help! tokai/ fake/ frankenstein ???

Hi there!
I hope some of you guys can help me out with some info on my guitar.
I bought it fairly cheap a few months ago, not really knowing what tokai is all about, it just looking for a good strat copy.
Now, as I took it apart and started to look for some information, i'm wondering if it really is what it says on the headstock..
I've uploaded some pictures onto:

http://picasaweb.google.de/ulrichpomper/Tokai?authkey=OY3MNwwXTxU

1. The logo on the headstock looks like a decal. You can see some kind of 'borders' going all around
2. Very strage: input jack is on the side, not on top of the body (looks cool though...)
3. No holes for backplate
4. Neck has the screw-holes fixed..
5. Pre-owner put some kind of 'dummy-coil' in, made out of wrapped-up cables. Now whats THAT for? Hum cancelling?
6. Anybody knows something about pickups and pots?

Wow, I'd really appreciate any help, thank you!

My guess, and that's all it is, is that is a Tokai neck, possibly with a replaced decal, it may have been a 'super edition'. definetely not a Springy Sound body, and I don't think even a tokai.

Now that's unusual. Tokai necks had Tokai decals, so I don't see that as a problem, but the body routings are all wrong for any kind of Tokai Strat I've ever seen. Are they T stamped pickups, or am I reading it wrong? The scratchplate is a 3ply, so correct for a rosewood board 60s neck, not a maple board neck.

How does it play? What does it sound like?

Mike

thanks for the replies so far.
Well it plays great, thats why I bought it. comfortable neck, 'spagetti' frets;
Body is quite light and resonating, great for clean and lightly od sounds.

Any guesses on the PU's (yes it says 'T' on there), pots and the strange cable coil?

btw, could it be that the body is from a contemporary Japan Strat? Some models from the early 80ies had side mounted output jacks, that time would match the age of the neck, right?

lupo said:

btw, could it be that the body is from a contemporary Japan Strat? Some models from the early 80ies had side mounted output jacks, that time would match the age of the neck, right?

Click to expand...

I don't recall seeing any Strats with side mounted jack sockets, the only "non-standard" ones I can remember were the early 80s US Standards, which had only one tone control, & had the jack socket where the bottom tone control would have been. They weren't popular, and they didn't last long.

It does seem more likely to be from a "contemporary" type model due to the humbucker sized routings, though I wouldn't like to guess what it's from.

Still, the neck looks OK to me (I doubt if a forger would have bothered to copy the 60 sticker on the back of the neck), so you can either enjoy it as it is, or you could always buy a Springy or Goldstar body if one comes up for sale on eBay, as they do from time to time. That's if you think it's worth it.

8)

Thats where I saw the body: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fender_Contemporary_Stratocaster_Japan

I'm tempted to say if it's in Wikipedia, it can't be true! But that does appear to be true.

OK, cool, I've learned something new today. So I guess I can go back to bed now.....

Anyone noticed the 60 sticker shape :wink:

Rossi said:

Anyone noticed the 60 sticker shape :wink:

Click to expand...

Yep, looks fine to me.

The body has Tokai codes in it ?-1=SW Z in the tone control cavity. I think Tokai did make some "contemporary" style strats--with the size of the pickup routings though, I'd question whether the pickups are original to this body. The pickup routes are wide enough for humbuckers, which were probably removed and replaced with these. That would also match with the jack being on the side of the guitar.

The tone controls look like they could be Tokai, but from a lower end guitar (not an ST-60 level Springy!)--there is no brass ground-wiring harness. The wires on the pickups are too long (and don't look like Tokai wires)--my guess is someone frankensteined the pickups together with new wire, and rather than cutting the wire made that ugly route to cram the wires in. The neck looks genuine--to tell for sure it should have some codes similar in style to the ones in the body cavity on the butt of the neck. If these codes are the same, or close, the neck might be original to the guitar--if not, who knows without finding a match in a catalogue, or a similar guitar.

Out of curiosity--what do the bridge saddles say on them?--they should have either Tokai, or Final Prospec on them. The tuners should also either be stamped Tokai, or Deluxe, depending. It's hard to tell from your photos--are the T-pickups flat-pole or staggered-pole (are the magnets the same height or different?)?


________
HONDA C77 SPECIFICATIONS

Thanks for those informative replies, keep em' coming!
Well, whats probably not a good sign is that neither bridge saddles nor tuners got anything written on them. The saddles look quite old though, but tuners seemed to be replaced. On the back of the trem unit it says 'made in japan', but that might not mean a lot..
PU polepieces are not staggert.
As for the cable coil, i dont think that someone drilled this huge hole just because he didn't want to cut the cables...
Probaly I'll throw out all the electrics and have it replaced with proper parts..

The pickups (for sure) and the pots (quite possibly) are Tokai--just not from a Springy ST-60. If you like how they sound, I'd just keep them. You can easily shorten the ball of wire--just unsolder the ends, trim, then resolder. If they're flat pole pickups they may not have quite the same characteristic as normal vintage strat pickups, so it's up to you whether you want to change them. Again, these are pickups that might have been in a Silver Star SS-38 or SS-40, I think...

It's hard to see the bridge saddles from your photos, but if they are not vintage style, it's possible they're like the kind on most Silver Stars. I'd be curious to see better photos of the tuners and bridge saddles---they might tell a lot about what this is made from.


________
Suzuki wiki specifications

OK I've uploaded two other pics of saddles and tuners. Thanks for your help and interest!

Well both the tuners and saddles look right, even if they don't have the stamps we would expect. Maybe they're unstamped copies of the copies that Tokai made of the original Fender tuners & saddles?

:lol:

Quite an intriguing guitar you have there. I was hoping that somebody would have identified the T pickups by now - T is a letter that I haven't seen on Tokai pickups before.

It IS a Tokai body... look a two?typical T-features: the countersunk area around the neck bolt drillings in the neck pocket and the radia of the spring cavity corners - both typical Tokai construction features which I've never seen on other brand (no... 70s fenders use different (bigger) radia in the spring cabvity corner routing).

cheshirecatsmile said:

The body has Tokai codes in it ?-1=SW Z in the tone control cavity.

Click to expand...

So SW would be the colour code? But what colour is SW?

Come on Stratman SW and the 7 dwarfs

Oh - I thought they only did Olympic White?

A clue could be in this code SW as i dont think its an old colour code.Its more of a new colour code. ( could be wrong though ) :wink: