Is this a 1984 Goldstar Sound?

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beedster

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Hi all. I have the chance to buy a Tokai Goldstar and i'm hoping you can confirm what it is and how much of it is original.

The shop is advertising it as a '84 Tokai 57 Strat'. The reason I want it is because I was born in 84 and like the idea of having a guitar the same age as me. It's very difficult finding a nice lefty from that year.

Here are a bunch of photos - it does seem to be in very good condition for a 30 year old guitar. Thanks for any help.











 
That's the real deal. Although i'm not sure about the pups/electronics. Neck and body are 100% Tokai. Matching codes even. Saddles and tuners seem genuine as well. A real expert can tell you if its a '84.
 
brokentoes said:
That's the real deal. Although i'm not sure about the pups/electronics. Neck and body are 100% Tokai. Matching codes even. Saddles and tuners seem genuine as well. A real expert can tell you if its a '84.

Same here. I would expect a brass ground plate on a ?84, but I could be wrong.
 
Pickguard looks new, does not have the brass plate. Pickups have been taken off at some point, or are not original. No stamps on pickups. Pots not original. New knobs. Otherwise, body, neck, tuners and bridge look 100% to me.
 
That is definitely a Tokai 3 way (soft 5 way) selector switch.

Looks lovely though!

Edit- it's also worth bearing in mind that lefties are rarer, so the pickups *could* be original but a special build as the staggered poles have to be different to right handers - also possible then that Tokai did not label them E,U etc to avoid incorrect installation and thus differentiate from standard pickups.

I only hypothesize this as I have only ever seen grey bobbins on Tokais. :)
 
Yes, soft 5-way. Sounds great whatever's in it, loads of bite.

The pots in this are wired in reverse, so you rotate the knobs in the opposite way to the norm. Had me worried at first when I thought I had the volume on 10 and no sound was coming out!
 
Hi beedster,

Sorry but this is not 1984 Goldstar. I would put it closer to 1986-88
Pickups are wrong for 1984, serial number is too high, routing is later style.
On the good side, body and neck codes match, Wood is alder, should feel and sound great, but it is not a 1984 build.

Peter Mac
 
I agree with Peter here.

My ST50 Goldstar was bought new by me in 1987 , serial number 214268


 
I have a 1984 left hand TST60 and think that your Goldstar is also '84 or '85. I understood that the serial numbers on the neck plate were meant to resemble the corresponding original Fender model numbers - hence mine (which I think is a replica of a 1964 Strat) shows serial number L24943.
The condition looks remarkable for a 30 year old guitar, but I have just picked mine up and I'm sure that many people would find it hard to believe the age of the instrument- Tokais obviously weather well!. Why has yours got nothing stamped on the pickups?
 
The control cavity looks to have masking tape covering another stamp which may or may not be the same as the visible one.
 
It looks very close to my 1983 Strat of the same type and colour.
My serial number is 15571, however, so I would guess this is later.
 
Well I own a right handed sunburst one pretty much exactly the same - although my machine heads just have grooves, no letters. My serial number is 015379 and I have been told that is 1985/86, so your 223136 must be a couple of years after that?

The insides of mine were photographed before I changed the PUs for SD Alnico 2s. Here's a link to them - very similar to yours. However it looks like yours has had some work done on the electrics as it's quite a bit different to mine. Is the cable tie a clue?

http://s1360.photobucket.com/user/ChristopherRobertDowning/library/
 
I'd go with Peter Mac- This is not 1984 Goldstar. I I was thinking late 80's or early nineties - the tip off got me is the Neck But and control cavity markings have a Hyphen instead of a equals sign ( 4-13 and 4-13OW ) older goldstars have ( 4=13 and 4=13OW )
The single coil routes are not correct and like Peter said the extra little routing in the tremolo cavity is incorrect
 

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