st50 springy

Now this is probably someones heres, but I just I bought an st50 from ebay,
it has bare knuckles pick ups in it, just wondered how easy it is to change then back to stock, I am paying for the originals as well.

very easy if you have a decent soldering iron, just follow a wiring diagram. I have just removed the bridge pickup from my st50 and fitted a bare knuckle sinner. Dont be too haisty in removing them they are amazing pickups.

If you decide to sell them, give me a shout

Try the bareknuckles first, they are very good pickups and the originals only need to go in if you are selling it.

Mick

i haven't tried any of the bareknuckle strat pickups, but if they're anything like as good as my miracle man/cold sweat humbucker set, you won't want to change back to the tokais... unless you just want it to be in completely original condition. I'd have thought so, anyway. Or unless the BKs aren't aimed at the tones you want or something like that, which is always possible.

Just wanted it all original

I love Tokai Strats, but the best way to improve every one I've tried was to upgrade the pickups. That applies to Fender Japan guitars too. Keep the originals in case you sell it, & by all means try them, but I'd be surprised if you prefer them. But let us know, pickups are the most personal choice of all.

I can post the wiring diagram if you want it do it yourself, or it's a simple job for a decent guitar tech. Where are you based?

Mike

Hi, it has arrived, I am playing it using the bare Knuckles ones at the moment, it sounds great.
I am not a huge strat person but wanted to try a springy as I have read a lot about them.
I think I need to live with it for awhile.

last.train.home said:

I think I need to live with it for awhile.

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+1. :wink: Enjoy.

I just changed the settings on my amp, its really coming to life now

old japanese proverb says

"live in the house for a month before you change anything"

and i have just become a "Guitar God" so it must be true !!!

Tokai pickups tend to be a bit on the thin or bright side. At a guess, the new pickups are probably a bit warmer, though you can never be sure unless you try them both.

Do you think the vintage Tokai Fender/Gibson copies are highly wanted in the UK now especially after those Uk guitar magazines did the special Tokai issues? Are they well respected in the Uk now? As with their history and high quality are well understood.

I think "yes" to all those questions. Tokais were quite widely available here in the 80s, & there are quite a few around. Prices of the 80s guitars have gone up quite a bit in the last 2 or 3 years, so I guess that means they're popular. I think people are seeing Tokai as a "cool" brand now, more than they used to. But some people would still rather buy an Epiphone or a Mexican Fender - more fool them, in my humble opinion. I think there has always been a fair number of people here who appreciate Japanese quality.

Actually, this is one area where you are different to Tokai Joe. Joe loved the US, but he didn't seem to have much interest in Europe. But you do. So I guess you can't be TJ using a different name!

Ofcourse No stratman stop saying that Please! I know Tokai Joe was so proud of USA and California crap all the time and that was good for him because he was born for it. But I am just Sushi Guy from Hong kong and I don't like USA that much unlike Tokai Joe does. You know in general american people hate fishes so there isn't much place for me to be there usually. I am a sushi cook you know so I think I like Europe so much better than USA. I heard that Europeans eat much more fishes than the continental white culture people. So yes I like the Europe and am very interested in there always. And my hometown Hong Kong used to be a part of the UK so I feel very close to the UK always. Anyway hope you guys believe me now as just Sushi Guy not Tokai Joe. He will be back in the fall I think he said. So let's meet him when he is back! will be a funny story for him that people here misunderstood me as him since my style was very similar to his or something. I was his fan so I maybe tried to do like him unconsciously....Nice to meet you Mike and all those other big nice guys here. What are their names? Ozeman and Mick and Grecoman and more. Thanks!

This is me and my beautiful sushi around. It's taken at the hotel I work for and this hotel is the one by Japan Airlines. It's the Japanese company owned hotel so it's easy for me to work there. They are very nice to someone like me who is half Chinese and half Japanese. I like Hong kong okay now but actually I would like to move to Brisbane, Australia someday if I could. They have nice beaches and all and I think they need a lot of new sushi guys lately because of many Japanese restaurants opening there. I guess those big guys here came from Brisbane? Mick and Ozeman and Grecoman and some more? There must have some special Tokai reasons over there or something cause why only Brisbane has so many Tokai forum members? Interesting if we really think about it. Anyway enough about me now so let's go back to the guitar talk. Sushi Guy. (aka. KAZU)

Tokai Joe did make a good point though - he put some value on original design, which is why he was such a big fan of US guitars. Look, I love the Japanese stuff and I've totally converted over, but it's worth remembering that Tokai et al didn't have to do any R & D to make their Fender and Gibson models, it was already done, and the markets for those products were already created.

I would have kept my Gibson R8 (if I was loaded) because it had great tone, but the fret board just wasn't as sweet sounding or perfect in playability when compared to my Bacchus Duke.

SUSHI GUY said:

This is me and my beautiful sushi around... but actually I would like to move to Brisbane, Australia someday if I could...

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I hope you do make it to Australia - I would very much enjoy visiting with you and getting a sushi education! At the moment I don't really like a lot of it unless I put wasabi or soy sauce on everything (sorry).

Thank you very much good Aussie people. Even I am a Sushi Guy I totally understand that the fishes smell bad when they are raw so to eat them clean and good they have to be totally fresh and good quality. And it's totally okay and understandable that you guys need a lot of soy sauce and wasabi and I too, personally needed them a lot everytime I ate sushi when I was a child...
Is Sushi seriously taken and eaten happily in the world everywhere today like the media says? I wonder about this sometimes. Whether it's true or not really yet or quite never or.....

JV......This is one of the worst problems that Gibson historic guitars have for their not so good tone even they cost non-sense high $......
Their trussrod has a rubber tube around the rod which makes the neck tone very dull possibly. I think this problem and that rocker joint problem are the worst famous problems of the Gibson guitars since the late 1960s or something. Many other companies also might be doing something like these possibly. hope Tokai didn't for their vintage guitars.....

http://www.historicmakeovers.com/trussRod.html

Someone on the Gibson forum explained well.....

Gibson started using a sheath over the trussrod in 1968 to speed up production(Norlin era..) what it did was keep the Titebond glue from bonding to the rod. Before that Gibson used Hide glue and waxed the rods with beeswax to keep any glue from sticking to it. The sheath over the rod dampens string vibration transfers thru the neck that allow the neck to create more sound and sustain. The old rods were 1/4" cold rolled steel with a 1/2" round piece of steel welded to the end near the body that created the tension block for the rod. New ones are much smaller, use cheaper metal and a rectangular block that about 1/4" thick at the body end and do nearly nothing to transfer string vibration thru the neck Having had two of my Les Paul's done by Dave Johnson @ Historic Makeovers, I can say for certain that there's a HUGE difference.