Hello from sunny Edinburgh-Tokai Strat 1985 or older.

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Your right - but I am not going to try and put any decals on myself-I will leave that to the professionals like yourself - I once tried respraying the bumper on my car and it was a disaster.
Just wanted to say a big thanks to you all for your help in identifying the model of Tokai :eek:
Now i must find these tuners......the scahlers currently fitted are fine but....
 
Just when I though it was sorted and it was seeming like we were veering towards it being a Goldstar TST-55 I saw the identical model in every way(japanguitar.co.uk) and LO serial number as well. It was fully marked as 1980 Springy Sound ST-50 in Candy Apple Red the exact same colour as the one I have.
 
Dont get to worked up :wink: ,i thought it might be with the headstock but we have to be carefull here,if it is a springy that makes it worse having no logo :cry: the L does point to a 1980 springy,but people buy them for the spaghetti logo,if it is a ST-50/55 it is the lower end because after that its the ST 60/80/100/120 Goldstars only go up to 55 and a lot of people prefer the Goldstars with the U pups,and a lot of people prefer the higher end Springys starting with ST-80 Springys with the spaghtti logo and E pups.but thats JMO :wink:
 
Tokais only became widely available in the UK around 83/84 anyway so it's a probably a Goldstar. When Fender transfers appeared in the UK around the mid to late 80's, Just about everyone and their mother who owned a Goldstar rubbed the logo off and replaced it or left it blank.
Most of the ones I got hold of between the mid 80's and later had a Fender logo.
 
Thanks guys and of course you are right - its just to my untrained eye they all start to look the same after a while...
I must admit that 1980 does seem a bit of stretch in so much that the guitar was in mint condition when i bought it 85 and most likey was only a year or two old. I guess we can only speculate on what happened to the decals - I just thought it odd that a shop would not put a Tokai or a fender label on if it was missing but as i said we will never know but what you say makes a lot of sense. I guess I was feeling a bit annoyed with myself for removing the original tuners and being unable to find them but thats life! :D
Cheers

Nick
 
Rossi said:
Goldstars only go up to 55

According to the 1985 Tokai catalogue, that's not true. There are 40, 50/55/60 & 80 Goldstars. It would appear that the 50/55s have ST Vintage Mk II pickups, the 60s have ST Vintage pickups (presumably these are better in some way?), and the 80s have Dimarzio VS-1 pickups.
 
stratman323 said:
According to the 1985 Tokai catalogue, that's not true. There are 40, 50/55/60 & 80 Goldstars. It would appear that the 50/55s have ST Vintage Mk II pickups, the 60s have ST Vintage pickups (presumably these are better in some way?), and the 80s have Dimarzio VS-1 pickups.

Also, some of the early Goldstars have the same pickups as the Springy's. My TST-50 Goldstar has the U pickups which are not the same as the Vintage MkII (stamped VII) pickups. There's a difference in DC resistance, I've compared them, U pickups have a slightly higher resistance and are a little hotter.

Another thing, Metallic Red is not a custom color so the guitar is a TST-50. Goldstar TST-50 colors were:

YSO = old yellow sunburst
GS = golden sunburst
OW = olympic white
BB = black
MR = metallic red

The color code is stamped in the control cavity (or/and the neck pickup cavity). My TST-50 is also metallic red btw, I love that color!

Mike
 
javelin70 said:
My TST-50 is also metallic red btw, I love that color!

So do I, how similar is it to Fender's Candy Apple Red? I haven't had a chance to compare them side by side.

I'm still getting my head around the different Tokai Strat pickups. Those on my 84 TST55 seem to be stamped V1 - so what does that make them?
 
Forgot to include links to pickup pics

http://s183.photobucket.com/albums/x153/stratman323/Tokai%20TST55%20Met%20Green/?action=view&current=119_1914.jpg

http://s183.photobucket.com/albums/x153/stratman323/Tokai%20TST55%20Met%20Green/?action=view&current=119_1910.jpg
 
V1 = Vintage :wink: Also V 11

I like that green with a maple neck (niceeeeee)
 
There's a separate thread somewhere on here with pics of the whole guitar. I love the colour, but I don't like the big shiny Tokai maple necks, so I'm swapping it tomorrow for my mates Sunburst rosewood board Goldstar. It's not in such good condition as mine (I think only 2 of the pickups are original, and it's a bit knocked about), but it's likely to get played, wheras the green beauty doesn't really. Shame, but there we go.

I did ask if anyone had a rosewood board Goldstar to swap, but nobody replied...
 
stratman323 said:
So do I, how similar is it to Fender's Candy Apple Red? I haven't had a chance to compare them side by side.

I'm still getting my head around the different Tokai Strat pickups. Those on my 84 TST55 seem to be stamped V1 - so what does that make them?

Here's my TST-50:

st50_5.jpg


It has been modified from a '64 replica to a '54 replica (TST-60/80 v-neck), the original neck is warped unfortunately and a previous owner has removed the fingerboard. The pickguard (single ply), tremolo cover and control knobs/pickup covers (parchment) are Allparts. The pickups are the U's except for the hotrail at the bridge.

I think the metallic red is very close to car, the color changes a lot depending on the light so it can be hard to tell from pictures. I don't know the difference between the VI and VII pickups unfortunately. TST-55 should have VII's but sometimes Tokai seem to have used better pickups than specified. My 1984 TLS-50 Love Rock gold top has the '57 PAF vintage pickups specified for the TLS-80, not the '57 Vintage MkII pickups it should have. It came with them from the factory.

Mike
 
stratman323 said:
There's a separate thread somewhere on here with pics of the whole guitar. I love the colour, but I don't like the big shiny Tokai maple necks, so I'm swapping it tomorrow for my mates Sunburst rosewood board Goldstar. It's not in such good condition as mine (I think only 2 of the pickups are original, and it's a bit knocked about), but it's likely to get played, wheras the green beauty doesn't really. Shame, but there we go.

I did ask if anyone had a rosewood board Goldstar to swap, but nobody replied...

And I love the maple necks, all of my Tokai strats have them (3 Goldstars and a Springy).

Mike
 
We are getting some good posts on here.Thats what the forum is for.Even i didnt know about a Goldstar ST-80 with E-pups :oops: I really did think they went up to 55 :wink:
 
Nice colour. CAR seems to vary a lot anyway. My US 62RI Strat (1986) is a lot darker (and more worn) than my Jap 62RI Tele (85/6, according to the serial number). Possibly depends on the undercoat, whether it's gold or silver? It's a gorgeous colour anyway.

So what happened to the third pickup. You still have it?
 
stratman323 said:
Nice colour. CAR seems to vary a lot anyway. My US 62RI Strat (1986) is a lot darker (and more worn) than my Jap 62RI Tele (85/6, according to the serial number). Possibly depends on the undercoat, whether it's gold or silver? It's a gorgeous colour anyway.

So what happened to the third pickup. You still have it?

Yes, I still have the third pickup, it stays with the guitar. For the kind of music I play I really need a humbucker at the bridge to get the sound I want but I want to be able to restore it to original (even though this particular guitar isn't so much original anymore).

Mike
 
Fair enough, I don't blame you for hanging onto the original pickup. Have you tried a Seymour Duncan JB Junior? I have one on a Strat I put together around a Warmoth hardtail ash body. It's very versatile if wired series/split through a push/pull pot, or series/split/parallel through a 3 way switch as I've done. And they come in white, so it doesn't stand out like a black pickup does. Got mine for about ?35 on eBay. :D
 
By the way, how did you get the pic to appear in the body of your message? I only know how to post to a link to photobucket. :(
 
I use SD Little '59's on some of my other strats. I actually wanted a black pickup on this strat, on the other strats they are the same color as the other pickups.

When you make a new post there's an Img button you can use - push it once, insert the link to yor image and then push the Img button again. Otherwise just use these tags
and put your image link between them.

Mike
 
Just to add one comment RE: Goldstar ST80 specs.

I recently bought an Olympic White through Yahoo Japan. It has no logo on the headstock, and the former owner simply did not know which brand it is. He/she just knew that it must be old and that the pickups were stamped "E". However, I also thought it must be a 60s copy, (11 holes pickguard). So this did not fit with what I believed to know. It also had no serial on the neckplate. Bridge and tuners were so rusty it was not possible to read anything on them.

So I took the risk and bid on it. Eventually I got it for a REALLY good price.

When I received it I was suprised. It did not only have DiMarzios , but also a V-neck in virtually unplayed condition in real Tokai quality. Pots, cap and switch are the same as on my ST80s. It also has a very nice ash 2-piece body. However, not nitro.

So beside the nitro: if I am not mistaken this is a Goldstar with ST80 specs. And a fantastic guitar. :eek:

I'll post pics when I finished cleaning her.

Cheers. Rupert
 

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