Help to identify a Tokai Stratocaster first eighties

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teppaz

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Hello,

in 1984 I bought and modified a Tokai Stratocaster.
I immediately mdified, first put a fake Fender name on the headstock, then changed the body with a self made one and the bridge.

I didn't plid for 30 years, now I recovered the guitar from the cellar and would like to know which guitar is!
I think it's a Tokai from the headstock shape, but I am not 100% sure.

It had a plywood body, and that's why I changed quite qickly after bought.

Here are some pictures of it, maybe someone can help!

Headstock (With the changed logo...)



Neck back plate



M. Heads



Knobs & Jack



Pickups





I really don't remember the brand, I was young and stupid and as soon at home put a fake Fender name on Headstock!
(Now I'm not young anymore..... still stupid)

Thanks in advance to anyone that can help.
 
Hmmm... headstock shape doesn't look right. Bullet trussrod? Double string trees? Neck plate?

Do you have full front and back photos? Inside pickup cavities? Underside of pick guard assembly?
 
Bullet truss road is present in some tokai, as I saw in another post.
You're right and head stock doesn't match exactly but is similar to some I saw on other posts.

About pickup cavities body was in plywood, so I threw it away when I mede the new one (in Doussi? wood).

here is a frontal picture after changed the bridge pickup wth a Di Marzio in the 80's



Underside guitar I would need to dismount it, but I've just change the strings....
 
Okay, now I'm confused....

Your first picture shows the body to be black. The next photos show the body to be natural or mahogany (that's not a Strat headstock your tuners are on either). Then your last photo has a white body and looking at that headstock, there is no way it's a Tokai unless it was a Tokai Silverstar with the large CBS headstock and bullet trussrod.... and someone did a lousy job of reshaping the headstock to a pre CBS or Springy shape.

:roll:
 
OK, Sorry!!!

I made a things a little confused.....

Originally it was white, then I painted black the body but shortly after I replaced with a self-made one that is natural wood colour.

The machine heads in the picture are the original ones, but now are mounted on a lousy mini-guitar that I built some years ago.

So: original color was white with the machine heads in the picture.
And the headstoch shape is the original one, I didn't modify it

I remember it was a Tokai, but after 30 years I can be wrong....
I remember that the dealer told me it was a sub-brand of Ibanez, but could be because Ibanez was much more famous than Tokai in Italy at that time and this thing can be a lie.
 
That looks more like a 1970's Matsumoku neckplate used on 70's Greco strats. That would be my guess, or perhaps a partscaster of some kind.
 
Look guys, this is not a Tokai. I have no idea what is was but it wasn't Tokai

Headstock is wrong
Pickups are wrong
Body carve is wrong
need I go on...

PM
 
Thanks to all for the answers.

Anyway, I know that's a little bit of a mess, but the only picture that respect the original guitar is the one with the white body on the floor stand.

All the others are from the various steps of the modification, so don't look at the floyd rose bridge, black or wood body.

I really thought it was a Tokai, but as I said after 30 years my memory could be wrong....

I've searched in internet thousands of picture of strat copies' headstocks but the most similar I found it was a Tokai, no one matches exactly my one.
 
Peter Mac said:
Look guys, this is not a Tokai. I have no idea what is was but it wasn't Tokai

Headstock is wrong
Pickups are wrong
Body carve is wrong
need I go on...

PM

Peter, do you recognize the pickups as not being Tokai ones?
These in the picture are the original ones so if you're sure maybe it was not a Tokai.

Also what you mean by "body carve is wrong" - you refer to the white body?
Looks like any other Strat copy to me...
 
Hi Teppaz,

The wiring on the pickups is incorrect for any Tokai guitar, especially a 1984 model Goldstar. Wires are the wrong guage and the wrong colour and the bobbins have no stamps.

On the white body, the top carve appears to be almost flat. Tokai are quite deep and still show up on white, cream, even black bodies.

regards
Peter Mac
 
Thanks Peter,

quite clear it's not a Tokai so. :cry:

Anyway, thanks all for the help, I think it will be very difficult to discover what it was....
 
Took some years, but I discovered which brand the guitar was.

It was a Cimar, brand connected with Ibanez.
 

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