Goldstar 1984 or is it?

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Anonymous

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Hi,

I'm a bit confused with this guitar I was planning to buy. The seller says it's a 1984 probably ST-65. Tokai logo with T and original shape headstock. Serial L20879.

pic:
http://www.jeffsguitars.net/dakota1.html

BUT: Under the pickups it says VI. Should it be somethin like V? Does that indicate it's later than -84? What I've gathered the headstock changes was made only guitars made for US markets, so it could be a later model.

I would be very pleased if someone could help.
 
Hi Skarqvist,

That seller often has nice looking original Tokai?s - guitar looks fine just judging from that single photo. But you?re right to think Fender models are more difficult to date (relative to LP models).

Original pups used at least four letter codes (U, V, VI, E), but I don?t think we ever found out what the codes meant or what date they were :eek: .

Do you have any more photos? Look for other original features such as saddles stamped ?Final Prospec? (sic), tuner-covers stamped ?Deluxe? or ?Tokai?, neck pocket & neck-butt stamped with numbers in the form ?5=12? :-? . Ask sell why he thinks it?s ST65 ? maybe has ?65? stamped in pup cavities (or 65 sticker)?

Ian.
 
Thanks Ian!

I sent seller some questions now I'm just waiting him to answer. :roll:

More pics:
http://www.jeffsguitars.net/dakota3.html
http://www.jeffsguitars.net/dakota5.html
http://www.jeffsguitars.net/dakota2.html

But I quess those doesn't help much. But any help is still appreciated! :)

It isn't always so easy with love rocks. Atleast not for me. I have LC-70 with that split-diamond-logo (H) on headstock and serial starts with 98*****. I can't tell if it's from year 1989 or 1998 'cause catalogs doesn't show that h-logo either year. Maybe I slow or something :roll:
 
Hi Skarvquist,

Others here are definitely better qualified to judge Tokai Strats, but?? grey-bottomed ?VII? pups look original, and all solder joints look untouched. Can?t read any marks from tuners or saddles (although saddles show tarnish/rust of age)?.. masking tape has id which others may recognise? So far ? I don?t see anything inconsistent with 84, and fittings look original (is trem arm missing?)?.. need to hear those answers from seller :-? .

Ian.
Ps:- the LP Custom should be 1998 ? to quote Registry ?up to 1989 all S/N?s have zero as second digit?.
 
Hello again!

I ended up buying that guitar. It took almost a month to arrive to Finland but it's finally here.

This definately is old guitar and it's obvious that someone has played with it a lot. It really needed some fixing but after few well spent hours it really turned out to be really great guitar. Plays great and sounds good. The pickups are far better than I expected. Still I have few things to do. I'm gonna put new nut and new pots and proper switch.

Perhaps I should sell my Fender Strat.. :lol:

Thanks Ian helping me out!
 
Hi Skarqvist,

??Thanks Ian helping me out!?? No problem, my pleasure :-? . You know I often think it?s brilliant the way we communicate across the world on these things?..eg you & I talk between Finland & England and the guitar comes to you all the way from the USA......well it took a month (worrying wait huh?), but got there in the end lol :lol: !

Ian.
Ps:- keep the US Fender for a bit, just in case you change your mind :wink: .
 
Skarqvist said:
I'm gonna put new nut and new pots and proper switch.
Hi Skarqvist,

Congrats on the score!

Why do you want to change the pots?

My luthier friend Simon Pinder (who does work for countless "names": like Clapton, Bowie etc) says that the Nobels brand pots Tokai used are by far the best available anywhere (well, actually not very available in the west!)

- FAR better than CTS, DiMarzio, Alpha etc. They have a really nice, musical taper, are really well built with plated-through tags, the entire pot body is tinned (for easy soldering of eath/ground leads etc. without overheating the innards), extremely good - the best in fact, and definiitely cotribute to the Tokia being better than most other "clones" (& many of the originals too!)

Would be very grateful if you could tell us what it is that makes you want to remove them to put "new pots" in. What brand are you going to use?
 
Hi Cybercat,

Volumepot wasn't working properly(even when turned to 0 it was something like half way with buzz) and I had new dimarzios lying around. Those were the two main reasons. When I took out the original pots I realized the dimarzios won't fit without some drilling. I just ended up opening those original pots and after cleaning (and some 'tuning') those pots are working very well. No problem there anymore!

Anyway, thanks for the information. It's good to know that I can rely on them in the future.
 
Hi

The guitar certainly sounds like a TST-65 : the VI markings are correct for the TST60/65 series of Goldstar and the custom colour is the correct one for TST65 models. The serial number puts it around 1985

The Masked Tokai Person
 

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