Advice Needed... Seriously Dodgy Guitar...

Hello....

I need some advice about Tokai...so I come to the experts :lol:

A friend of mine has a "Strat" that I am looking at. Now... the reason for the "" is that it is obviously not what it claims to be and I need some guidance in trying to understand what it is....

Firstly it claims to be a Fender (is that a dirty word?) strat. The head stock has a fender decal on it. It plays well, but something just isn't right.

1) Biggest give away the saddles have Final Prospec on them.

2) The body cavity has 7=1MB Z in it.

These 2 things I believe point to the body being a Tokai.....but which model I don't know. From reading this forum I'm guessing its a mid 80's st40 or 50.

The tuners have been replace with Charvel tuners. Whatever tuners were originally on this guitar had its screw holes in a sraight row in the middle of the tuners. The Charvel tuners have the screw at the bottom right of the tuner... so the original holes are visable.

This brings me to the neck. Is it a Fender neck or a Tokai neck with a Fender decal on it. There is no number stamped on the bottom of the fret board. The only thing I can find is 7-59 in pencil on the heel of the neck when I took it off.

The neck plate is plain an has 12959 on it.

Can anyone offer me any guidance?... Any help is appreciated....

Thanks.......

pugwash said:

... 1) Biggest give away the saddles have Final Prospec on them...

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So it seems, this is the only original Tokai part on this guitar?

Hmmm... so is the body not Tokai then?... I thought the 7=1MB Z in the body followed the type of numbering put in other Tokai guitars?.....

What is the original color of the body?

Its blue.. kinda metalic..... suppose if there was a gun to my head I'd say starfire blue.... It doesn't look like its had a respray.....

So at least the matchcode would fit for a Tokai.
MB means metallic blue.

So you have now probably a Tokai body and Tokai saddles. :wink:

get in......so we can possibley say the body and maybe the electrics are Tokai.... anyway to identify the electircs?

Does the neck look Fender then?

pugwash said:

.... anyway to identify the electircs?

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:lol: If you don't mind, may I ask for any pics, if possible?

Ah... that I can provide in due course... batteries on charge as we speak.....

Tell you what ... I'll take some piccies of the whole guitar....

It does sound like its a tokai body with a A.N. Other neck.....

I appreciate you response........

Wathc this space I'll I will post the picures soon....

Thanks

Any markings on the neck end, where the neck meets the pocket?

The neck end?... not 100% where you mean but.... the fret board has no markings past the last fret....

When I took the neck of the only markings were the numbers 7-59 written in what looked pencil on the end of the neck..... or the heal as I would call it.. ie the end of the neck where it joins the body....

pugwash>>

The marking in the control cavity DOES indicate a early eighties tokai body along with the Final prospect saddles-

The original Tokai pickups WILL have stamped Grey bottom's
( U,E,V,Vl,Vll )

The original Neck WILL have a number simular to yours in the control cavity--->for example 7=1 -needs to have an equals sign to be early eighties model-
(if has a dash ie: 7-1 its from europe after early 80's)

Right.... I'll check the electrics....

As to to neck.... the 7-59 which looks like its been written in pencil.... did Tokai make a proper stamp... ie.. they never just wrote it on......

Sounds like a Tokai Body with Fender Japan Neck to me

Think I have to agree with you.... Body seems to be a Tokai... the neck doesn't seem to have any Tokai stamps on it....

I wonder if its worth more in bits!!!!!!!!

pugwash said:

Ah... that I can provide in due course... batteries on charge as we speak.....

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Are the batteries now full?

togps said:

pugwash said:

Ah... that I can provide in due course... batteries on charge as we speak.....

Click to expand...

Are the batteries now full?

Click to expand...

I think his wife has been using them in her Buzz Lightyear :wink:

I saw an ebay listing recently for a Tokai/Fender strat. MIJ neck, Tokai body.

I wonder if its worth more in bits!!!!!!!!

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How does it play? If it's a frankenstien then it won't interest a collector, but if it plays well then who cares? - it's got pedigree parts and it's interesting so it can still be a good guitar.