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Anonymous

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Does anyone have any information about Tokai MAT guitars built in the 80's?
I have aquired one that has been stripped of it's original electronics and am rebuilding it, hopefully to it's former glory.
I believe they had active pickups.
Grateful for any information.

[Anonymously Posted by: 'ian']
 
Hi Ian,

I also own a MAT, it's a 1985 with an FRP (fiberglass reinforced plastic (fibertech)) body, the color is copper chrome with a black neck and headstock. The hardware is gold plated. There were also graphtech (carbon fiber/glass fiber) bodies and necks in 1986. Some models had active electronics in -86 but not in -85. The graphtechs were not available in -85. There were different combinations in -86, fibertech body/graphtech neck for example, some models also had wooden bodies and graphtech necks. My guitar seems to have a wooden neck and h/s/h pickups which makes me suspect it's a prototype sent to the Swedish importer for evaluation, the h/s/h configuration wasn't available to my knowledge. Let me know what your guitar looks like, I'll maybe find it in one of my catalogues.

[Anonymously Posted by: 'Mike']
 
It's got a white fibreglass body with a graphite neck. The body has been routed (moulded, actually) to accept 3 humbuckers, but the pick guard only has mounting holes for 2. (Could the spare pickup cavity have been used for active electronics?).
I have now rebuilt it using 2 pickups, a humbucker at the neck, and a p90 single coil at the bridge. I have wired the front pickup so that I can switch it between humbucking in series/single coil/both coils on in parallel, and it is really quite playable now after being set up, but it is anything but original. As before, any help would be gratefully received.
Ian
 
If you look at the catalog page there is a 1986 MAT catalog at the bottom (it just says 1980s Tokai Catalog), you'll probably find your guitar there. My guitar (copper chrome) is on page 5 in the 1985 catalog (except that the pickup configuration is different, it looks like the black prototype on page 4) Probably all the MAT bodies were the same since they were moulded, there was no reason to make different versions for different pickup configurations. I never saw any other MATs except for the 1985 and 86 models, they were probably discontinued. I don't think the world was redy for hitech guitars (it still insn't). Maybe it'll change with Parker and Andreas guitars.
 

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