might have a fake, how do i tell?

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rabies

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hey guys, i'm new to tokai's and i'm new to this forum. i did some searching but i couldn't quite seem to find what i was looking for, so lets see if you guys can help me out..

so, tonight i made a trade and i ended up with a tokai "goldstar sound" strat knockoff. the guy figures its from the early 80's, but who knows really. this is what i do know:
1. it doesn't have a serial number on the headstock
2. the neck-plate is stamped 2554
3. i took the pickguard off and the pickups all have "J M C" written on the backs of them, and then a capital "E" stamped with ink
4. all the routed areas are lined with foil tape (can't remember the actual name of this stuff) but i peeled some back and the color code is "6=8 MB Z"
i believe the color of the paint is lake placid blue.
5. i took the neck off and there is nothing written in the neck pocket, but there is a "6=8" on the butt of the neck.

i'll try and get some pictures soon, but can any of you give me ANY information on this guitar? if its fake or not, maybe the year it was made, and possibly how much its worth? its in pretty good shape, a few scratches on the body finish but thats about it

thanks guys
 
rabies said:
i ended up with a tokai "goldstar sound" strat knockoff.

Are you referring to a Goldstar as a "Strat knockoff"?

If you are, may I suggest that you don't?

:evil:

Mike
 
I agree with Mike. The Goldstar Sound is clearly supposed to resemble a Fender Telecaster. :wink: :lol:
 
stratman323 said:
rabies said:
i ended up with a tokai "goldstar sound" strat knockoff.

Are you referring to a Goldstar as a "Strat knockoff"?

If you are, may I suggest that you don't?

:evil:

Mike

Well is choice of words leaves a little to be desired, but you can't really argue the point it's a 'Strat knockoff" :D
 
JohnA said:
Well is choice of words leaves a little to be desired, but you can't really argue the point it's a 'Strat knockoff" :D

Can't I?

You just watch me!
 
stratman323 said:
JohnA said:
Well is choice of words leaves a little to be desired, but you can't really argue the point it's a 'Strat knockoff" :D

Can't I?

You just watch me!

Go on then, this'll be interesting :D

A Goldstar IS a Strat knockoff because:

It is a copy of a Fender Strat, and makes no pretence to be anything else. The Spriny even had "'THIS IS THE EXACT REPLICA OF THE GOOD OLD STRAT" on the headstock
 
As you know perfectly well John, "knockoff" is a disrespectul term, which, amongst other meanings, can also refer to something that has been stolen. A Goldstar is an excellent vintage type Strat, easily as good as the stuff produced by Fender Japan, to make a direct comparison.

Since it was Tokai that showed Fender the lines on which they should run their business, Fender should be very grateful to Tokai.

Your new job doesn't seem to be keping you very busy!

:wink:
 
stratman323 said:
As you know perfectly well John, "knockoff" is a disrespectul term, which, amongst other meanings, can also refer to something that has been stolen. A Goldstar is an excellent vintage type Strat, easily as good as the stuff produced by Fender Japan, to make a direct comparison.

Since it was Tokai that showed Fender the lines on which they should run their business, Fender should be very grateful to Tokai.

Your new job doesn't seem to be keping you very busy!

:wink:

It's lunch-time, and I can't pass up a good argument :wink:

'knockoff' indicating something that was stolen, surely Tokai stole the design from our good friend Leo Fender?

The current Chinese knockoffs are getting a lot of bad press, but they are only doing what the Japanese did 40 years ago. Also, a lot of the current Chinese guitars are way better than the stuff that came out of Japan in the early '70's, give them 10 years and I'll put money on the fact that you'll be able to buy a chinese knockoff that's as good as a Goldstar.
 
JohnA said:
'knockoff' indicating something that was stolen, surely Tokai stole the design from our good friend Leo Fender?

That's the simplistic argument - I expected better from you. :roll:

As Fender had largely abandoned and forgotten about what made pre 65 Strats & Teles so good by 1978, Tokai came along & reminded them by producing a Strat that was better than anything Fender currently did.

The whole vintage RI market (which includes most of what the Custom Shop now produce), which is so profitable for Fender today, is a concept invented by the Japanese, & perfected by Tokai in the Springy. All Fender US had to do was copy what Tokai were doing, & that's exactly what they did.

So who ripped off whom?
 
Pehaps Tokai should sue Fender for stealing their idea, we would start to see 'lawsuit' Fenders!
:wink:
 
The whole vintage RI market (which includes most of what the Custom Shop now produce), which is so profitable for Fender today, is a concept invented by the Japanese, & perfected by Tokai in the Springy. All Fender US had to do was copy what Tokai were doing, & that's exactly what they did.

So who ripped off whom?

Interesting way to look at things, and I can't really disagree. But do we know who started doing this first? Can the first perfect copy of a vintage strat be regarded as stand-alone idea or was it the product of years of imperfect copies of the generic strat design?

Another thing to consider is that not all Japanese copies were of vintage designs. A few weeks ago we saw Tokai's cosmetically accurate copy of the early 80s Fender 'The Strat' - a more-or-less contemporaneous design - is this a knock-off? I'd say probably yes...
 
Another fantastic thread hi-jack :D sorry rabies.

From the info you posted it looks like your knockoff is genuine :wink:
 
Personally I would avoid the term "knock off" because of it's cheap & nasty connotations. Hardly fitting for a Goldie.

Let's remember that Fender talked to several Japanese manufacturers to decide which one to choose to make the Fender Japan range. If Tokai had won that contract in 1982 (instead of 1997), Goldstars would be Fender Japan re-issues - but they would be virtually identical to the guitars we know.

Maybe it's just as well (for us) that Tokai didn't win the contract, or we wouldn't have Goldstars. I wonder if any of the other Japanese manufacturers would have produced something similar to the Goldstar if Tokai had been tied into a contract with Fender?
 
Fernandes Revivals are pretty much like for like as far as quality is concerned and were being produced at the same time, If tokai had won the contract then Fujigen, I'm sure, would have continued to produce the Greco Strats, which again are comparable in quality.
 
blake375 said:
Another thing to consider is that not all Japanese copies were of vintage designs. A few weeks ago we saw Tokai's cosmetically accurate copy of the early 80s Fender 'The Strat' - a more-or-less contemporaneous design - is this a knock-off? I'd say probably yes...

True about The Strat, but maybe the Silver Star is a better example? There's a better case for calling them a rip-off of the (then) current Fender product. But they made them better! The bodies were often lighter, & the tilt neck actually worked. So what do you call a knock-off that's better than what it's knocking off?

How about - an improvement?
 
I'm a bit hazy on Silverstars, and 70s Fender strats, hence choice of example.

Personally I'd take a Springy over a Fender of the same age any day, and knock-off wouldn't be my first choice of words for describing a Springy, but at the end of the day it is a copy, no question. Aside from the switch, the only way a Springy is actually an improvement on a Fender is the workmanship - you can't say the design itself is an improvement really.
 
blake375 said:
Aside from the switch, the only way a Springy is actually an improvement on a Fender is the workmanship - you can't say the design itself is an improvement really.

Actually I can think of one example of an improvement - Tokai used ash (sen) on many of their see through finished models (such as Sunburst) when Fender would have used alder. Ash looks nicer, & many of us prefer the extra twang it gives to the sound.

You can't buy a "genuine" 60s RI Strat with an ash body.
 
Fair enough. I think some early Fenders were Ash but you certainly wouldn't find one in Sen!

"Knock-offs", "replicas" or "improvements", I'm just glad they were built and that they don't cost the earth.

Love the "knock-off" spag logo too! :wink:
 
blake375 said:
Fair enough. I think some early Fenders were Ash but you certainly wouldn't find one in Sen!

Ash was only used till about 1956 for the Sunburst Strats, after that they were alder, only the see-through blonde Strats were ash, which I always thought was a strange decision. But alder was cheaper & easier to finish, so that's what they used.
 
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