ST-50 The legend

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Peter Mac

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Hello all

Have you wondered why there are so many ST-50's around?
This was Tokai's entry level guitar....and yet compared with other brands on the Market (Ibanez, Maya, etc) they were better built, better woods, pups, feel and sound. The maple necks were 1 piece instead of maple veneer board, the bodies were light alder instead of weighty multi ply - in short they were made the way Fender made their Strats in the 1950's.
Fernandes and Greco took note and followed suit and between the 3 of them paved the way for FJ and OBG.
The ST-50 is a guitar to be proud of. It accounted for nearly 60% of ST production, was built for affordability and if you wanted better features, upgrade to the ST-80.
It is disheartening when you read comments of " oh, it's only an ST-50"
That's like saying " oh, it's only an L-series Fender, I thought it was pre-L"

Cheer up owners, they may be entry level for Tokai but they were Top-shelf for the rest of the World.

Please add any comments / pics / observations / etc.

regards
Peter Mac
 
Only one ST in my house, not a 50 but a 55 from 1980, refin though..



Nice birds eye maple neck



Beautiful rosewood board, this is an old pic though. I have drilled the dots out and replaced them with coloured water putty to mimic the 59-65 strat

 
I bought my ST50 in 1987 and have used/abused it professionally ever since. Never saw it as an entry level but a solid professional guitar. Although the hardware has been replaced as it wore out it still is a great instrument. Testament to the good woods and craftsmanship of Tokai. Never saw the need for a *real* one.







 
Hi guys

In regards to the ST-40 & 45's, these guitars came and went but the 50 series was always the staple for entry into the Tokai stable.

Jacco- very nice axe, but have you replaced the scratchplate or neck?

Unlike the ST-45, the ST-55 was essentially an ST-50 finished in a custom colour rather than the standard colours ( GS, YSO, BB, OW, )

Barks - that is my point exactly. They were designed as a professional guitar at a fair price, " an exact replica of the good old strat" to be precise.

regards
Peter Mac
 
Hi Peter, no neck is original; same code on body & neck. Pickguard also original. I did refinish the body in nitro surf green, it was a natural finish originally. Neck also refinished in nitro (I love that feel), left the front of the headstock intact, lost the 55 sticker which was on it when I bought it though.
 
Hi Jacco,

As I'm sure you are aware, the 8-hole scratchplate was only for maple neck models generally, although some pre-1980 models rosewoods had them also. I take it yours is pre-1980?

By the way, awesome colour, it looks superb.

Peter Mac
 
Hi Peter, mine is from 1980. I don't know where you got that info; there are so many 1980 RW board STs with 8 screw pickguards around like mine..
 
+

just following the breadcrumbs....

Fenders used single layer 8 hole from 54-58 (Maple neck)and triple layer 11 hole from 59-65 (Rosewood neck). The body route was also different.

Tokai did tend to follow this design but from 1981 - not 1980. Sorry.

Peter Mac
 
I had a 79 once ...with rosewood veneer neck ...and a plug like on a mable neck ...it too came with a 8 hole scratchplate .....sold it long ago
 
Hi guys,

In order to understand what Tokai was doing, you need to know what Fender did.
1954 :The first pickguard had 8 holes, was made of 1 ply Bakelite or anodised aluminium and had a large control cavity with an ash body.
1956 : Alder was introduced as an extra choice of body wood, pickguard and specs remained unchanged.
1959 : Rosewood was the fingerboard alternative, the pickguard was changed to 3ply 11-hole and to facilitate this, the control route was altered to include a 'shoulder' for the screw next to the pickup selector.

Tokai followed this method somewhat...
All 77-78 models (ST45-ST100) had ash bodies, 1 ply, 8 hole guards and maple or rosewood necks and the 54-58 route (no shoulder).
In '79 I believe, the route was changed to the 'shoulder' route due to the SS series Silver Star which had 11 screw guards
1980 was a BIG changeover year. All bodies had the shoulder, regardless of pickguard By the end of 1980 and into '81, the ST and SS had pure pre-CBS and CBS specs and 1982 they changed the serial numbers to create the most accurate replica since 1965.

Whew . . . . . . . .

Peter Mac
 
Hi guys,

Time for an update. Looking back on the last 6 years I realise a lot of what we thought then needs to be updated.
Every Year since 2007 I've been buying close to 20 old Tokais of various models, shipping to Australia, pulling them apart, studying the features+photos, re-assembling them and selling them in the Australian Market. Most of the ones I have chased are ST SpringySounds and SS SilverStars as they sell the quickest here. I have also copped some flak for making statements that - at the time seemed correct - but were shown to be wrong. It happens. I can't be 100% about absolutely everything.
So, to clarify some statements from all the extra info I have learned . . .
1) When i talk 'Vintage' Tokai, I am talking pre-1985
2) No ST-40 exists, it is TST-40 and introduced after 1986
3) ST-50 is 'Entry-level' . ST-42 and ST-45 are 'Budget-level' due to non vintage machine heads and pickups.
4) Model Years were changed around September-October, so an October 1980 guitar with 1980 serial number is actually Model Year 1981.
5) Breezysounds were 'officially' released in mid-1980. My hesitation at some Breezys with early 1979 serial# is that when the date stamps are taken into consideration and compared with date stamps and serials from Springys of the same time of Year they don't follow the pattern. the other thing is the ease at which 1978, 1979 and 1980 neck plates can be interchanged to create an "earlier" model. It's not just about the serials and stamps - it's also the features.
6) From Tokai Gakki themselves : production stamps first 2 numbers are month, next 2 numbers are production run then colour. At times only 1 number may appear. eg 10=12 BB or 3=5 GS or 12=1 or 9=20
There is more but not today

regards
Peter Mac
 
Peter, I follow your logic and hope this stuff made it into the book!. Imagine how boring if all Tokais were the same and all 'wrong' - I guess we wouldnt be collecting them. It is the mystery that makes Tokai so interesting to research, a bit like searching the valley of the kings and finding a bit more of the puzzle
 
Just one thing - the TST-40 was available already in 1985. This is from the 1985 catalog:

http://www.tokairegistry.com/images/catalogs/tokai859.jpg

/Mike
 
Peter, I have a 1982 Springy Sound (black, maple neck) bought from the original owner in Germany. Would it be possible to find out if it's a TST50 or 60? As I understand the difference is the pickups otherwise the spec seem to be the same. Same neck profile etc. The body seem to be made of 2 pieces. The original pickups had been replaced with SD SSL-1's, I managed to trade those for a set of Tokai E pickups which I use except for a DiMarzio FS-1 in the bridge position.

Mike
 
Hi Mike,

Actually the pickups weren't the only difference.
Hardware for ST-50 was all chrome and solid colour bodies were 3 piece.
ST-60 were always centre seam 2 piece body with mostly nickel hardware. 1982 is a difficult Year for ST-60 as they transitioned between 1958 to 1954 [the neck became 'V' shape and serial # dropped from 5 digit to 4 digit]
What is the complete body stamp eg: 12=12 BB Z, etc?.
 
It's definitely a 1958 model with a 5 digit serial and a rounded neck shape. I don't remember the codes but I'll se if I can see them if I loosen the pickguard. The body join is not centered but I can't find another join. Did they use center join also for the solid colors? The tuners look like nickel but the trem might be chrome, the saddles look like nickel, they are very rusty though. It has a steel block but also the ST50 has that. Most screws on the guitar are rusty as well.

Mike

Peter Mac said:
Hi Mike,

Actually the pickups weren't the only difference.
Hardware for ST-50 was all chrome and solid colour bodies were 3 piece.
ST-60 were always centre seam 2 piece body with mostly nickel hardware. 1982 is a difficult Year for ST-60 as they transitioned between 1958 to 1954 [the neck became 'V' shape and serial # dropped from 5 digit to 4 digit]
What is the complete body stamp eg: 12=12 BB Z, etc?.
 
I've owned an st40, st 50 and an st60. The biggest difference I found, was as Peter says 'the neck shape' of the '60' very subtle but you really can feel the soft v of the neck.
Best feeling and sounding guitar of the three, in my opinion, was the st 50, a lovely two tone golden burst, wish I had never let it go. :-?
St 40 had the bar magnet pickups, so if yours has 'u' pups, or 'e' pups, and a round neck, it will be a '50'.
 
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