Hi Mike!
Very interesting topic and highly controversial. The pic of the body of your ST60 looks very close to an ST80 ash/nitro I own. I am also fairly sure by now that Tokai actually built some ST80 with non-V-necks in the early 80s and rosewood fretboards.
Let's face it: Tokai built (and still builds) some really good guitars. But as a company they have to learn a lot.
Cheers! Rup
my early 80s Springy does not have as hard a V shape neck as some of my `54 Japanese Fenders do.
I`m not quite sure what you mean by your last comment of having a lot to learn...and who doesn`t... but many of the 80s MIJs were built for the Japanese market and not meant to be precise replicas of American models...some were, but not all and not all the time... some weren`t, they were designed for Japanese hands since thats who they were targeting, perhaps they never dreamed that foreigners from all over the world would be paying such high prices for them all these years later, but then I`m sure Leo never imagined that either. Japanese companies did and still do special runs for chain shops over here, not to mention one offs or custom orders, so just when experts think they know and have seen it all, along comes something different. I can`t say Tokai only made certain guitars with certain shaped necks because I haven`t seen all old Tokais yet. I try to keep an open mind on things like this, but thats just me.
Thanks Roger.
