st50 body wood questions

Tokai Forum

Help Support Tokai Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

gmr

Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2008
Messages
5
Reaction score
0
What is the body wood of an st-50? I'm looking at one, here are some pics.

http://imageevent.com/chingo123/october2008/tokaispringyst50sb3478

could it be a one piece body on a st-50?

I read some were made with Castor arabia. What is castor arabia wood? Anybody know what castor arabia wood looks like? what are the chances this body has that wood? Wouldn't a sunburst be more an alder body? they didn't make ash on st50
what do you think of this guitar? It has U pickups. Been trying to find the difference between all the pickup types E-U

Thanks
 
Welcome to the forum gmr, but you really should take the time to read through recent posts before asking all those questions. There is already a current thread (somewhere!) about the number of pieces of wood that go to make up Strat bodies, whether they are Tokai or Fender. I remember contributing to the thread yesterday, so I would recommend that you have a look for it.

There are also numerous threads that cover the different pickups - U, V1, E etc.

With regard to body wood on Springys, I have only heard of ash or alder being used. Higher level Springys (ST60 & above) tend to have figured sen ash bodies, while ST50s and below tend to be alder. The example that chingo is selling looks like alder to me - quite plain grain.

It's hard to see the joins in alder as the grain isn't very prominent, & Tokai usually do an excellent job of hiding the joins. But if that is a one piece body, I would be amazed.

Mike
 
Yes
Thanks Stratman (weird cuz that is my name usually!) after I posted I read like for 5 hours on this forum and very informative and i found basically the answers i was looking for... Yes the joints are hard to find but I guess I'll see them when I get the guitar, I'm sure it ain't a one piece body too... and it seems to be alder which is what I want, I was just scared that it may be some other wood. I prefer the tone of alder to ash.

I'm new to the tokais and I just bought 2 from Chingo. I ain't new to Strats though! but I feel the prices are out of control for a good strat so I can't wait to try these Tokais! I'm a player not a collectionner! I 've got my two older strats which I don't want to gig with anymore so... here come in the Tokai's... Hope they fit the bill!
 
Yeah there's loads of useful stuff on here if you dig around for it. By the way, it's useful to know where people are sometimes, so you might want to add that to your profile,

That Springy looks nice, having had a second look. It's rare for the 50 sticker to still be intact after nearly 30 years. No skunk stripe on the neck so it's from between 1980 & 82. Rosewood looks really nice, typical of 80s Tokais. 8)

So what are your two older Strats?
 
Well I have a a 66 and 69' which I love, i know some of you don't like CBS era, but there are some good ones in those era, and I've seen some really bad ones too, but the ones I got have great tone and great necks.
I've tried some up that sounded tinny and it ain't only the pickups. the wood and neck, the way they sound i would say affect equally in sound. I've done a lot of tests and pickup swapping.

I also have a '55 on the way in the coming months...(inheritance) which i know very very well.....but i don't love it like my mine. It's a great sparkling clean strat though!

I'm a fan of the U type neck and the bigger the better usually, and if i read correctly I assume the Tokai I bought has that type of U neck. I never bought a gtr without trying it first cuz i have hear them acoustically before to know if I like them so this will be a surprise a bit. But it's alder on rosewood neck so hopefully it sounds good acoustically! If it does well thenn it only a matter of getting Fralins if ever i don't like the U pickups!
 
Generally the Tokai rosewood board necks seem to be slimmer than the maple ones, so I hope it's what you want. Doesn't your 66 have a slim neck?
 
gmr said:
What is the body wood of an st-50? I'm looking at one, here are some pics.

http://imageevent.com/chingo123/october2008/tokaispringyst50sb3478

could it be a one piece body on a st-50?

It could be one piece body on that age guitar. I have been selling Tokai guitars in Finland from 1985 to 2000 as new.
Your guitar is older that 1985 I think. I have once had one second hand Tokai Tele that has same old logo.


I read some were made with Castor arabia. What is castor arabia wood?

I have never heard "castor arabia" term. In Japan they used imported and local woods. Mayme some alder or similar like wood is called castor arabia or it would be some latin word of some alder.

Anybody know what castor arabia wood looks like? what are the chances this body has that wood? Wouldn't a sunburst be more an alder body? they didn't make ash on st50
what do you think of this guitar? It has U pickups. Been trying to find the difference between all the pickup types E-U

It seem to be all original with pickups and pots. Those old Tokai pickups were like those are in your pictures.

Anyway when they made sunburst guitars they could be alder or ash. Mainly all sixties models with rosewood fingerboard are alder. With these instruments neck profile is U shape and with rosewood fingerboard.

As Fender Guitars late fifties stratocasters, they could be alder or ash.
I am not sure how it was with Tokai. But what I do know is they really made Tokai guitars as true replicas.
My friend had original Fender Strat 1964 and we compared Tokai and his guitar. The weight and tone was the same. After we changed Seymour Duncan SSL-1 pickups for Tokai the tone was really the same.
It was late 1985 we did this.


(I met those two guys from Tokai at Frankfurt Messe 1986 and tried to discuss with them. They were the two sons of Tokai Pianofactory owner. Those guys started to make Tokai guitars in this factory on early eighties.
They can not speak english and no-one was there to translate. It was pitty.)


I hope someone else knows better than me..... This is all I have found out during the years. :)
 
nietsu said:
Anyway when they made sunburst guitars they could be alder or ash. Mainly all sixties models with rosewood fingerboard are alder. With these instruments neck profile is U shape and with rosewood fingerboard.

As Fender Guitars late fifties stratocasters, they could be alder or ash.
I am not sure how it was with Tokai. But what I do know is they really made Tokai guitars as true replicas.

It's not as simple as that. Springys up to ST50 were alder, ST60s and above were ash. It's only likely to be ST100s (very rare) that have one piece bodies. ST80s and above are nitro finished with a V profile neck, whether rosewood or maple boards. This may not be historically correct (V necks were only produced by Fender on maple board Strats in the late 50s), but they are still great Strats.

And, as I stated in another thread recently, Fender only used ash after 1956 on blonde models - Sunburst Strats after 1956 were alder.
 
stratman323 said:
Generally the Tokai rosewood board necks seem to be slimmer than the maple ones, so I hope it's what you want. Doesn't your 66 have a slim neck?

69' is maple so it is bigger and I do preffer the neck, but I like rosewood sound though, sO ideally I'd love to find a bigger rosewood neck, that's a wierd thing about buying on the internet, you can't try before, cuz as soon as you put your hand around a neck you know
 
Well if the Tokai doesn't suit you, the fattest rosewood board Strat necks I've tried have been the Fender Japan models. I'm sure they vary too, but it might be worth bearing in mind.
 
I'm not looking for a baseball bat thickness , but I do have a preference for the U neck that are not wide but come out. I've picked up a lot of 70's strats and most all had this type of neck.
 
Hi all, Sen, known botanically as Acanthopanax ricinofolius, goes by a variety of names including harigiri, sen-no- ki, nakada, tse tsin, and in the United States as castor arabia. Hope this clears things up.. :wink:

Mick
 

Latest posts

Back
Top