I'm a newbie and know absolutely nothing at this point about Tokai guitars except they are suppose to be really great high quality instruments. I just got a set of Strat pickups that are supposed to be out of a mid to late 70's Tokai Strat (I don't even know what a Tokai Strat is called) I have installed them and am very impressed with their tone. They are obviously high quality Alnico pickups. Very vintage sounding. Is there any way to date these pickups or to have a better idea as to what I have? Do they have any value, if in fact they are 70's era? I can post pics if that helps. thanks for any info.
Strat pickup question
- Thread starter endzone
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chrisheyes
Well-known member
Hi and welcome to the forum
The key to answering your question is finding out what is or isn't stamped on the bottom of your pickups ?
There are many pickup variants placed in the strat copies, and the quality of them depended on the list price of the guitar. In the 70's and early 80's there were a whole range of strat copies to suit the customers pockets.
E series were always the top quality that is universally agreed. These were Dimarzio FS-1's regarded in the late 70's and early 80's to be the best after-market pickup replacements.
The other stamp marks denoting different pickups were:
U
V
VII
H
S
Read this link more more info
http://www.tokaiforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=4552&highlight=pickup
The key to answering your question is finding out what is or isn't stamped on the bottom of your pickups ?
There are many pickup variants placed in the strat copies, and the quality of them depended on the list price of the guitar. In the 70's and early 80's there were a whole range of strat copies to suit the customers pockets.
E series were always the top quality that is universally agreed. These were Dimarzio FS-1's regarded in the late 70's and early 80's to be the best after-market pickup replacements.
The other stamp marks denoting different pickups were:
U
V
VII
H
S
Read this link more more info
http://www.tokaiforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=4552&highlight=pickup
Thanks for the link Chris. Mine have a "U" stamped on the grey base. So they must be the ST Vintage MkII. Is that good? Are these considered of any quality or are they cheapos? Like I said, they sound wonderfully vintage. How much are they worth? I got these from a buddy of mine and he didn't give me a price yet. So I need to have some idea of what I should pay him. Any thoughts there? Thanks
endzone said:
I think the "U" pickups were replaced with the "VII" stamped (ST Vintage MkII) pickups. U is slightly hotter than VII and they do not sound identically. When measuring the DC resistance it's a little different (slightly lower on VII). TST-50 Goldstar strats from 1984 are specified with VII pickups, I think the U pickups were used on the ST-50 Springy Sound strats (pre 1984) but also for the earliest Goldstars. My 1984 TST-50 Goldstar has the U pickups and I like them, I'm not going to replace them (except for the bridge pickup which is already replaced with a hotrail).
Mike
I've just bought a goldstar from around 1984, I think it's an ST50 or ST60, I don't know any way of identifying which. The guitar is a 50s copy with a maple neck.
It has VI marked pickups. I've done a lot of searching but haven't found much info on these.
How do VIs fit into the pickup picture?
It has VI marked pickups. I've done a lot of searching but haven't found much info on these.
How do VIs fit into the pickup picture?
I finally got to remove the pickguard from my ST50 body, and this is what I found.
http://www.siilit.net/temp/CRW_6996.jpg
http://www.siilit.net/temp/CRW_6998.jpg
Any idea what they are? I've seen H stamped pickups in silver stars, so could it be that this has pickups swapped from silver star? Body has "ST50" and "8=53 YS" stamps and 8000xxx serial neckplate.
http://www.siilit.net/temp/CRW_6996.jpg
http://www.siilit.net/temp/CRW_6998.jpg
Any idea what they are? I've seen H stamped pickups in silver stars, so could it be that this has pickups swapped from silver star? Body has "ST50" and "8=53 YS" stamps and 8000xxx serial neckplate.
A
Anonymous
Guest
chrisheyes said:
Es were fitted to the higher quality guitars, true enough, but plenty of us find them rather weak & brittle. Us are louder & punchier, & quite a few of us prefer them. Apparently the Es were not Dimazios, despite popular belief that they were.
Mike
A
Anonymous
Guest
chrisheyes said:
Were there Vs? I've never seen them, but there were certainly VIs. And it appears that the VIIs were sometimes stamped as IIVs, as on my ST55
Bloody stupid way of identifying the different pickups! Life would have been much easier if they had just stuck to using Us across the range.
You Strat guys always need help. That's not II V that's A 11 :lol: :wink: .
A
Anonymous
Guest
Well it was recently identified by another forum member as a VII with the stamps reversed, so I don't know. Since there wasn't an AII, but there was a VII, the theory seemed to make sense.
They're not very impressive pickups though, too weak & thin. I'd rather have a set of Us. And I would rather have a set of standard Seymour Duncans than any of the Tokai pickups, whatever stamp they have on them.
The weakest part of every Tokai Strat I have ever tried (and that's a few.....) has been the pickups.
They're not very impressive pickups though, too weak & thin. I'd rather have a set of Us. And I would rather have a set of standard Seymour Duncans than any of the Tokai pickups, whatever stamp they have on them.
The weakest part of every Tokai Strat I have ever tried (and that's a few.....) has been the pickups.
I was just kidding about the A 11 thing, I know nothing about the pup ## except---
Your statement would be more accurate if it read;
"The weakest part of every Strat I have ever tried (and that's a few.....) has been the pickups." 8)
stratman323 said:
Your statement would be more accurate if it read;
"The weakest part of every Strat I have ever tried (and that's a few.....) has been the pickups." 8)
A
Anonymous
Guest
Axchisler said:
You have obviously never played a Strat fitted fitted with a set of Voodoos (ST50 or ST60). Or Yutas. Or Duncan Five-Twos. Or......
:wink:
A
Anonymous
Guest
Here's what my Goldstars, past & present had/have.
Black ST50 - unstamped but presumably Us
White ST50 - U
Metallic Green ST55 (RW board) - U
Metallic Green ST55 (maple) - VI
Gold Metallic ST55 - VI or maybe VII - it's not clear
Red Sparkle ST55 - IIV, apparently
So I'm not sure that there is a nice neat answer to this, & I don't believe that the catalogues are much help either. I reckon Tokai just fitted whatever they happened to have in stock at the time, never imagining that a bunch of people in the West would be speculating about it 25 years later.
Black ST50 - unstamped but presumably Us
White ST50 - U
Metallic Green ST55 (RW board) - U
Metallic Green ST55 (maple) - VI
Gold Metallic ST55 - VI or maybe VII - it's not clear
Red Sparkle ST55 - IIV, apparently
So I'm not sure that there is a nice neat answer to this, & I don't believe that the catalogues are much help either. I reckon Tokai just fitted whatever they happened to have in stock at the time, never imagining that a bunch of people in the West would be speculating about it 25 years later.
stratman323 said:
Mike,i have V's in my AST'56.
Volker
