Please help me identify this ??

[satpal]

Hi What a great site !!
Can anyone help with this ident.
I have Just got hold of a strat which i think is a Tokai.
It has Final prospec saddles, deluxe tuners.
The neck is stamped 7=1 MN (maple neck obviuosly )
Body stamped 7=1 FO under tone controls.
Cant remember the p-ups,i'll have a look again soon.but 99% sure they are gray ones .Extremely quiet for a strat though!!
Its Salmon Pink...groovy baby!! 8)
everything looks correct,and original.
The serial is 12XXX makes me think its from 81??
Except no Decal at all, and it dosen't look like there has been one !!
Possibly someone :evil: tried to put a fender one on ??
Regards

 

[Anonymous]

Hi there!

Salmon pink? Detailled pics please?
Cheers! Rup

 

[Mickdal]

Hi

Yes, post some pictures please mate..........

From what u have provided, the body colour is actually Flamingo Orange = FO

The 5 digit serial refers to the type of Fender that Tokai was replicating, in your case, a 1956 to 1960 Fender,

The stamps on the saddles and tuners and all the above info, would refer to a Tokai made between 1982 and 1985 - most likely.

The pictures would help to identify everything else......

Stamp marking on the base of the pickups will help too.........either U or E or VII etc etc, will help a lot.

Also, the Flamingo Orange is a custom colour......

Mick

 

[Anonymous]

Mick's the man.

Could she be really be FO or FR? There are some rumours about 82....

Cheers! Rup

 

[satpal]

Hi ,Thanks for the super quick reply's.
Yes it looks like Flamingo Orange as opposed to Salmon,i thought it had discoloured due to age.
The p-ups say H on them.
Anyway the best thing is i got it from a pawn/second hand shop very cheap :lol:
If someone could help i dont know how to post a pic?
Regards
Satpal

 

[satpal]

Her's is some UK Tokai History that you might like to know.
The Guy that first brought(imported) Tokai into the UK was called Eric(ezz) Dixon from Blackpool.I helped him Paint and set up his first shop (Blackpool Sound Centre) as a teenager in early 70,s.
I also was his first customer as before his shop opened i got a Gibson 1959 es355 from him ........it was just a old second hand guitar then!!
How things change!?
He went on to move to Lancaster when the tokai thing took off,then his company was Blue Suede music as i recall.
He was always very Forthright and straight talking.Some thought obnoxiuos but very likeable all the same .
He also did a range of Amps and cabs called 'EezzeE'which were Hiwatt based valve amps ...He loved Hiwatt's
If anyone knows his whereabouts???also my brother used to Roadie for him as well in the 60's
Shame i didnt get any of the early Tokai's
Regards
Satpal

 

[Anonymous]

Hi satpal

Details of how to post pics are on this thread (that most new members don't seem to be reading!):

http://www.tokaiforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=9012

Let us know if you have any problems.

Mike

 

[Anonymous]

Cant remember the p-ups,i'll have a look again soon.but 99% sure they are gray ones .Extremely quiet for a strat though!!

By the way, when you say "quiet", what do you mean? Low output? Or low noise?

MIke

 

[valvetronic vic]

Her's is some UK Tokai History that you might like to know.
The Guy that first brought(imported) Tokai into the UK was called Eric(ezz) Dixon from Blackpool.I helped him Paint and set up his first shop (Blackpool Sound Centre) as a teenager in early 70,s.
I also was his first customer as before his shop opened i got a Gibson 1959 es355 from him ........it was just a old second hand guitar then!!
How things change!?
He went on to move to Lancaster when the tokai thing took off,then his company was Blue Suede music as i recall.
He was always very Forthright and straight talking.Some thought obnoxiuos but very likeable all the same .
He also did a range of Amps and cabs called 'EezzeE'which were Hiwatt based valve amps ...He loved Hiwatt's
If anyone knows his whereabouts???also my brother used to Roadie for him as well in the 60's
Shame i didnt get any of the early Tokai's
Regards
Satpal

Hello there...small world.I used to go to Sound Centre every weekend back then.Down the stairs to the guitar room.Its in a right state now soon to be demolished....sad day.Ive still got most of the gear i bought back then including the cab below.It was good equipment.Did you play in any bands ?

 

[satpal]

wow an eezee cab,i left Bpool quite early and came to London.
Here is a link to some pics http://s235.photobucket.com/albums/ee149/palsat/
Gotta go more things 2morow
Satpal

 

[bluejeannot]

Hi What a great site !!
Can anyone help with this ident.
I have Just got hold of a strat which i think is a Tokai.
It has Final prospec saddles, deluxe tuners.
The neck is stamped 7=1 MN (maple neck obviuosly )
Body stamped 7=1 FO under tone controls.
Cant remember the p-ups,i'll have a look again soon.but 99% sure they are gray ones .Extremely quiet for a strat though!!
Its Salmon Pink...groovy baby!! 8)
everything looks correct,and original.
The serial is 12XXX makes me think its from 81??
Except no Decal at all, and it dosen't look like there has been one !!
Possibly someone :evil: tried to put a fender one on ??
Regards

This guitar is a 1984 Goldstar in Fire Orange,somebody has removed the the decal vey early on but it would have had one originally. Gabe.

 

[satpal]

Hi Thanks for that,so the mystery is over.Fantastic!
Anyone Know where i can get a Decal replacement ??
It needs some fret work but i think it'll be great
I meant that it was very noisefree..no hum,not low in level...sorry for the confusion there!
Back to the sound centre questions/answers
This was before it was on the corner of Caunce st,it used to be on the road between the Bus station and where it is now...cant remember the name of the road now ??cookson st??not sure.
I didnt play in any bands around Bpool........do you remember a Band that did the season in Jenks called 'Smokestack'?
They were ace ...i got pally with the guitarist from there he had a John Birch SG this was 73/74 great player and sound ..i think his name was Geoff.
I left to join an Army band not a great idea but it taught me to read music and from there i ended up in London doing west end theatres.... les miserables, Miss saigon and sessions and stuff so it all worked out for me i suppose?
Regards
Satpal

 

[valvetronic vic]

Hi Thanks for that,so the mystery is over.Fantastic!
Anyone Know where i can get a Decal replacement ??
It needs some fret work but i think it'll be great
I meant that it was very noisefree..no hum,not low in level...sorry for the confusion there!
Back to the sound centre questions/answers
This was before it was on the corner of Caunce st,it used to be on the road between the Bus station and where it is now...cant remember the name of the road now ??cookson st??not sure.
I didnt play in any bands around Bpool........do you remember a Band that did the season in Jenks called 'Smokestack'?
They were ace ...i got pally with the guitarist from there he had a John Birch SG this was 73/74 great player and sound ..i think his name was Geoff.
I left to join an Army band not a great idea but it taught me to read music and from there i ended up in London doing west end theatres.... les miserables, Miss saigon and sessions and stuff so it all worked out for me i suppose?
Regards
Satpal

Smokestack mmmm vaguely rings a bell.The memorable band for me in Jenks was " Streetfighter " with a young John Sykes of Thin Lizzy fame on guitar.The Blackpool music scene is really good.Theres a lot of talent up here.Really dont know why no band has made it.Some emmence guitarists too a lot of the old faces are still going strong too.Had a jam with a guy here who bought a telecaster from a car boot.It turned out to be a Fender Esquire probably 1951.He could hardly play a note but wouldnt sell it as hed looked it up on the net.I got a Gordon Smith guitar from Sound Centre one year.........still got it too but its had its neck scalloped.Good shop in its day

 

[Anonymous]

Anyone Know where i can get a Decal replacement ??

Do (and save) a search on eBay for Tokai, and they do come up now and again. Do your research first though (by checking the registry, and reding all relevant posts on here about 84 Goldstars), so that you know exactly what the decal for your guitar should look like. There are some strange looking decals out there, and one of these would spoil your guitar.

If I was you, I'd check with the forum before applying it to your guitar, just to make sure. Good luck!

So what about those pics then?

Mike

 

[satpal]

Hi Thanks Mike for the advice ,pics are here
http://s235.photobucket.com/albums/ee149/palsat/
I think this guitar is gonna be a keeper.
Regards
Neil

 

[Anonymous]

Well it looks right for a Goldstar to me. So there is no shadowing where the decal should have been?

I've just been to check the decals on mine. Fender US seem to have the decal on top of the finish, Fender Japan & Mexico have the decal under the finish (you can't even feel that there's a transfer on it), & my Goldstar & Springy seem half way between. It feels like the decal is applied over the finish, & then has a thin coat of clear finish over the top.

The reason I'm saying all this is that I would have thought that the only way to get rid of a Tokai decal would be to sand it off. And if there's no sign of that, maybe it never had one.

Maybe somebody else has seen one like this before. Or maybe some Tokai decals were applied on top of the finish, making them easy to remove?

 

[satpal]

Hi Thanks for all your time and effort,i cant see anywhere any signs of where the decal has been,makes you think it had a different neck?
but because of the stamps matching 7=1 on body and neck then i suspect not.
What do they mean 7=1 is the radius or something?
I may just get a fender logo ..not that i would try and con anyone cos i think its better than a fender anyway.
Regards

 

[Anonymous]

Hi!

7=1 has 2 implications:

1) it is a genuine Tokai
2) if both neck and body have the same stamps it probably means that you've got a high-end Tokai

The stamps themselves only define time of year. But if they are matched between neck and body this is fairly special.

Sorry, I did not read through the whole thread.

Rup

 

[kmarccoco]

7-1 on both the neck and body means that most likely the neck was original, and was manufactured at the same time the body was.

7-1 means,

7 is the month, so it means July of what ever year, ur case 82" or later.

1 is the batch, or group that it was manufactured that month.

So 7-1 is the first batch of bodies/necks made in July of the year your guitar was made.

 

[satpal]

Thanks all fo the info ,I thought Because of the serial 12XXX that what happenned with Jap guitars generally is that the first digit meant the year i.e. 1 ......=1981...this obviously dosen't seeem to work with Tokai's?
Thanks for the 7=1 info..........why would it make it a 'high end one? is it cos they were matched /chosen when they were all made.?
Regards
Satpal