Help IDing a Tokai Silver Star, or did I buy a fake

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Phil Mastro

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First Tokai, first post! I bought what I what appears to be a 1982 Silver Star on Yahoo Auctions for real cheap. Here's the link to the finished auction:

http://aucview.aucfan.com/yahoo/m126619667/

It was marked as a "junk" item, so basically it was selling as-is. It's in fairly rough condition, but that's also why I purchased it. I like building guitars, but don't have much of a workshop in my condo. I figured fixing guitars required less heavy equipment, so I bought a guitar that needed a little love.

Having said that, it actually plays pretty well, and sounds quite good too. However, I can't tell what model it actually is. The tuners have also been replaced, so I really have no idea how to ID it.

I've taken it completely apart, so I can take pics of the inside if it helps. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Phil

Edit: after comparing the serial number with others on the site, it seems unlikely that it's a real Tokai, unless there's some special serial number business of which I'm unaware. I'll try and post some pictures later.
 
Finally took some pictures, here they are:

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If pics of any other parts would help, I'll be glad to post them.
 
villager said:
not a tokai body, greco possibly.. any marks on the neck end?

Thanks for the tip. That seems right, I've found a few other threads with very similar looking routing, in some Grecos and Ibanez.

Here are some pics of the electronics, but I don't think they're the originals.

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DSC01717.JPG
 
I Don't think these are Tokai electrics. My Silverstars have grey bottomed pups.

If we can see a pic of the neck heel, we can tell you if it's likely to be a tokai neck.
 
Suki said:
I Don't think these are Tokai electrics. My Silverstars have grey bottomed pups.

If we can see a pic of the neck heel, we can tell you if it's likely to be a tokai neck.

Do you mean the butt end of the neck? There's nothing on there. If you mean the underside of the neck in the neck pocket, I've posted a picture of it in my previous post with pictures.
 
Yes I mean the butt of the neck. If there's nothing there, I suspect this is 100% Fakai.

Is the decal on the headstock proud of the rest of the lacquer or does it appear underneath/flat and the same level?
 
It has the 'ink' serial type.

1980/81 ink serial Tokai LPs do have a dowel tenon like the ones made in Fujjgen plant at that time. It is thought these were (partly) outsourced by Tokai.

I do log 1977-1981 Tokai's.
I have logged over a 100 1980/81 Tokai Fender models with the same serial type but haven't bothered looking at routing for I am mainly interested in LPs.
This is also not the first ink serial type from 1982 I have seen.

I think this is a legit 1982 outsourced Tokai.
 
Suki said:
Yes I mean the butt of the neck. If there's nothing there, I suspect this is 100% Fakai.

Is the decal on the headstock proud of the rest of the lacquer or does it appear underneath/flat and the same level?

The decal is definitely under the lacquer.

Thanks for all the help, it's been extremely informative. The amount of information regarding these guitars is astounding, and it's definitely giving me some GAS.
 
Hi guys,
This is an interesting beast.
Firstly the body is NOT a Tokai. Route is totally incorrect.
Pickups are not Tokai. Wrong wiring colours for Tokai.
Serial is fabricated IMO. Whilst Nagano-made models did feature a '1' as the second number, this seems to be only for 1980 and 1981 models.
I am yet to log another '82 Silverstar with this number sequence. Further more, the last 4 digits are too low to run with other 1982 Silverstars I have logged.
Please understand, I am only going by the data I have collected - but that is not to say the serial number is not genuine.
One thing about Tokai was the ability to break thier own rules.

Peter Mac
 
I have to disagree about the serial range Peter.
Inkie/Matsumoto/Nagano (or how you want to call them) Tokai's have their own serial ranges in 1980 & 1981, independent from Tokai Hamamatsu serial ranges. This particular serial no,ber falls within the ranges found in 1980 & 1981. And as I said this is not the first 1982 model I have encountered.
 
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tokai-Silver-Star-1981-die-bessere-70s-Strat-/271583912015?pt=Gitarren&hash=item3f3ba9a04f Another outsourced Tokai, Fuji Gen, Greco? I`d never seen one before this one, then along comes another one!
 
There are many with that serial format Gabe (and most likely that type of routing), especially in 1981, all of them are the lowest models available at that time
 
Hi guys,

Whilst I do agree with what you say, Jacco, my point was that by 1982 (which the sunburst would be) Tokai had stopped these type of serial numbers on Silverstar. I would accept the 1981 Black is probably original.

From all the 1982 serial#'s I've logged for SilverStar only, the smallest one is 2018228 and the highest is 2027971.
When I look at the serial numbering for most Silverstarsafter, they seem to be tens of thousands apart from all the other models. This would lead to a conclusion that Tokai SilverStar had their own serialisation pattern removed from the rest of the Models.

Your thoughts ???

Peter
 
Hi Peter,

I am Norway right now and didn't bring my laptop with me.
I have been logging Tokais up to 1985 before (now only up to 1981 for after 1981 too many new models were introduced, so can check when I get back.
I will PM you for I have found something else interesting.
 
Does anyone have a 1981 with the same serial number style, as in 110****? Perhaps we could compare pics of the innards to see if they're identical or not. The one from ebay is practically identical, but if anyone has any more pics, it'd be great to seen them.

In other news, after taking the guitar apart and cleaning it, re-polishing the body, crowning and polishing the frets, I broke one of the tuners while putting them back on. Should I just get some new Schallers to make it look like the originals?
 

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