Tokai - BreezySound

[RoyalEagleStar]

Hey guys,

I have recently acquired a beautiful Tokai BreezySound Telecaster through a family friend who passed away - virtually untouched, even had a film over the scratch plate.

After speaking to some fellow guitarists about this, they all seem to think it's from the 1980's. However, the only serial number is a 6-digit number engraved on the neck plate (014243), and I haven't had much luck with information online about what year it might be. I'm not courageous enough to take it apart myself, so the number above is all I have for now.

I'm getting it re-set up in a couple of weeks' time, so any guidance or info you have would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Sigmania]

It’s most likely from the early 90s.

Six Digit Serial Numbers Starting With 01xxxx 1991 1992

Model is probably a TE50 in blonde (BL) finish.

If you ever open it the pots probably have a date code. Should begin with a 0,1, or 2 representing the year.

 

[Sigmania]

If you ever check the pots this post will help you:

Pot codes... yeah, well... it's a bit of a black art, innit?

I'll share what I know... or rather what I think I know. It's basically all theories in the classic scientific sense, i e interpretations that seem to work and have yet to be disproven. Proof would be credible period documentation spelling it all out, but I've yet to see that, and I doubt we'll ever see that, frankly. I mean, we don't even know who the manufacturers were in most cases.

Most of what I have is based on the guitars that interest me the most, i e Greco Fender copies. Which is a good thing, since they more or less invariably have a plaintext month and year of manufacture in their serials, giving you a solid date to compare any pot markings to.

Anyway, first up:

The "YM X" codes seems to have been first interpreted by Burny enthusiasts, as an aid to dating unserialled instruments from the 80's and 90's. It also works fine with Grecos, which have them from about 1980. The earliest I've seen in Tokais have been 1982, and they seem to be in most guitars from about 1985-86 or so.
It's on pots with embossed markings, below the kOhm number (rarely, there's what appears to be a parts number instead, I've seen 504071, 504041, 50472 and 50442 so far).
The first character is the last digit of the year, the second one is the month (1 - 0, plus N for November and D for December). A space follows, then a letter, almost always K, but P turns up infrequently and I've heard V being reported as well. The meaning of the letter is unknown. Some sources claim that P is on push-pull pots, but this is clearly incorrect, since PP-pots are technically very different, with a large switch box (like the lower part of a mini toggle switch) attached to the bottom.
You see these in various guitars from about 1980 to at least 93-94, so there's an overlap. So, for instance, a 2 for the year could mean either 1982 or '92. In practice, that's seldom a problem, most guitars have construction tells that lets you tell the decades apart.

View attachment 1092
Late '81/early '82 Burny RLG-50. Visible codes are 18 for Aug '81 and 1N for Nov '81.


View attachment 1093
1985 Tokai TST-50, 56 for June '85.

View attachment 1094
Tokai PB-45, 26 for Feb 1982, with the very rare P code (and clearly no push-pull pots). This is one of the earliest instances of pots with these codes I've seen in a Tokai.

View attachment 1096
0D for Dec 1980 in a early'81 Greco SE. The D is easily mistaken for 0.

View attachment 1097
The "parts numbers" version of this code style. 504071 and -41 with 06 and 07 date codes in a 1990 Greco RG-950 Rickenbacker 360 copy.

 

[RoyalEagleStar]

Interesting! I will ask my guitar tech to take a picture when he takes it apart.

Thanks for your help

 

[Sigmania]

1994 catalog.

No catalogs available for 1992 & 1993.

Blonde (BL) is an optional color but not shown in the photo.

 

[RoyalEagleStar]

1994 catalog.

No catalogs available for 1992 & 1993.

Blonde (BL) is an optional color but not shown in the photo.

View attachment 31168

Ah, brilliant, does this mean my guitar will fall into the category of MIJ guitars that are actually MIC?

I think I remember reading somewhere that they started outsourcing manufacturing after a certain period.

 

[Sigmania]

Hmmmm. It’s complicated and Tokai has always been very secretive about production.

They started making guitars for Fender not long after your guitar was made. Lower end models were made in Korea starting around 1995 then shifting to China in 2005.

Your guitar was probably made in Japan but I’ve grown suspicious of a hybrid sort of production in the mid 90s where lower priced guitars were made in part in Korea then finished in Japan.

When you have your luthier work on it take lots of pictures. There will be production clues hidden under the pickguard and in the neck pocket.