Sunburst Breezy

Just got back in early from the bar, & pulled the trigger on this 1980 Breezy TE70 I saw earlier. It was calling to me as I got the tube home:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200250341009&_trksid=p2759.l1259

Looks like a 2 piece ash body? I'm assuming poly finish on a TE70? Well , have a got a good buy guys?

Mike

Nice one Mike!
That seems like a pretty good price, especially for the UK. An American seller had one of these a while ago, and I think it sold for close to (possibly over) $1000US. The specs on this as listed in Japan Vintage Vol. 8 are:

"TE-70"

Body: Sen or alder 2 piece, with cell binding
Neck: Maple one piece, or Maple and Rosewood; U-shape
PU type: TE-Hot
Nut: Bone
Peg (Tuners): Tokai Kluson-type
Bridge Saddles: Chrome type
Finish: Polyurethane
Colours: Maple neck=YS, GS, WR, BB
Rosewood neck=YSR, GSR, WRR, BBR
Cost: Y70,000

This is the original page this info is from--I can't read it all, but there's lots of Katakana in the column on the left near the bottom--basically English written in a Japanese alphabet.




The same article says there is a TE-70 1958 model, but yours looks like the 1964 model with 3-ply pickguard and 8 screws.

The complete article on Breezys is here in case anyone hasn't seen it yet:

http://s215.photobucket.com/albums/...vol2 Springy Sound/Breezy Japan Vintage vol8/

Ash teles are my favourite--you get that great nasal bite, and this looks beautiful too. I'm curious to know how different the TE-Hot pickups sound from the lower model TE-Bs!
________
Buy Vapor Tower

I didn't know that some Breezys came with bound body... That leave me open to a very expensive new avenue. I'd previously assumed I needed a Japanese '62 Tele RI... But if there's a Tokai version... Hmm

Thanks for the info, though articles in Japanese don't mean a lot to me! Prettty much as I assumed then. It should make a nice match with my SB Springy.

Yep, Tokai do bound body Teles with both RW and maple boards, in fact I get the impression that maple is more common. I've had a Fender Japan bound body Tele from new in 1989 (though there's not much left of the original now....), so it should be an interesting comparison. The Fender Japans tended to have basswood bodies, I believe.

The seller tells me it should be delivered to me by Wed or Thur, so I'll let you know what it's like.

8)

stratman323 said:

Just got back in early from the bar, & pulled the trigger on this 1980 Breezy TE70 I saw earlier. It was calling to me as I got the tube home:


Mike

Click to expand...

No - that was the beer calling to you. Good thing you're bringing the Breezy home instead of a bar tart... :wink:

Marcus - behave! :lol:

Not that it makes much difference really, but can anyone help me with dating the Breezy? Is it 1980? And how do I tell? The early Breezy logo is pre 1982? Block logo in 83, then later one from 84?

Yep: 1980. It's a beauty! I've got an '84; not nearly as pretty, but it's one of my favorite playing Tokais of all time. The 70 series models seems to get a little more attention, at the factory...

Cool, thanks - but how do you know it's a 1980?

Um... 7-digit serial number, that begins with zero... pretty straight forward, right?

Oh, I didn't know it was as simple as that! Great, thanks. Same age as my Springy.

Well, the ash body and 6-saddle bridge are supportive of the date too; by 1982, that would have an alder body and 3-saddle bridge.

OK, so a bit like Springys & Goldstars - they became more vintage-correct after 1982?

Exactly!

It arrived today. Seems to be a perfect match for my 1980 Springy ST80, which also has a 2 piece ash body & 2 tone sunburst finish.

Sisters re-united.... :lol:



More pics here:

http://s183.photobucket.com/albums/x153/stratman323/Tokai%20TE70%20Breezy%20Sound%20Sunburst%201980/

First impressions are that the neck is a little chunkier than I expected - I thought it would be similar to a rosewood board Goldstar, but it's a little fatter than that. It needed a good set up - I thought the strings were just very dead, but they were smooth when I removed them, so maybe groundwounds? The pickups were set far too low too, so that's been put right.

What amazes me is how little wear and tear it's had over 28 years; it must have had a very easy life. Very few marks on the body, and virtually no wear on the frets or fingerboard. The rosewood is up to Tokai's usual very high standard (from the 80s anyway) - a gorgeous piece of dark, dense wood.

It's a shame it's poly finished - nitro would have suited a guitar of this quality far better, but I guess you can't have everything. I just need to play it some more now, & maybe remove the treble-bleed capacitor from the volume control later. I'll be able to comment on the sound better when I've played it for longer, but it seems good so far.

Definitely value for money, I reckon.

Looks lovely Mike, as you say, the perfect match for the Springy, and very good value for money!

Great find and perfect pair. Jealousy setting in.

Who doesn't like a nice pair (and those are nice)? :wink:

I'm often not blown away by Japanese pickups, they have a tendency to be too thin & cutting for me, but the sound from this Breeezy is impressive. The neck pickup gets quite close to a Strat sound, & there's a real punch to the sound from the bridge pickup - higher output than I expected.

It's all looking good so far.

Just got in from rehearsal, so I had a chance to try out the Breezy properly. The neck is a bit too chunky for me, & it's a shame it's not nitro finished. But..... it sounds great. The pickups are really pokey, & they both have a great, rich tone - easily the best Japanese pickups I've ever had.

It's a shame that the bridge pickup is so microphonic - it howls with any real gain on the amp. But wax potting should cure that, so I think I'll remove it & send it off to Shed pickups. Then I should have a really useful Tele to give my US blonde Tele a run for it's money. And it was a fair bit cheaper too.

Looks like this one's a keeper.

One other minor problem though - the volume pot seems to respond too suddenly - you back off the volume a bit & the volume drops more than usual for a Strat or a Tele, which isn't ideal. I've removed the treble bleed capacitor, but that wouldn't affect it. So why is this? Is it that the taper on the pot is wrong? I can never remember which is audio and which is linear, but the pot seems to respond in a different way to my Springy. Any ideas?

Update. I had the bridge pickup wax potted, so no more microphonic problems. I used it at rehearsal the other day, & the volume pot is playing up a bit - cutting out when turned down. So I've blasted it with contact cleaner, & hopefully that will do the trick.

But..... it still seems to be too sharp a taper. Quarter of a turn reduces the volume more than usual for a Strat or a Tele. Could it be a linear pot rather than audio taper? Does anyone know if these are the original pots?



If I need to replace the volume pot, does anyone know what type I need to get? I know it's 250k, but do they have to be metric?