To misquote The Bard: Is a Tokai not a Tokai under any other name? In this case, I'd say the answer is yes.
With a Tokai decal. this one would have been a 1987 TST-55SWR, a Goldstar Sound in Snow White custom finish. But the decal says Bradley, and it has a Made In Japan export sticker. Which is odd, since Bradley is a US importer brand. Yet I bought the guitar in Japan, where I've seen three or four similar ones over the years. So far, none like this one have turned up in the US or elsewhere, to my knowledge.
As importer brands go, Bradley is quite well-documented. It was the house brand of Maryland-based retail chain Veneman Music Emporium. who also ran a mail-order business. There are plenty of Brandley-branded MIJ guitars around, but all I've found are your typical early-mid-70's low-enders, some pretty obvious Fujigen builds, some Matsu, others undetermined. You see the odd guitar that seem to be significantly later too, and probably not MIJ. Veneman's were gobbled up by Guitar Center in 2004, and it appears they used the Bradley brand name up until then. But I've found nothing that appears connected to Tokai in any obvious way.
As far as I can see, there's no doubt about this guitar's Tokai origins, or the date. It has 5-17 production stamps (dash divider), consistent with the March 1987 pot codes (73) and the 2xxxxx serial. The body stamp has no divider at all (unusual but not unheard of, I think?) followed by the SW finish code and X. The pickups are the expected Vintage Mk II grey bobbins. These are actually stamped "II V", not the other way around, but we've seen that before as well. I would assume that the V and the II were separate stamps. The controls and cables match Tokai original parts of the period. No brass shielding plate, but that was gone from Goldstars by 1987. The screw holes in the neck pocket have the typical Tokai rings around them, Not pickups screw indentations in the body routs, but those were gone by 1987 as well, as far as I know. Final Prospec Bridge, Deluxe Klusons.
So far so good, but I have my doubts about the body wood. It's very light and plain and doesn't really look like alder or sen. It also appears to be very porous, note how the body stamp seems to have smudged through absorbtion into it. I basically suck at wood identification, but I'm thinking basswood or some similar cheaper wood. It's a also four pieces, so maybe a concession to budget constraints when making a guitar for the US mail order market? Other than that, it's a perfect match for a 1987 50-grade Goldstar. In fact, I've had a TST-50GS with a standard Tokai decal just a few hundred serials from this that matched it blow by blow.
It all makes you wonder what the story was here? Was the deal cancelled for economical reasons? Maybe Veneman's - or Tokai - got cold feet over the headstock shape? I can understand if Tokai didn't bother to re-brand the guitars though, it was probably cheaper and more practical to just offer them as-is to Japanese dealers, probably at a low price. But I suspect we'll never know, tbh. Either way, they keep cropping up for sale in Japan every (rare) now and then.
How it plays and sounds? Like a 1987 TST-50, i e great.
In my opinion, these late 80's guitars are every bit as good as the earlier ones, despite less hype. This individual one is in excellent original shape. Just a really good Strat.
For comparison: a standard 1987 TST-50GS, serial 222587 vs 223218. It even had the same 5-17 neck stamp, but the body stamp was lost to shielding paint.
With a Tokai decal. this one would have been a 1987 TST-55SWR, a Goldstar Sound in Snow White custom finish. But the decal says Bradley, and it has a Made In Japan export sticker. Which is odd, since Bradley is a US importer brand. Yet I bought the guitar in Japan, where I've seen three or four similar ones over the years. So far, none like this one have turned up in the US or elsewhere, to my knowledge.
As importer brands go, Bradley is quite well-documented. It was the house brand of Maryland-based retail chain Veneman Music Emporium. who also ran a mail-order business. There are plenty of Brandley-branded MIJ guitars around, but all I've found are your typical early-mid-70's low-enders, some pretty obvious Fujigen builds, some Matsu, others undetermined. You see the odd guitar that seem to be significantly later too, and probably not MIJ. Veneman's were gobbled up by Guitar Center in 2004, and it appears they used the Bradley brand name up until then. But I've found nothing that appears connected to Tokai in any obvious way.
As far as I can see, there's no doubt about this guitar's Tokai origins, or the date. It has 5-17 production stamps (dash divider), consistent with the March 1987 pot codes (73) and the 2xxxxx serial. The body stamp has no divider at all (unusual but not unheard of, I think?) followed by the SW finish code and X. The pickups are the expected Vintage Mk II grey bobbins. These are actually stamped "II V", not the other way around, but we've seen that before as well. I would assume that the V and the II were separate stamps. The controls and cables match Tokai original parts of the period. No brass shielding plate, but that was gone from Goldstars by 1987. The screw holes in the neck pocket have the typical Tokai rings around them, Not pickups screw indentations in the body routs, but those were gone by 1987 as well, as far as I know. Final Prospec Bridge, Deluxe Klusons.
So far so good, but I have my doubts about the body wood. It's very light and plain and doesn't really look like alder or sen. It also appears to be very porous, note how the body stamp seems to have smudged through absorbtion into it. I basically suck at wood identification, but I'm thinking basswood or some similar cheaper wood. It's a also four pieces, so maybe a concession to budget constraints when making a guitar for the US mail order market? Other than that, it's a perfect match for a 1987 50-grade Goldstar. In fact, I've had a TST-50GS with a standard Tokai decal just a few hundred serials from this that matched it blow by blow.
It all makes you wonder what the story was here? Was the deal cancelled for economical reasons? Maybe Veneman's - or Tokai - got cold feet over the headstock shape? I can understand if Tokai didn't bother to re-brand the guitars though, it was probably cheaper and more practical to just offer them as-is to Japanese dealers, probably at a low price. But I suspect we'll never know, tbh. Either way, they keep cropping up for sale in Japan every (rare) now and then.
How it plays and sounds? Like a 1987 TST-50, i e great.
In my opinion, these late 80's guitars are every bit as good as the earlier ones, despite less hype. This individual one is in excellent original shape. Just a really good Strat. For comparison: a standard 1987 TST-50GS, serial 222587 vs 223218. It even had the same 5-17 neck stamp, but the body stamp was lost to shielding paint.
