Neil-London
Member
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2006
- Messages
- 13
- Reaction score
- 0
First off, hello everyone - I've been lurking here a while, now I've bought what I think is a Tokai, so I suppose that makes me 'official'!
Ok so down to business. I'm a relative newbie to bass and a complete newbie to Tokai, and electric guitars for that matter. I was looking for a nice bass guitar and am drawn to older guitars rather than new ones - so I picked up this heap which claims to be a Jazz Sound from the bay (advertised as near-mint :lol: ) Clearly is wasn't anything like 'mint' - in fact it is knackered - so I took it apart.
My questions to you are:
Is it a Tokai at all? The neck looks pretty genuine from what I can tell - certainly old and used - and doesn't look like a fake. From what I can gather from the registry here, the "Oldie but Goodie" logo puts it's manufacture in Japan - would this be correct?
The body: I can't tell if this is the original or not. The pickups surely can't be, I've found no picture anywhere on the web with a Tokai of this style with white pickups so I assume they are replacements. The bridge is a badass. The body material seems to be proper wood rather than a laminate and the paint looks to be original although I'm not sure. Scratchplate is missing. I can find no markings on it anywhere to suggest it's origins - so would this suggest to you that it may well be Tokai but perhaps Korean? Or something else all togother? I suppose it could be the original....
Finally - what do I do with it?! Do I try to restore it to former glory - or maybe sell the (decent looking) neck on ebay and dump the rest? If it turns out to be an 'original', then restoring it would be something I'd like to do - I'd enjoy it. But if the concensus of opinion is that it was probably no good to begin with - then I'll cut my loses and find another. Don't want to waste the time and money. What do you think?
Lots of questions I know - but I'd love to get your feedback and advice.
Pictures here www.sub73.net/tokai
Many thanks in advance.
Neil
*EDIT* Ive just found another marking on the body underneath the plate behind the pots which reads I think "12 = 6BB" - I'll add a picture later.....
Ok so down to business. I'm a relative newbie to bass and a complete newbie to Tokai, and electric guitars for that matter. I was looking for a nice bass guitar and am drawn to older guitars rather than new ones - so I picked up this heap which claims to be a Jazz Sound from the bay (advertised as near-mint :lol: ) Clearly is wasn't anything like 'mint' - in fact it is knackered - so I took it apart.
My questions to you are:
Is it a Tokai at all? The neck looks pretty genuine from what I can tell - certainly old and used - and doesn't look like a fake. From what I can gather from the registry here, the "Oldie but Goodie" logo puts it's manufacture in Japan - would this be correct?
The body: I can't tell if this is the original or not. The pickups surely can't be, I've found no picture anywhere on the web with a Tokai of this style with white pickups so I assume they are replacements. The bridge is a badass. The body material seems to be proper wood rather than a laminate and the paint looks to be original although I'm not sure. Scratchplate is missing. I can find no markings on it anywhere to suggest it's origins - so would this suggest to you that it may well be Tokai but perhaps Korean? Or something else all togother? I suppose it could be the original....
Finally - what do I do with it?! Do I try to restore it to former glory - or maybe sell the (decent looking) neck on ebay and dump the rest? If it turns out to be an 'original', then restoring it would be something I'd like to do - I'd enjoy it. But if the concensus of opinion is that it was probably no good to begin with - then I'll cut my loses and find another. Don't want to waste the time and money. What do you think?
Lots of questions I know - but I'd love to get your feedback and advice.
Pictures here www.sub73.net/tokai
Many thanks in advance.
Neil
*EDIT* Ive just found another marking on the body underneath the plate behind the pots which reads I think "12 = 6BB" - I'll add a picture later.....