Metallic Pink Goldstar - but it's confusing me

[Peter Mac]

Hi guys,

I am suggesting that all pre-85 Goldstars have the Springy style route. All the Goldstars I worked on in Australia between 1984 and 1987 certainly had the drill holes.

In terms of the 'dot', I have not seen it before. The stamps all had '=' or sometimes '-' that I have seen. This may be have been introduced later, or for a particular market or for a custom colour.

regards
Peter Mac

 

[Anonymous]

I am suggesting that all pre-85 Goldstars have the Springy style route. All the Goldstars I worked on in Australia between 1984 and 1987 certainly had the drill holes.

Peter,

Did you miss the stuff on page 2 of this thread? In response to a theory from njnall that the drill holes stopped appearing around the time the pickups changed from Us to VIs, I checked out all the Goldstars that have passed through my hands over the last few years - I still have pics of the ones I sold.

Almost half of them don't have the drill holes. What this proves I'm not sure, but it does suggest to me that the drill holes were dropped at some point in the mid 80s, & later Goldies were produced without them. I really can't see any other explanation that makes sense. But these other ones had the earlier '64 type SP with the brass plate under the controls - they're just the same as the other ones except without the drill holes.

I have no idea why they would change, but they certainly did. Just a couple of examples:

 

[Peter Mac]

Hi Mike,
I did miss that part of the thread . .

I do agree with you though. If you look at the difference in route between the YS Springy and the OW Silverstar they are dramatic - in terms of re-tooling the routing machine.
It makes good production sense to use one route map instead of 2 because you can do more guitars in one run. The SS route map obviously won.
I would have gone 1985-86 as being the crossover years from 'U' to 'VI'
for 50/55, 'V' for 60/65 and 'VII' for probably 40/45.

regards
Peter Mac

 

[Anonymous]

That's OK Peter - I missed your Model Rollover thread! :lol:

It is strange that they would produce different routs for different models at the same time isn't it? I couldn't get my head round that - why would any customers care what shape the rout was? It just seems like an additional complication in the manufacturing process that benefits nobody.

I think that what happened after 1984 to the Tokai Strats is one of the last great mysteries, though maybe we are getting close to solving it?

If we take your (logical) date of 1985/6 for the changeover from Us to VIs on the 50/55 model, can we pinpoint what else changed? It sounds as though you agree with njnall's theory that the rout shape changed at around the same time? At some point after this, it seems that the following changes happened, though it's hard to pinpoint the order:

Brass plate under controls dropped in favour of a triangle of foil
Classy Tokai switch replaced with cheap plastic switch
Scratchplate changed from '64 style to '62 style
Headstock shape changed to the US-market modified shape.

I'm talking specifically about the UK market here, since we seem to be the Goldstar capital of the world. We still don't seem to have a reliable date for when the modified headstock hit the UK - or if we do, nobody has told me!

 

[Anonymous]

I would have gone 1985-86 as being the crossover years from 'U' to 'VI'
for 50/55, 'V' for 60/65 and 'VII' for probably 40/45.

Just an additional thought Peter. With the Metallic Green maple neck ST55 (or did you say in an earlier thread that we should refer to Goldies as TST55?), I bought that in 2007 from a bass player who had owned it from new, & he told me he had bought it in 1985. It had VI pickups.

Not sure if this helps or hinders anything! Of course the guy's memory may be out by a year or so, but he seemed fairly reliable