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ragster
Plucker
Joined: 29 Sep 2005
Posts: 3
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 Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2005 4:25 pm Post subject: How to get the best out of my TST-50???!!! |
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Hi I'm new here but I've had my '83 Tokai TST-50 a long time. The thing is that I've never really had that much time to get into it as I've been mostly playing bass in bands over the last 20 odd years so excuse my ignorance 
I wondered if anyone had any opinions on pickups as I've heard some people say that the stock ones are fine and dandy and others say whip em out and stick something else in like Seymour Duncans (I have put SD Quarterpounders on my MIJ Squier Precision Bass and like them a lot) or Fender 57/62s, which might make sense as the Tokai is a '62 copy I believe (see photos here if you want to have a look - [url]http://www.ragster.co.uk/guitars/tokai.htm [/url])
If its ok to leave the stock ones in (and why not I suppose they've probably aged nicely since '83?) then what's the best setup heightwise and so on? I quite like the sound, especially in that 4th position for strumming chords but sometimes the bridge pup seems a bit gutless (although I'm prepared to accept that I'm no lead guitarist and probably have no business trying to use it on it's own right now until I've learnt a bit more)
Any opinions on this? I'd appreciate em  |
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hans-jürgen
Guitar God
Joined: 21 Feb 2005
Posts: 1733
Location: Hamburg, Germany
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| Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2005 12:31 am Post subject: Re: How to get the best out of my TST-50???!!! |
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| ragster wrote: | | I quite like the sound, especially in that 4th position for strumming chords but sometimes the bridge pup seems a bit gutless (although I'm prepared to accept that I'm no lead guitarist and probably have no business trying to use it on it's own right now until I've learnt a bit more) |
Hi ragster, welcome to the forum! Well, any Telecaster bridge pickup is known to sound a bit thin, Albert Collins' "icepick in your ear" comes to my mind.
To compensate that tendency, you can raise the pickup on the bass and lower it on the treble side and also use the tone knob to tame it down. That's what I would do before buying a new pickup, also check your amp settings and speaker if they enhance the treble too much.
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ZZee ya, Hans-Jürgen
BLUEZZ BASTARDZZ "That little ol' ZZ Top cover band from Hamburg"
INDIGO ROCKS "Down home rockin' blues. Tasty as strudel" |
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ragster
Plucker
Joined: 29 Sep 2005
Posts: 3
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| Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2005 4:23 am Post subject: TST / ST confusion |
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| Sorry, I may have been getting a bit confused over the model numbers. I've got a strat. is that an ST rather than a TST?? I'm sure that your advice still holds good for this though and I'll see what I can do to get closer to the sound I'm after, including practicing! |
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hans-jürgen
Guitar God
Joined: 21 Feb 2005
Posts: 1733
Location: Hamburg, Germany
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| Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2005 10:23 am Post subject: Re: TST / ST confusion |
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| ragster wrote: | | Sorry, I may have been getting a bit confused over the model numbers. I've got a strat. is that an ST rather than a TST?? I'm sure that your advice still holds good for this though and I'll see what I can do to get closer to the sound I'm after, including practicing! |
Yes, a TST is a Strat, but as you say the problem and the "solution" is the same, except that you can't use the tone knobs on a normal Strat setup for the bridge pickup, because they only work for the middle and neck position.
In the mid '80s the so-called Super Strats came up with a humbucker instead of a single coil pickup in the bridge position, Tokai built a lot of those, too, which probably are one of the most underrated models now. It's a matter of taste if you like the sound of a single coil in the Strat bridge position or not.
_________________
ZZee ya, Hans-Jürgen
BLUEZZ BASTARDZZ "That little ol' ZZ Top cover band from Hamburg"
INDIGO ROCKS "Down home rockin' blues. Tasty as strudel" |
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ragster
Plucker
Joined: 29 Sep 2005
Posts: 3
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| Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2005 4:45 pm Post subject: Super Strats |
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I don't know how I feel about the super strat. The previous owner of mine put one in at some point so it's been routed out and would be ready to go for one if I so desired and sometimes I'm a bit miffed that he did that 
I think that if you want that kind of sound you should get a Les Paul or something shouldn't you?  I suppose that it makes the guitar more versatile though? I know that some configurations allow the selection of just one of the coils of the bridge humbucker so that you get the best of both worlds and probably stick another humbucker next to the neck. |
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hans-jürgen
Guitar God
Joined: 21 Feb 2005
Posts: 1733
Location: Hamburg, Germany
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| Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2005 1:12 am Post subject: Re: Super Strats |
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| ragster wrote: | | I think that if you want that kind of sound you should get a Les Paul or something shouldn't you? I suppose that it makes the guitar more versatile though? I know that some configurations allow the selection of just one of the coils of the bridge humbucker so that you get the best of both worlds and probably stick another humbucker next to the neck. |
Well, it all depends what you want and expect from a guitar. If you are e.g. playing in a cover band with lots of gigs, you might prefer to have only one guitar on stage that covers a lot of different sounds like a Super Strat. If you're working in the studio or at home most of the time, you would probably prefer different guitars with distinct and genuine sounds.
My self-built hardtail Strat does not have a humbucker at the bridge, by the way, but a wiring that allows to use bridge and middle or bridge and neck single coils as a humbucker, i.e. in series and not parallel. In my opinion that's the best solution to get some decent humbucker sounds out of a single coil Strat.
But of course there are many humbuicker pickups available in single coil size, i.e. the second coil is either underneath the first or in a mini size side-by-side, so you don't need to enlarge the bridge pickup cavity.
_________________
ZZee ya, Hans-Jürgen
BLUEZZ BASTARDZZ "That little ol' ZZ Top cover band from Hamburg"
INDIGO ROCKS "Down home rockin' blues. Tasty as strudel" |
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