Tokai Single Coil Pickups

[Sigmania]

Going to try and gather pictures of the various single coils over the years.

Would love to collect output values as well.

GRAY backed single coils:

E marked, black & white cloth wire (ST60 and above 1978)

U marked, black & white cloth wire (ST50 1978)

Unmarked, black & blue plastic wire "SS Super" (SS50 1979,1981,1982)

H marked, black & blue plastic wire (Silver Star SS40 1983)

S marked, black & blue plastic wire (Silver Star)

V marked, black & white cloth wire. "Vintage" pickups. Replaced E pickups? AST/TST60

VII marked, black & white cloth wire. "Vintage MKII". Replaced U pickups? AST/TST50 & 55 1984/5/6/7.

Unmarked ceramic pickups (1987 AST & TST40) MKIII

White sticker label. MKII? ("Tokai_N,M,B") on gray back, Gotoh ST-Vintage MK3, Alnico V


BLACK backed single coils:

Unmarked, black & white wire (1977)
Unmarked, red,white & blue wires (SS36 & 38)
Unmarked, DiMarzio FS-1, "Fat Strat", black & white wire, (Silver Star S80)
Unmarked, DiMarzio VS-1, black & white plastic wire. TST80 1984
Unmarked, black & white cloth wire (HSS Goldstar)
Unmarked, red,white & blue wires (HSS Goldstar)

Tele pickups:

TEA (Bridge 7.25 kOhm per felixcatus)
TEB

P90s:

Old MK2 (6.29 kOhm per felixcatus)

THB (Hummingbird)

New design (5.34/5.45 kOhm per felixcatus)

 

[Sigmania]

Springys, Silver Stars & Goldstars.

Very early unmarked pickups in Cliffs 1977 ST60. S/N 77000011.

The Earliest Springys


And in a 1977 ST42. S/N 7000040.

The Earliest Springys


E pickups from 1978 ink serial ST60 owned by marcusneiman. Note “A” stamp on pickguard.

The Earliest Springys


U pickups (Block logo 1983 ST55 SO Goldstar)

1982/83 Block Logo Gallery


Unmarked gray backs (1982 SS40 BBR Silver Star)

H pickups (Shown in a 1983 SS40 MB Silver Star)

S pickups (Shown in a Silver Star)

V pickups

AST-56
Used Tokai AST-56 Vintage Series Electric Guitar Sunburst

VII pickups (1985 ST55 Lefty)

Tokai TST 55 Stratocaster 1984 Lake Placid Blue | Reverb

Ceramic pickups on a 1987 TST40R OW

What Tokai do I have


Unmarked DiMarzio FS1 (Hi output Fat Strat pickups shown in a 1981 SS80 Silver Star).

Unmarked black backed, light plastic Red White & Blue wrapped wire (SS36 & 38)

Unmarked black back, red white & blue wires, HSS Goldstar.

Help rare Tokai Goldstar Sound


MKII? MKIII?

Silver Star Gallery

E Pickups

 

[Sigmania]

Springys & Goldstars

E pickups

E Pickups

VII pickups (1985 ST55)

Lefty Goldstars

 

[Sigmania]

Breezy Pickups

http://www.tokaiforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=26450&p=198539&hilit=breezy+wiring#p198539

I believe in the late 70s to mid 80s that TE80 and above typically had TEA pickups,

TE70 and below had TEB pickups.

TEA Neck

TEA Bridge

TEB Neck

TEB Bridge

1984/85 catalog describing models and differentiating pickups.

Looks like: TEB = "TE Vintage MKII" & TEA = "TE Vintage"

https://www.vintagejapanguitars.com.br/en/tokai-1984-1985-traditional-series-catalogue/

 

[Sigmania]

1982 ST120 and 1984 TST and AST 80 came with DiMarzio VS-1 pickups.

 

[Sigmania]

Cliff has an ST120. Looks like his has VS-1s.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/cliffsguitarworld/49189573222/in/album-72157708878782302/

 

[Sigmania]

bluejeannot shared this eddievegas link in another thread.

https://www.eddievegas.com/store/de...-Fender-Strat-Pickup-34-year-old-New-Part.php

 

[les]

Regarding Dimarzio VS-1 pickups, my Goldstar Sound ST-80 from 1984 has got these. They have distinct appearance, made of black fiberboard or something. One close up with cover removed - you can see "DIMARZIO U.S.A." there.

Edit: picture here, for some reason posting pictures doesn't appear to work.

 

[Sigmania]

Very cool. I have been wondering which guitars had them and when.

 

[felixcatus]

I replaced the TEA bridge pickup in my Breezy with a (circa 1978/81) DiMarzio DP114-VT-1.

TEA reads 7.25 kOhm.
DP114-VT-1 reads 6.48 kOhm.

 

[felixcatus]

 

[felixcatus]

Tokai P90 'LP-old MK2' read; 6.29/6.34kOhm.

 

[felixcatus]

Tokai "newly designed" 'original single x2' for THB read, 5.34/5.45kOhm.

 

[Sigmania]

Thanks felixcatus! I started a list in the first post of this thread and will update it with info. I will go back through old posts and try to get an idea of readings for different pickups as we go along. Thanks!

 

[Sigmania]

Anyone know which guitars these "V" pickups came in?

Or anything else about them?

https://www.strat-talk.com/threads/early-80s-tokai-pickups-authentic-and-worth-it.483438/

 

[Sigmania]

From a flyer from 1978 I believe that Cliff Jordan owns.

"A" configuration included E pickups, and "B" configuration included U pickups at that time.

Does this mean that Es are hand wound and Us are machine wound? Or is there another part of the assembly that is done by hand on the Es?

 

[Sigmania]

Not completely sure what these are? MK2? MK3?


Tokai Gotoh ST-Vintage MK3 Single Coil Alnico V Pickups Set | Reverb

 

[Sigmania]

I guess these would be "SS Super" pickups then?

Spring 1982 catalog.

[quote="Sigmania"] SS50 in the Spri...forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=26058&start=60

 

[Sigmania]

AST118 BBSR

SN 140072

MK3?

2014 Tokai Goldstar Sound AST-118 S-Style Electric Guitar Ash Body Blue Burst, Japan

2018 catalog

 

[Sigmania]

No serial number.

Korean or Chinese?

Dates to 2003 or later evidently.

The Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive 2002/95/EC (RoHS 1), short for Directive on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment, was adopted in February 2003 by the European Union.[2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restriction_of_Hazardous_Substances_Directive

https://www.ebay.com/itm/255594048771