LP Serial#

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Peter Mac

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Trying to piece together serial numbers....

My findings so far are this -
Tokai serial numbers ran sequentially until 1982 for all models.
As such, the 1st number is the year of manufacture.followed by a 0 and until 1981 the 3rd number was a 0 also. In 1981 the serial numbers began as 1010xxx when the 10,000th guitar had been made and seem to follow through reasonably sequential til 1985. I have not seen any serial number starting with 6,7 or 8 with the next change coming in 1989 with the start of a 2 number year (eg 890xxxx)
Those referring to the 'double up' of serial numbers for 1990/1979 and 2000/1980 need to remember that the older models were not 'Love Rock' models - they were LP Reborn and Reborn Old as well as having other ditinguishing features. The 3rd number was also different. :-?
I invite all the forum owners of pre-82 Tokai to list their serial numbers and watch the pattern emerge, you can send them to muy email if you want. :D
My only grate with this is the number of eBay sharks that use this info to drive up the prices of Tokai for their own monetary benefit :evil: , rather than leaving them for the enthausiests who actually care. 8)

regards
Peter Mac
 
Do serial numbers run sequentially across all the model lines? That is, is it possible for a Breeysound to have a certain serial number, then a Love Rock (or whatever guitar came next off the line) to have the next sequential number?

Has anyone ever checked for this info with the Tokai company itself? Seems they should have stuff like this in their records, unless they choose to keep silent about it.
 
Hi Novasel,

Yeah, I believe they ran sequentially across the models until 1982.
So you may have a Springy (9005712) followed by a LP (9005713) followed by a Breezy (9005714)
for example, I have documented an 81 ES-100 being 2 digits more than an LS-80 so in line with the 'low volume,high quality' ethic that Tokai emplyed it stands to reason that they did use sequential numbers.
I have not seen a Springy and LP that share the same pre-81 serial number and I have quite a few hundred listed on a spreadsheet to x-reference which would also indicate that serial numbers on neckplates were stamped in-house as a part of production (probably did the model number on the last fret at the same time on pre-1980 models)
I have asked Tokai on a few occasions about these questions and have been told that they do not exist anymore for the pre1990 manufacture.

Peter Mac
 
Sounds like the famous Lost Shipping Totals from Gibson for 1958-60. Those are the years everyone wants to check for Les Paul info, but the records for those years have dissapeared from the company.
 

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