Strange goldstar sound Tokai

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mikeypsmith

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Hi, I have a Tokai Goldstar sound strat copy, firstly I have great trouble trying to date it. the serial no. is 219424
secondly the tuners are not the split post type, they appear to be original, every Tokai I have seen have split post ( kluson type ) tuners. My bridge saddles have no stamping whatsoever,
Did Tokai make any Gold Star sounds without split post tuners and no saddle stamping?
The headstock is fender style.
I would really appreciate any advice :-?
 
:eek: I have seen these machines that you speak of on Goldstar strat that a friend from London has. It's all original and a nice guitar but it is one of the entry level Goldstars.He had replaced the pup's and machines so I asked if he still had the originals, and he did. I had never seen these pup's or machines on a Tokai before. I would replace them with the Kluson split and probably up grade the electronics , unless you like the way it sounds and plays! 8) Good Luck, TG
 
mikeypsmith said:
Hi, I have a Tokai Goldstar sound strat copy, firstly I have great trouble trying to date it. the serial no. is 219424
secondly the tuners are not the split post type, they appear to be original, every Tokai I have seen have split post ( kluson type ) tuners. My bridge saddles have no stamping whatsoever,
Did Tokai make any Gold Star sounds without split post tuners and no saddle stamping?
The headstock is fender style.
I would really appreciate any advice :-?

It's a TST-40, they were also available as AST-40 with the altered headstock. The pickups have steel poles with a bar magnet under and the tuners are cheap Gotohs. The tremolo is cast in one piece and the saddles are also cast. I have an AST-40 that some previous owner has rounded off the headstock on to make it look like a Fender headstock again.

I replaced the tuners with a set of "Deluxe" Kluson type tuners I found. The body and neck is of the same quality as the TST-50 and I actually like the cast trem, my strat has a very good tone and sustain. I also replaced the pickups with seymour Duncan hot stacks neck/middle and a Little '59 humbucker in the bridge position.

Here it is with a different Tokai neck - a TST-60 v-neck I believe. The original neck is back on the guitar though because I like the more rounded c-shape on the AST-40:

tokai_strat.jpg



Mike
 
Great! thanks for all your help. I love the guitar ( apart from the yukky black/red/yellow sunburst finish), it stays intune, the pickups sound great ( yes, they do have the bar magnet underneath ), the bridge pickup is a tad thin and brittle sounding, but played loud through a valve amp, it sounds great! really cuts through. I did consider upgrading the machines and electronics, but I would rather leave it all original. Thanks again for all your help. ps. any ideas for a date on the instrument? its got the tokai logo, not the 7okia
 
I agree with you, the pickups are not bad at all. I would guess that your guitar is from the mid 80's, if I remember correctly there wasn't a TST-40 in the -84 catalog but you'll find it in -85.

1985:
http://www.tokairegistry.com/images/catalogs/tokai859.jpg

1985/86 AST-40:
http://www.tokairegistry.com/images/catalogs/tokai_85-86_electric_p3.jpg

This is from my european -87/88 catalog, look at the bottom of the page:
http://www.tokairegistry.com/images/catalogs/tokai8705.jpg

They seem to have been produced between 1985 and 1988, in -89 they seem to have been replaced by other models.

Mike

Mike
 
Hi Javelin,
the TST-40 was still there in 1989 - but it is on page 8 of the Catalog - which is not shown on the website. (??????)

ciao
Peter mac
 
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