Please help me locate a Tokai Strat for a friend

[dudu]

He's a heavy Fender user. He's one of the most respected blues
players in Romania. He's also one of the biggest Fender haters.
I think he owns about 6 of them, from various eras, and still plays
a 15 year old Strat neck attached to the body of an old Italian Strat
replica. He's quite disappointed with the QA of the standard Fenders.

I've recently taken my Love Rock to him for a setup and he was
amazed by its quality. When I told him they also made Strats, he
became quickly interested and asked me to provide him some more
info. While I did use the search feature of this forum, I couldn't find
any link to a webshop that sells Strat copies, only Love Rocks.

My friend is a hell of a luthier, so the more details, the happier he
will be. So I would really appreciate if, along with some links to
shops who have Tokai Strats in stock, you could share some info on
your own guitars, if you have Strats. Pictures, reviews, anything.

In the meantime, I gathered around 50 links, including the relevant
reviews on Harmony Central, but I hope I can find out more.

Thank you in advance for any useful references!

P.S. I almost forgot to mention the name of my friend. His name
is George Baicea, and you can see a few (heavily compressed)
clips of him here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCMtJc128PU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dxVZhkg4Qo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_IArWrQe8k

 

[TOKAI JOE]

8) yo dudu how r u doin after that. after you got your burst?

so this time you want a strat. a tokai strat for your buddy.

tokai dont make any fender type gtrs anymore so if you want a tokai

you just have to find used ones from anywhere. this is both easy and hard

i guess. good ones are hard to find only ok ones are easy maybe.........

but a good news is that since 1997 tokai is making fender japan gtrs a lot

so actually all you have to do is to buy a fender japan thats all. its got

a great fender name and design but made by tokai this combi is too good

to miss. actually fender japan is made by 2 companies since fujigen quit

in 1997 or. they are tokai and another called dyna gakki. both are

very good and both have some similar soft feel on their gtrs i feel

compared to ones made by fujigen. fujigen made ones feet much harder i

guess. this is only my guess so i cant be 100% sure ofcourse but heres

how to see which ones are made by tokai and dyna gakki. you know

there are 2 lines on the back of the neck it says "crafted in japan" and

"serial#". if serial# is above and CIJ is below then its probably a

tokai made. if CIJ is above and below is serial# then its most likely

a dyna gakki made. this is just a research i did myself so cant be super

sure yet but seems like true. so based on this info all you have to do is

to find a good fender japan for your buddy. now you got a good gtr

that has two in one........very cool huh.........i got a tokai made 72 strat

lately and its so groovy like those springys.......ofcourse not old and tasty

like them yet but still groovin alright since.........good luck in romania......

joe

:wink:

 

[dudu]

Joe, thank you very much for your reply!

Yes, got my burst, I'm extremely happy with it! I've started being late for work because I can't leave home in the morning without laying down a few notes

 

[TOKAI JOE]

8) now thats a bit of problem but very cool dudu. keep good daily pickin n later..

joe :wink: