Tokai Humbucker Models & Resistance

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Not sure which model I was talking about re MKII.

TLS50 and TLC60 had MKII.

TSG50 had MKIII

1984 catalog

IMG_1466.jpeg
 
I looked back at this. I must have misread the table.

Edited previous posts so I don’t confuse people more.

TSG50 had MKIII not MKII.

Thanks!
 
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I need to go back through all of our posts and separate the MKII and MKIII and their readings and fix the specs on page one of this thread. I’m out of town so may be a bit before I can correct it all.

Thanks for the heads up! 👍🏼
 
The MKII pickups in ATO’s LC60 read very close to the MKIII in your TSG50.

I wonder if they are the same pickups?

ATO, do you have a picture of the top of your pickups showing the pole pieces or are they covered?
 
The MKII pickups in ATO’s LC60 read very close to the MKIII in your TSG50.

I wonder if they are the same pickups?

ATO, do you have a picture of the top of your pickups showing the pole pieces or are they covered?
Yes, exactly - I'm not sure if there is a difference between the MKII and MKIII's.
 
I had some of the PAF MKII pickups in a 1983 LS80 that I really didn’t bond with. In my opinion, the tone was kind of nasally, not full or balanced.

I wish there was a way to easily graph this stuff so you could see the tone of each pickup and compare them. Because just measuring the resistance, doesn’t really tell you what it sounds like. I think pick ups can read similarly and sound very different.
 
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The MKII pickups in ATO’s LC60 read very close to the MKIII in your TSG50.

I wonder if they are the same pickups?

ATO, do you have a picture of the top of your pickups showing the pole pieces or are they covered?
They are covered
 
So I bought 3 Tokai pickups from YJ auctions over the past couple months, and they've all arrived now.

Based on the original listings, one came from a 1985 SD50MRR and has the TOKAI '57 P.A.F. MODEL sticker on the bottom (which I think is the 57 PAF Vintage model), and the other 2 came from a 1984 SD40AMRR (which I think are 57' PAF Vintage MKII or MKIII).

Everything on these pickups appears to be the same or similar, except: the magnets, the overall thickness (because of the magnet thickness), the DC resistance, and the lead wire used (although it's similar, and the differences could be based on the year). I do suspect the inductance and capacitance would be different as well, but I don't have a meter that can read those. I also have not taken them apart, beyond what you see in these photos, to inspect the windings, and so I also don't know if each coil is wound the same, or if they're difference from each other (DCR).

Both pickups arrived with no covers, and both appear to never had covers on them.

Both have silver coloured baseplates, with 4 Philips head screws attaching the bobbins.

The baseplates are the same on both - same leg length and dimesnsions.

The bobbins look the same on both.

Both use white 26 awg wire, with a signal and shield wire.

The tape looks the same on both.

I did remove the outside tape on the thicker one.

I didn't take the tape off of the 57 PAF sticker one, but I can see that it is an alnico magnet, and is conductive.

You can see that the unmarked one uses a thick ceramic magnet, that looks just like the one in my 1984 TLC-60.

This again makes me think that Tokai could have used the same pickup in multiple guitars, and called it something else OR they just installed whatever was available at the time, or something else entirely...

Since there are at least 2 similar looking pickups during this era with the Tokai PAF stickers on the back (a high DCR ceramic version, and a lower DCR alnico version), one way to tell them apart (maybe) is by looking at how much of the pole piece screw is sticking out of the bottom of the baseplate: longer = alnico, shorter = ceramic.

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I had some of the PAF MKII pickups in a 1983 LS80 that I really didn’t bond with. In my opinion, the tone was kind of nasally, not full or balanced.

I wish there was a way to easily graph this stuff so you could see the tone of each pickup and compare them. Because just measuring the resistance, doesn’t really tell you what it sounds like. I think pick ups can read similarly and sound very different.
It's very true - DC resistance doesn't tell anything about the sound, and 2 similar spec pickups can sound very different.

Then there's playing style, string gauge, signal chain, and musical taste to consider, and the guitar itself.
 

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