Very Unusual High Spec Goldstar, Custom Build?

[Sigmania]

Not sure what this is, but it looks like it could be a custom build or a very special guitar if it is a Tokai.

Neck is bird's eye maple. Board looks like ebony? Pearl fret markers. Gold wash hardware. Seymour Duncan pickups. One piece sen body. Likely nitro based on wear patterns.

Serial number looks like it is possibly 014988? 014999?

That's obviously very unusual as are the other features.

Seller is saying it is from the 90s which would also be very unusual in my opinion. I haven't seen any confirmed 90s era Goldstars, so that may not be accurate. And it's obviously not a TSS as stated in the listing.

Used 1990s TOKAI TSS 2TS Sunburst MIJ Vintage Stratocaster 3.5kg W/GB | eBay

 

[Sigmania]

Seller sent me some more pics.

Typical for Tokai countersunk holes in neck pocket and square shaped routs for pickup tabs.





So the body looks Tokai. Can’t see enough of the neck in the pics he sent.

Also, this is an HSS body. Markings in neck pocket similar to other HSS bodies that seem to date to the mid 90s.



Serial number looks like it could actually be 014999 which matches the pattern of other HSS bodies I’ve found from this period.

 

[Sigmania]

Seller sent more pics. Wow!

 

[Sigmania]

Here’s another one it looks like.

Special Order Tokai GOLDSTAR SOUND | eBay


Special Order Tokai GOLDSTAR SOUND

Description:

Color · Brown
Series · Stratocaster type

Stratocaster type shop or GOLDSTAR SOUND that you think you will be a custom-made in your own.

White ash body, ebony fingerboard. Beautiful tiger neck.

PU is replaced with Fender’s TEXAS SPECIAL

Luxurious specification which is not found on the regular line, but it has been put on the guitar stand almost 30 years without playing.

 

[guitar hiro]

I owned a 1980 Tokai Jazz Sound N that I sold in December, 2017.
It had a really sweet birds eye maple neck.

 

[Sigmania]

Wow…. That’s gorgeous!

These Goldstars are wild too. Not only birds eye, but also ebony fretboards and pearl fret markers. Bodies look like one piece sen to me. Crazy on a Goldstar.

I would not doubt it if they were special orders even though there seem to be multiples out there.

 

[Sigmania]

I think the two high spec Goldstars above are among the last high spec STs Tokai made under their own brand before switching to making Fenders by 1994.

Around the time of the transition to making Fenders, Tokai offered low spec STs bearing the Tokai brand made in Korea apparently beginning around 1995.

Tokai catalogs reflect this shift in the product line to low spec Tokais in this period possibly following the building of the high spec Goldstars above.

 

[Sigmania]

Add this one to the list

SN 014679

Custom Edition ST130

Ebony fretboard

NGD ST130 1983

From The Gear Page

Whittlez:

"Just arrived today. I chose this one in part because it has an Ebony fretboard so I wouldn't have to deal with CITES nonsense. And duuuuude. I am glad I did. This guitar is EP-IC. This is a mod (Essentially Tokai Custom Shop) of their top strat at the time in 1983, the ST-130. As with convention, the # 130 denotes a retail price in 1983 of 130,000 Yen, whereas most of their strats sold from 40-60,000 Yen. Two piece Sen Body, flame top, ebony fretboard. The frets are bigger than vintage but not as big as Medium Jumbo. It has a very unique bridge. i am going to have to find a trem bar that fits it to test it out. It appears to be solid brass. If it's plated, it shows no sign of it. The fretboard feels relatively flat for a strat. I need to pull out my radius gauges and test it out. The original pickups (and battery powered mid boost setup) are gone. In their place are SSL-5, SH-14 Duncans, and CTS pots and Orange Drop caps. The three way mini switch is really interesting. as best I can tell it goes from rear pickup tapped, center is full hbucker, and third position allows me to combine neck and bridge pickup (like a tele) . Whatever it's doing, it does full strat sparkle and quack and also does full 80's superstrat humbucker growl depending on setting, great for EVH, AC/DC and stuff like that, as well as classic strat single coil stuff. Super bitchen. I generally find the coil tap of a Hbucker to be inferior to a straight up single coil, but this sounds **** good. It had two high frets that I corrected as quickly as I could so I could get to playing it. I am supah stoked!"

 

[eborej]

Add this one to the list

SN 014679

Custom Edition ST130

Ebony fretboard

NGD ST130 1983

From The Gear Page

Whittlez:

"Just arrived today. I chose this one in part because it has an Ebony fretboard so I wouldn't have to deal with CITES nonsense. And duuuuude. I am glad I did. This guitar is EP-IC. This is a mod (Essentially Tokai Custom Shop) of their top strat at the time in 1983, the ST-130. As with convention, the # 130 denotes a retail price in 1983 of 130,000 Yen, whereas most of their strats sold from 40-60,000 Yen. Two piece Sen Body, flame top, ebony fretboard. The frets are bigger than vintage but not as big as Medium Jumbo. It has a very unique bridge. i am going to have to find a trem bar that fits it to test it out. It appears to be solid brass. If it's plated, it shows no sign of it. The fretboard feels relatively flat for a strat. I need to pull out my radius gauges and test it out. The original pickups (and battery powered mid boost setup) are gone. In their place are SSL-5, SH-14 Duncans, and CTS pots and Orange Drop caps. The three way mini switch is really interesting. as best I can tell it goes from rear pickup tapped, center is full hbucker, and third position allows me to combine neck and bridge pickup (like a tele) . Whatever it's doing, it does full strat sparkle and quack and also does full 80's superstrat humbucker growl depending on setting, great for EVH, AC/DC and stuff like that, as well as classic strat single coil stuff. Super bitchen. I generally find the coil tap of a Hbucker to be inferior to a straight up single coil, but this sounds **** good. It had two high frets that I corrected as quickly as I could so I could get to playing it. I am supah stoked!"

Thanks so much for continuing to track & document these obscure Tokai models.

I'm skeptical about the owner's claim that the guitar has a model number of ST130 and it's a custom order guitar which in itself is contradictory. He also didn't realize that the 01xxxx serial number would indicate it's from the '90s rather than 1983. The Kurosawa warranty card was likely just filled out by a music store employee in Japan who could have also been mistaken about the model number. If you search online for "1983 Tokai ST130" then the only other result is another more recent post from the owner about the same guitar:

https://www.strat-talk.com/threads/tokai-st130.570780/
There seems to be no trace of a Tokai ST130 Custom Edition model in catalogs or online so I'm not sure where he is getting his information from about this guitar. If anything, even though this example probably has non-original parts it confirms that the Custom Edition model specs were all over the place.

 

[Sigmania]

I have no idea if the model number is correct. That was probably a limited run, so the person ordering seems to be able to make up the model name based on their order.

And I’m not surprised that he didn’t know when it was made. I’m the first person I know of who has gone through the trouble to track these down and date them. At least publicly. Who knows what people know and choose not to share.

I found one seller today on reverb who had a Goldstar with an 01xxxx serial number that he listed as a 1992 guitar. I was shocked to see a description of a Goldstar that seemed to be more or less correct. Not sure about the model number. These are tricky.

Tokai ST50 1992 Sunburst | Reverb

Lots of bad information out there. Starting with the Registry.