My Yin-Yang Silverstars

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Chum

Active member
Joined
Dec 20, 2006
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Location
Manila, Philippines
Hi to All,

I posted a while back about my Springy Sound. Well, I have since added two more Tokais to my collection.

My 1981 Silver Star... I am unsure of what the model is, and I hope the Silver Star experts can help me ID it... The routing of the pickup cavities look squarish... I will try to post a pic of the routing and innards later on...
SilverStar1-1.jpg


SilverStar2-1.jpg


SilverStar3-1.jpg


SilverStar4-1.jpg


The previous owner assured me that the electronics were stock. The pickups have black bobbins (sorry no pic), with Black and Blue wires...
SilverStar5-1.jpg


The neck unfortunately has been refinished... I usually prefer them looking worn or played...
SilverStar6-1.jpg


SilverStar7-1.jpg


SilverStar8-1.jpg


The back has a lot of scratches from belt buckling...
SilverStar9-1.jpg


SilverStar10-1.jpg


SilverStar11-1.jpg


SilverStar12-1.jpg


SilverStar13-1.jpg


SilverStar14-1.jpg


Up next: my 1982...
SilverStar1.jpg


SilverStar2.jpg


SilverStar3.jpg


Stock pickups and hardware, except for the saddles, which I replaced with generic bent saddles... Interestingly, the pickups have black bobbins too, same as the previous one, but the wires on them are Red and White...
SilverStar4.jpg


The headstock:
SilverStar5.jpg


SilverStar6.jpg


SilverStar7.jpg


Here's a shot of the back of the neck, with the wear showing...
SilverStar8.jpg


The body has been refinished. Unfortunately, it was also roughly chiseled by the former owner to accommodate a humbucker... So my local guitar tech suggested we just route away the rough bits... This is way lighter than the other Silver Star, but tonewise, sounds quite good...
SilverStar9.jpg


SilverStar10.jpg


SilverStar11.jpg


SilverStar12.jpg


SilverStar13.jpg


And here's my daughter, guarding "Her" Tokai...
SilverStar14.jpg


Thanks for looking! All comments welcome! I would especially appreciate an ID of both, as I am not sure what models they are.

Chum
 
Hello, looking like a nice pair of SS-36 strats u have, the F-key tuners and the year suggest ss-36 to me, the black bobbin pups i don't know, usually would expect to see grey bobbins with an H (tokai HOT) stamped after about 1982 crunch. The tokai Hot pups are really vintage output of around 5.4kOhms maybe less?
The only black bobbin Silver Stars I have seen are the higher end SS-80 which have the flat pole FS-1 DiMarzio's (very hot), not suggesting yours are though.
I love that vintage white Star with the tortoise pickguard, very alike SRV Scotch 8)
 
Beautiful guitars, and superb pics!
The first one is indeed a low end model for the ones with a '1' as second digit are, like the LS inkies, not produced at the Nagano factory which only did the low end models.
 
Hi guys!

Thanks for the kind words...

So, probably SS36? Good to know...

Hi Iain, here are a few new pics I took of the Springy Sound:

Springy1.jpg


Springy2.jpg


Springy3.jpg


From the rear:
Springy9.jpg


Springy11.jpg


Springy12.jpg


Springy13.jpg


Springy14.jpg


And here be the pair:
YinYang1.jpg


YinYang2.jpg


YinYang6.jpg
 
Just look at neck/body joint and you could find more info (codes) and model should be in body cavitie(first one).

I like Silver Stars a lot, I had several of them. Great bang for the buck.
 
wow, great looking set. the springy is absolutely gorgeous. i regret selling my ss ... great pics too
 
Love those black Silver Stars from 82 - great players even after 30+ years. I found min need to have a new nut - [done to 2.6mm from bottom of all strings and following the fret board/fret curve... and found that to be perfect - first fret not going out of tune and whole guitar not buzzing anymore on the high strings (plus I set up all my guitars to 2.5 - 2.6mm string height).]
I sprayed a little car engine lubricant into the tuners on mine which hadn't been maintained in those 30 years lol, - Japan very humid... and the were really sticky/loose jerky - but since then are like new :)
Since those to fixes the only other thing I did on mine, which was black with b/w/b pickgaurd - totally stock, but has some back buckle rash on the back - which I expanded a little to see the grain as everyone was saying the early 82's were made out of Japanese basswood [I cant remember what they call it] - but low and behold I found it was alder.

Mine had the neck stamps and cavity stamps to confirm its legit etc, so a little concerned yours doesn't - but hey a lot happens in 30 years and as long as they stay in tune and play/sound like SRV/Hendrix classic strat sound you are in guitar heaven - great find - and no doubt great playas.

Love the Silver Stars!!!!
 
PS: having the springs set up the way you have all pointing into the middle is counter productive, they need to line up straight so you wont get any odd noises or issues.
You don't have to but I find the best set up if your happy too is this:
Make sure the 3 springs [if you only have 3] are on BOTH connectors 1 - 3 - 5.
With the "claw" at the neck end don't have it right up to the body/neck end - but unscrew it to about 2 - 2.5 inches away - don't worry if you see screw its all good just don't go too far- you should notice the springs stay tight - I don't know anyone who like their strat bridge to float [but hey its yours so keep slacking the springs if you want]
What I do is use the adjustment above making sure the springs are still tight - but are just on the border of about to float, it stays in tune - I get no springy sounds through to the amp and find I can pull up just a fraction [if your entertaining people love it - after all, we play for enjoyment right?]

Anyway enough rambling - do as you like - just some suggestions - as its nice to have things operating to max performance!
 

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