ST-40?

[paulos]

Hi Everyone,

Curiosity driving this post. I have a goldstar sound, maple neck (fantastic),sunburst,cheaper tuners,no final prospect on bridge saddles, no staggered pole-pieces (just flat) on pickups, 3-way switch, no serial no. on neck plate. From reading other posts the clues lead me to believe it's an st-40 (economy type) guitar...do you think i'm correct?...or does the lack of serial no. mean that it may be tokai neck on another body?...either way it's still a great guitar..so i'm not that bothered..just curious. The pickups arn't all that great so i'm tempted to replace them (any suggestions as to a good pickup?)...i'd quite like fender custom '54's but they are a little pricey for me!

 

[mirrorboy]

Hi Paulos

One thing you could do, which might help to satisfy your curiosity, is unscrew the neck from the body and check for x=xx numbers. They would be on the body end of the neck and in the control cavity.
If you dont want to restring, just put a capo tight on the first fret after slackening the strings. Four screws and then you might find something out. Good Luck!

P.S. I still haven't made up my mind what these numbers actually mean but they can be helpful. Has anyone got any ideas? Maybe I should start a new thread about it.

 

[javelin70]

Paulos,

The AST/TST-40's had serial numbers, I have an AST-40 from the late 80's and it has a serial no on the neck plate. It has a cheaper model Gotoh tuners (not Kluson type), the tremolo is cast in one piece and the bridge saddles are also cast. Mine is also a maple neck (one piece) and it has the vintage 7,25" fingerboard radius. It's a great guitar, I've changed the tuners to a set of Tokai "Klusons" and the pickups are now Seymour Duncans (Hot Stack's and Little '59). My guess is that your guitar is a newer korean Goldstar, they don't have serial numbers.

Mike

 

[paulos]

Hi Mike & Mirrorboy,

I'll try taking of the neck tommorrow and let you know what I find. Mike, I don't think the neck is Korean as it has a made in japan sticker on it, also, it must be early 80's as is has a 'lawsuit' headstock...the plot thickens!...Paulos.

 

[sneakyjapan]

the " 40 " in the model number means it originally sold for 40000 yen, over here that means very low end guitar. The 80`s were the bubble years when Japanese had money to burn so selling a guitar at that price meant entry level... my concern would be the low quality of the parts used, plus the wood would have been the lowest quality as well, maybe several pieces glued together?
Just got and returned a Greco 1970`s tele yesterday... the neck was 5... FIVE... freakin pieces of wood WITH a maple cap, so thats 6 pieces of wood, top loader bridge, and the body was 2 piecs of wood... but glued one on top on the other. It looked great in the pics on line but up close, appeared to be painted with house paint. kept it an hour and returned the thing. So, a 40000 yen guitar is NOT top of the line.

 

[paulos]

Hi Sneaky,

I never thought this guitar was 'high end', although the neck appears to be one piece maple, the body 2 pieces of alder...i took the neck off and there was '5-16' stamped on it...(what this means i have no idea!)...there were no markings on the body where the neck fits in. Any ideas anyone?

paulos.

 

[javelin70]

Hi Mike & Mirrorboy,

I'll try taking of the neck tommorrow and let you know what I find. Mike, I don't think the neck is Korean as it has a made in japan sticker on it, also, it must be early 80's as is has a 'lawsuit' headstock...the plot thickens!...Paulos.

Ok, then the neck plate probably has been replaced. My AST-40 had the modified headstock but it has been modified by a previous owner to look like the real thing again . And sneakyjapan, the wood used in the cheaper Tokai's from the 80's is actually very good. The body on my AST-40 is made of three pieces (alder) and the neck is one piece maple with an incredible finish. This guitar is my favorite, it's actually better than most strats I've tried (including ridicolously expensive Fenders). Of course I've changed the pickups (now Duncans) and the tuners (Tokai (Gotoh) "Klusons") but the cast one piece tremolo is actually very good. This guitar has an excellent tone and sustain!

Mike

 

[Nik Lloyd]

I think I can clarify this. Ive had two ST-40's (early 80's models with the true Fen*** shape headstocks). Both were identical to the ST-50's except they had the cheaper Tuners and Bar Magnet non-staggered pole pick ups. They both had "L" serial numbers on the neck plate and "Final Prospec"saddles. Both were still really nice players despite the cheaper parts, and I am sure they were original. Hope this helps

 

[mirrorboy]

Hi everyone
Paulos, the only marks I've seen in the neck socket are tiny squiggles (probably somebody's initial ?); sometimes green, red or blue crayon. I have also seen these marks on the neck-end. If you unscrew the pickguard, you might find 5=16 in the control cavity on a patch of unpainted wood :wink:

It sounds like you might have the TST40, which I think is the same as the TST50 except for the cheaper hardware and pickups. Paulos, sorry to keep bugging you about pickguards. Does your guitar have a single-ply one?

 

[paulos]

Hi Everyone,

i had a look but couldn't find the 5=16 mark in the control cavity (or any mark at all!) ...the only thing marked was the pup select switch with 'ISO'...and a few resistance markings on the pots. The pickguard is one ply white (on a 2-tone sunburst body so def 50's style).... it looks as if a definitive answer may elude us (it's nice to have a mysterious guitar though!)..anyway, thankyou for sharing your knowledge with me. ..paulos.

 

[sneakyjapan]

thats good to know about the " 40 "`s. These come up used sometimes and I always thought they`d have low end everything, but I like alder so next time one pops up I`ll have to give it a look see. I am new to Tokais too, so this place is great for learning about them. I have only one at this time but boy is it a great example of the Tokai legacy.

 

[luis]

Nick or Mike(javelin),does the ST-40 pickups have any mark(letter) downside?Are the same pickups as for the ST50,60 models?

 

[ochay]

just a quick note on the Strat clones as I have had quite a few (over 25)of these puppies(Goldstars/Springys)-a few bought from Japan or Europe.

1) If the neck butt has a number with a dash and not an equal sign between the numbers-it's not a 70's -- early to mid 80's Tokai.
2)If the neck number and the body number don't have the same numbers-then as far as I'm conserned they are not original matched parts.
3)If the guitar does not have the Klusen type tuners-no staggard pole pickups with a stamped U,E,V,Vll -- Then it's not a 70's -- 80's MIJ Model !! As far as I am conserned these Tokai's with the cheapo tuners and big magnet pickups are just reissues of the lawsuit Goldstars-Funny- :lol: REISSUE CLONES???
Also wanted to mention I received a Springy sound from Japan that by all accounts seemed real enough-but the Saddles only said Tokai(1st tip off)and the Tremolo was all one piece. Europe continued selling Goldstar models and Love Rock's with the lawsuit headstock after they were banned from the USA

 

[mirrorboy]

Thanks for that information Ochay, have you seen any neck and cavity numbers with dots (I have a mid eighties TST55 with 3 . 2)?

 

[javelin70]

Nick or Mike(javelin),does the ST-40 pickups have any mark(letter) downside?Are the same pickups as for the ST50,60 models?

Luis, the pickups are not the alnico type used on the "50" and better models, they have a ceramic bar magnet under the pickup. No markings. They sound ok though, a lot better than I would expect from this kind of pickup. The 1985 MAT-451 I recently bought have the same tremolo, tuners and pickups as the AST/TST-40's. I've replaced the useless neck (see the earlier posts about this guitar) on the MAT with a factory new '86 MAT neck and new locking Kluson tuners. It's now a great guitar even with the ceramic pickups, the tone and sustain is amazing. I wonder what it will sound like when I replace the pickups?

Mike

 

[drt]

I'm really sorry to post this no knowledge question, Is final prospec saddle better than tokai saddle? IN another word, higher grade, like tst-80 normally have prospec saddle while tst60 or below have tokai saddle? Please educate me :wink:

 

[drt]

Just got and returned a Greco 1970`s tele yesterday... the neck was 5... FIVE... freakin pieces of wood WITH a maple cap, so thats 6 pieces of wood, top loader bridge, and the body was 2 piecs of wood... but glued one on top on the other. It looked great in the pics on line but up close, appeared to be painted with house paint. kept it an hour and returned the thing. So, a 40000 yen guitar is NOT top of the line.

Well, Greco used to make series called "super real" and it IS super real in looks and not sound... To prove this, you can find copy of ES335 type with no centre block produced in late 70s...
But higher model of greco LP is good though!

 

[math2014]

Hey man

Fellow Greek by any chance?

 

[javelin70]

I was wondering as I tried changing the so called cheap tuners to vintage style Klusons and it lost the magic

I replaced them and the mojo was back again That had me freaking out:0 Leave well alone I say:0

so:-

*Maybe the ST-40 Tuners "Are Exact Replicas of the F-Style Tuners and not CHEAP like so many people have stated.

Cheers,

Rhys Ladipo

www.deltajetblues.com

No, sorry but they are Gotoh budget tuners. I replaced them on my AST-40 and the Kluson type tuners are definitly better. Maybe my AST-40 still has the mojo because I replaced them with old Tokai (Deluxe) stamped Klusons ? I've also replaced the budget tuners on my Tokai MAT-451 strat, on that one I used new locking Klusons (they are really good).

Mike

 

[NedKelly]

Yeh I have one. Tuners are very very good, not cheap at all.

Infact I would go as far as to say they sound better than my Klusons.
I changed them and spent a week changing them back. Nightmare.
They are More like replicas of Fender "F" Style tuners drom 1969.

Tremelo is cast but very very good also. I read allot about how this was cheap or a budget GoldStar but I can't see it? If a guitar sounds bad its often to do with the set up. Unless its a Fender

......oh the Pickups were a little thin when used with overdrive pedals, but breathtaking through a good amp.

I got some old Tokai grey backs VII on the bottom, they are out of this world. But again they needed to be set up right. They have a sweet spot.