Dating Pots
- Thread starter Sigmania
- Start date
Help Support Tokai Forum:
Also wondering if this guitar in 1985 has the = or - ?
Assuming - based on whatr Peter Mac has said in different posts, but would be nice to confirm with the pot date.
Thanks!
Last edited:
I just found your older post on these GF pots.
Awesome!
Wonder if those pickguards for the Tokai hole patterns of the early 80s?
Hayashi Shokai - Appears to make some of the parts on newer Tokais
I own a few Tokais, the most recent being a 2011 LS98F in blue, which is a great playing guitar. I noticed that the pots in it were marked "GF Made in Japan" and got curious who the actual maker is. After a lot of Internet searching, it would appear that HAYASHI-SHOKAI OFFICIAL WEB SITE Guitar Parts knob manufacturer makes these pots, and I noticed that they make a lot of other parts that look a lot like the stuff seen on newer Tokais (pickup rings, selector switches, knobs, etc). Their 5 way selector switch also looks quite a bit like the one on early Springy Sounds (a not-quite-clone of the Centralab switch Fender used for years).
Last edited:
Attachments
The serial is 22558, the model is TST-50BB..
Neck stamp with a dash:
Body stamp with a =:
It's interesting to see both the dash and the = in use, so possibly an approximate break point between those features? If the month = batch interpretation of the stamps is correct, this would be an Aug '85 guitar, which works with the June pots.
Awesome! Thank you!
I’ve been documenting these mixed codes.
They seem to appear in two periods. 1985 and 1987 so far.
See here:
Mixed Codes = & -
I’ve been documenting these mixed codes.
They seem to appear in two periods. 1985 and 1987 so far.
See here:
Mixed Codes = & -
Here are some from 1984 on eBay the seller says were in a Fujigen guitar.
3 Vintage Fender Japan Tele Strat Wiring Pots MIJ Rare Tele 1984 Fuji Gen Relic | eBay
3 Vintage Fender Japan Tele Strat Wiring Pots MIJ Rare Tele 1984 Fuji Gen Relic | eBay
Here's a picture showing they go to 1991, December.
Complete Vintage Fender Japan Strat Wiring Harness Pots MIJ Relic DM50 Switch 62 | eBay
I had heard the latest was 1992, but I haven't seen one.
Not sure how you would know unless you had an unmolested guitar that you were sure was either 1982 or 1992.
Complete Vintage Fender Japan Strat Wiring Harness Pots MIJ Relic DM50 Switch 62 | eBay
I had heard the latest was 1992, but I haven't seen one.
Not sure how you would know unless you had an unmolested guitar that you were sure was either 1982 or 1992.
I've no idea who made the YM X, vertical lines or rubber stamp pots. Hardly surprising, a business-to-business parts suppliers wouldn't normally have any interest in communicating their brand name in a way that makes it identifiable to the end consumer. That has changed though, at least when it comes to guitars, since it became obvious that guitar owners like to tinker with their instruments. In Japanese guitars, you often see GF brand pots installed as replacements, for instance. But I think we'd need to find info from inside the business to find the suppliers of those three types, and we all know how difficult that is...
But there is Noble, of course. I've never actually searched for them before, but they were quite easy to find. It's the brand name used by Teikoku Tsushin Kogyo Co. Ltd, founded in 1944 (in the Nagano prefecture, so they were well-placed) and a global corporation these days. I guess they may have info on the codes, and being global with a partner company in the US, they might even reply...
Teikoku Tsushin Kogyo Co., Ltd.
Other than Noble, I've come across one more "plaintext" pot brand, Cosmos. Quite rare, so far, I've seen it in one Fresher FP-380 P-bass and two Rickenbacker 4003 copies, one a Dyna Gakki-made JooDee JRB-55 from around 1977-78, the other an unknown with a fake logo from about the same time. The Fresher's pots actually have a 2 and a 3 on the housing (1982-83 actually seems to be a likely date for the bass), the Rics just the logo with "PR-3" under it (likely a model designation, I'd say).
The company is Tokyo Cosmos Electric Co. Ltd, founded in 1957, still around and using TOCOS as a brand name these days.
Potentiometer manufacturer. Tokyo Cosmos Electric
View attachment 1173
Vintage 1980's GIBSON SONEX Guitar 500k Pot w Cap 1981 Invader | eBay
Just found these in a very late Greco SE. Push-pull pots with what could be April 1982 pot codes (24) on stickers on the switch housing.
The guitar is a Fiesta Red SE-600 oddball with a matching headstock and Schecter-style electronics with tappable SE-1T pickups. Infuriatingly, it doesn't have a standard Greco serial with plaintext month and year, only a four-digit serial on the neck plate (which actually seems to be a thing with some very late Greco Fender copies, I'll try to get back to that) But it is technically identical to an all-black one with rosewood neck and a standard April 1982 serial I've had a couple of years, so I would assume that this is from the same time. There's more about in in the below thread.
Odd and unusual Greco SE's
Here's one of the seller's pics of the guitar. It's on my workbench right, more when I have it assembled.
The guitar is a Fiesta Red SE-600 oddball with a matching headstock and Schecter-style electronics with tappable SE-1T pickups. Infuriatingly, it doesn't have a standard Greco serial with plaintext month and year, only a four-digit serial on the neck plate (which actually seems to be a thing with some very late Greco Fender copies, I'll try to get back to that) But it is technically identical to an all-black one with rosewood neck and a standard April 1982 serial I've had a couple of years, so I would assume that this is from the same time. There's more about in in the below thread.
Odd and unusual Greco SE's
Here's one of the seller's pics of the guitar. It's on my workbench right, more when I have it assembled.
Nope. I'm not really surprised, it has an SE-600 sticker. 800's have a pretty pronounced v-neck and some 500s as well, but 600s are generally more rounded. Mind you, it arrived without strings and it's hard to get a real feel for the neck until you've actually played it. I'll have it up and running in a day or two.
Another thing: the underlined S after the (supposed) date code on the push-pulls is strongly reminiscent of the "rubber stamp code" pots. Whoever made those seem to have fallen out of favour with Greco/Fujigen during the late 70's, so it interesting to see them in a (very likely) 1982 guitar. Maybe their regular supplier didn't have the right type of pots for the job at that time?
Good term, rubber stamp code, or "rubber stamp" pots.
I didn't have a way of easily describing the ones from the late 70s-mid 80s
and later from 1992-2008 or so.
But you are exactly right.
I was calling them "inked", but 'rubber stamp' is likely how it was applied.
Like the E, U, V & VII pickups.
Very cool!
I didn't have a way of easily describing the ones from the late 70s-mid 80s
and later from 1992-2008 or so.
But you are exactly right.
I was calling them "inked", but 'rubber stamp' is likely how it was applied.
Like the E, U, V & VII pickups.
Very cool!
