mark_p86
Member
Hey everybody, this is my first post here so firstly I'd like to say hello! - then hopefully would like some expertise on a trade I made earlier today... This site looks like it has a wealth of useful knowledge from people who really know their stuff, and there are some serioulsy great looking instruments!
Basically, being mainly a Strat and Tele player, joining a band on bass and rapidly running out of room for gear (and at the insistance of my girlfriend) I decided to downsize my guitar collection over the past couple of weeks. I sold a couple, swapped a couple then ended up with a MIM Tele and a partscaster Strat left on Gumtree that I couldn't seem to shift, when yesterday I got a message from a local guy who had some stuff to part-ex if I was interested. He showed up at my house with 3 guitars: an Epiphone Limited Edition G400 in Ebony, all gold hardware with a Maestro trem, a '92 Lake Placid Blue MIM Strat in very poor condition, and in the 3rd case what appeared to be a Tokai Candy Apple Red Goldstar Sound. The guy didn't really know much about it, but said he had owned it for a while and that despite having no markings or serial numbers on the neck or neck pocket, the pots were marked "Made in Japan". Also, neither the scratchplate or backplate were original, but everything else was stock as far as he was aware. I had a play of each and decided on the Epiphone, then decided on the "Tokai" mainly because of the neck being a very similar feel to my MIJ Fender '62 reissue Telecaster, it had a nice weight to it, sounded great through my amp, and also figuring that if it didn't turn out to be genuine, trading one partscaster for a better put together one with a nicer neck is better than a poke in the eye. Anyway, after he left, I restrung it but also took the pickguard off for a look inside and took a few photos to see if anybody could send some clues my way as to the legitimacy and origins of this guitar. It had been copper shielded, so I removed it incase there were any markings underneath:
http://imageshack.us/a/img824/4240/sam0466u.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img836/7893/sam0467da.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img404/7834/sam0468d.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img69/3255/sam0469rg.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img441/4581/sam0474f.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img607/2040/sam0472h.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img850/9189/sam0473hv.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img849/4931/sam0470u.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img13/786/sam0471uj.jpg
Any opinions or info would be greatly appreciated, I'm not convinced that I made the trade of the century, I'm basically just curious as to what I've ended up with.
Thanks in advance!!!
Basically, being mainly a Strat and Tele player, joining a band on bass and rapidly running out of room for gear (and at the insistance of my girlfriend) I decided to downsize my guitar collection over the past couple of weeks. I sold a couple, swapped a couple then ended up with a MIM Tele and a partscaster Strat left on Gumtree that I couldn't seem to shift, when yesterday I got a message from a local guy who had some stuff to part-ex if I was interested. He showed up at my house with 3 guitars: an Epiphone Limited Edition G400 in Ebony, all gold hardware with a Maestro trem, a '92 Lake Placid Blue MIM Strat in very poor condition, and in the 3rd case what appeared to be a Tokai Candy Apple Red Goldstar Sound. The guy didn't really know much about it, but said he had owned it for a while and that despite having no markings or serial numbers on the neck or neck pocket, the pots were marked "Made in Japan". Also, neither the scratchplate or backplate were original, but everything else was stock as far as he was aware. I had a play of each and decided on the Epiphone, then decided on the "Tokai" mainly because of the neck being a very similar feel to my MIJ Fender '62 reissue Telecaster, it had a nice weight to it, sounded great through my amp, and also figuring that if it didn't turn out to be genuine, trading one partscaster for a better put together one with a nicer neck is better than a poke in the eye. Anyway, after he left, I restrung it but also took the pickguard off for a look inside and took a few photos to see if anybody could send some clues my way as to the legitimacy and origins of this guitar. It had been copper shielded, so I removed it incase there were any markings underneath:
http://imageshack.us/a/img824/4240/sam0466u.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img836/7893/sam0467da.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img404/7834/sam0468d.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img69/3255/sam0469rg.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img441/4581/sam0474f.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img607/2040/sam0472h.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img850/9189/sam0473hv.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img849/4931/sam0470u.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img13/786/sam0471uj.jpg
Any opinions or info would be greatly appreciated, I'm not convinced that I made the trade of the century, I'm basically just curious as to what I've ended up with.
Thanks in advance!!!