Tokai Blazing Fire tele

I bought last weekend my first Tokai guitar, a Blazing Fire telecaster copy, but i?ve got no idea where and when it is made? What wood is it? There?s no serial or model numbers in guitar. Only numbers what i found was in neck near of truss rod (4-35). Made in Japan stamp i found from pots and pickups(gotoh).

Some weak pics.
http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/2743/img12807bo.jpg
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/2775/img12793mw.jpg
http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/3491/img12780ze.jpg

Welcome to the forum wirtala

I have to say I've never seen a Tokai Tele copy with the headstock decal like that before. They are normally called Breezysound. Where did you get it from ?

On my breezy sound access to the truss rod is from under the scratchplate, not in a recess on the headstock.

Is there a marking stamp on the ashtray type bridge ?
Take a look at the link below

http://www2.wbs.ne.jp/~tokai/blazingfire.htm

The blazing fire is a Talbro type guitar

Is the body made from one solid piece of wood ?

Thanks. I changed my danelectro to this one. Previous owner said that he bought it late 90?s.

On my breezy sound access to the truss rod is from under the scratchplate, not in a recess on the headstock.

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Yes. Access to trussrod is under scratchplate, not in headstock, but assemblyhole of truss rod is filled with some dark wood. Rosewood maybe?

Is there a marking stamp on the ashtray type bridge ?

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I?m not sure. Not in upside, but have to look at to backside.

Is the body made from one solid piece of wood ?

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Yes is it, but what wood?

The blazing fire is a Talbo type guitar

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I know that. All searches in google, tokairegistry and etc. says that.

p.s. Sorry my bad english.

Weird! That's definitely a Talbo logo. Does the tuners have "Deluxe" stamped on them? Is there no serial number on the neck plate? There should be a color code somewhere, on the strats you'll find it in the control cavity, I guess it should be there on the tele's as well. There should also be a code like on the neck, probably the same. The color code would probably be N or NA for natural. The body looks like ash to me.

Maybe someone at the factory put that decal on by mistake?

Mike

Yes. Access to trussrod is under scratchplate, not in headstock, but assemblyhole of truss rod is filled with some dark wood. Rosewood maybe?

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Sorry about that, from your photo it looked like a recess that wasn't filled.
The rosewod insert is consistent with Tokai Breezysound maple necks

The wood looks like Ash to me, but I'm no great wood expert. If your guitar body is made from one piece of wood this would suggest that it is not a cheap copy.

The shape of your headstock was changed around 1984/85. Are there any markings on the back of the tuners?


Your guitar looks like a 50's type tele as the string tree on the headstock is round - later versions have the butterfly type. Also accurate reproductions would only use screws available in the 50's, no crosshead screws. Are all the screws on your scratchplate flathead type ?

Quote:
Is there a marking stamp on the ashtray type bridge ?

I?m not sure. Not in upside, but have to look at to backside.

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On the 80's Breezysound's the word Tokai was stamped into the metal bridge plate in between the pickup and saddles. On modern ones the plate is blank.

Good question Javelin70. Is there a serial number on the neck plate ?
This would indicate an 80's Breezysound.

well the previous owner didn't notice that this tokai decal was not for a breezysound... nothing weird really...

Is there a serial number on the neck plate?

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No.

Are all the screws on your scratchplate flathead type?

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No. Crossheads.

Are there any markings on the back of the tuners?
Does the tuners have "Deluxe" stamped on them?

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No any stamps.

The wood looks like Ash to me, but I'm no great wood expert. If your guitar body is made from one piece of wood this would suggest that it is not a cheap copy.

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On one finnish forum (muusikoiden.net) guys said that it?s ash and it could be one piece. I take some pictures at evening.

Does the headstock decal look like it's original and do you think it's possible that the neck could have been repainted? I don't know for how long the "Deluxe" stamp was used on the tuners. The newer strats/teles doesn't have any stamp at all. Also, there are no serials on many of the later Tokai strats/teles.

Unfortunately the 90's Tokai guitars are not so familiar to me since they stopped selling them in Sweden by that time. I guess you are from Finland where Tokai seem to have been available in the 90's. Assuming it's an authentic Tokai my guess is that it's an early 90's model since it has the correct headstock which probably disapperared in the first part of the 90's. As stated before the bridge on the 80's tele's had Tokai stamped on them like on my -82 TE-50 Breezy:



Looking at the pictures of your tele it seems to be a high quality guitar but that logo is really confusing! On the other hand there are some tele's out there with "Goldstar Sound" logos (normally used on strats).

Mike

I've seen the Goldstar Tele's on JSD's website

http://www.jsdguitarshack.com/tokai_tele_bb.html

These are the very nice Korean 50's copies

I found some other Blazing Fire tele owners from muusikoiden.net. Is it possible that Blazing File tele?s has sold only in Finland? Have to ask some questions from them.

Does the headstock decal look like it's original and do you think it's possible that the neck could have been repainted?

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Decal look as original as it could look. I think that it?s not repainted. Previous owner said that he never made any changes to this guitar.

Two new pictures.

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/8743/img12865km.jpg
I think that body is one piece
http://img479.imageshack.us/img479/9955/img12833fs.jpg
Tuners.

It certainly looks like a one piece body. The tuners are probably Gotoh, as far as I know the old ones were also Gotoh like most hardware used by Tokai.

That's a very nice tele and it's probably a higher spec model since it has the vintage type bridge with three saddles and a one piece body. I guess it sounds as good as it looks?

Mike

I guess it sounds as good as it looks?

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Have to say: You?r **** right.