this piece of wood is so resonant that you can feel it through your body when you play it. I never had this feeling before with any Strat.

Cheers

 

[Anonymous]

Fabulous guitar.Here`s something strange , your guitar is made of japanese Sen a wood that Fender never used and yet although considered a second rate tonewood by some ,to my ears anyway it sounds just as good or better than Ash or Alder ,go figure!Gabe.

All true. Gabe & I have done a few comparisons (using my guitars & his), & sen & ash both seem to be very similar, tonally. The sound is noticeably different to alder - not better or worse, but with an interesting character of it's own.

Congrats - looks like a great Strat.

Mike