Tokai user from Japan

[hirokazu]

Hello! I've been checking this web site from time to time, but I just registered.
My name is Hirokazu, I live in Japan, 61 years old, and I've been a Tokai user since I was young. Back in 1982, I was using a 1979 TE-80, but unfortunately I no longer have it. (I sold it during the coronavirus pandemic.)
My current musical tastes are Neo-Bluegrass and Americana, such as The Punch Brothers and their guitarist Chris Eldridge, so due to that influence, I mainly play acoustic guitar, but sometimes I also play Fender Japan and Tokai Telecasters. Of course, I also like Cat's Eyes guitar.
I'm currently listing 80's ST-50 and TE-50 on Reverb, so please take a look!

 

[Sigmania]

Welcome! So glad that you are here.

I have tried to post as much as I can about Cats Eyes and even banjos on here.

Bluegrass and folk music and those instruments were a big part of the development of Tokai in the 70s. And its relationship with Martin was very important. More to say on that later. But welcome.

 

[hirokazu]

Welcome! So glad that you are here.

I have tried to post as much as I can about Cats Eyes and even banjos on here.

Bluegrass and folk music and those instruments were a big part of the development of Tokai in the 70s. And its relationship with Martin was very important. More to say on that later. But welcome.

Thank you for your comment. As for the acoustic guitar, the Martin guitar replica was perfect! Although it is not Cat's Eyes, I am currently listing the Japanese-made Shenandoah by Martin MH000-28V on Reverb.

 

[Sigmania]

Cool. The Shenandoahs are interesting. Was yours made in Japan or cut in Japan and finished in the United States?

I started this thread a while back. Feel free to add your pictures or comments.

Martin Shenandoah Acoustics

 

[hirokazu]

It's made in Japan by Terada Musical Instruments in 1994. It is a near replica of the 000-28VS or 000-28GE.

 

[Sigmania]

That is what I was about to ask you.

I have also been trying to document as many of the SIgmas as I can that seemed to have been made by Terada.

Sigma Guitars By Terada

Do you happen to understand the serial number scheme they used?

 

[hirokazu]

I started this thread a while back. Feel free to add your pictures or comments.

Martin Shenandoah Acoustics

Thank you . I'll check out that Shenandoah thread.

 

[Sigmania]

There is a guy on here that started a web site for Shenandoahs and he was shocked when I indicated that some of them were apparently made by Terada. He had thought Tokai made them. I am sure he would be interested in your guitar and your information.

Martin Shenandoah Guitars website is now online

 

[Sigmania]

And maybe you can weigh in on a long running debate over the word "jacaranda"? Jacaranda is often used in Japanese guitar literature to describe some rosewoods, but it has never been clear if this means Brazilian rosewood (Dalbergia nigra) or if it is a more generic term for rosewoods coming from Central and South America. If you have any insight into how that word is used, since you are into acoustics, I would love to hear your opinion.

 

[Homer J. Simpson]

Hello Hirokazu, glad to have you around! For all of us "otaku" being particularly interested in the MIJ guitar history, we often feel the lack of contacts to Japanese guitar aficionados who could help us understand the wonderful and often confusing world of Japanese guitars better.

 

[hirokazu]

Do you happen to understand the serial number scheme they used?

I haven't seen that many serial numbers for Japanese-made Shennandoahs, so I don't know how to decipher them in detail.
This is just my guess, but there are two possible six digits following the "M", 014*** and 024***, so the years of manufacture may be different. I think 014*** was made in 1994, the first year, and 024*** was made in 1995.

 

[Sigmania]

Thanks. There is a similarly confusing serial number system for the Terada made Sigmas.

Sigma Guitars By Terada

 

[hirokazu]

And maybe you can weigh in on a long running debate over the word "jacaranda"? Jacaranda is often used in Japanese guitar literature to describe some rosewoods, but it has never been clear if this means Brazilian rosewood (Dalbergia nigra) or if it is a more generic term for rosewoods coming from Central and South America. If you have any insight into how that word is used, since you are into acoustics, I would love to hear your opinion.

Brazilian rosewood is also related to the folk/new music boom in Japan that lasted from the early 1970s to the early 1980s.
By the time Japanese singers Mr.Kazuhiko Kato and Mr.Kosetsu Minami got their hands on a Martin D-45 in the early 1970s, Brazilian rosewood was no longer the material of choice, and even professional musicians would have longed for Brazilian rosewood.
In the mid-1970s, when Martin copy guitars began to appear on the market from domestic brands, the desire for Brazilian rosewood grew even more, and instead of the beautiful straight-grained Brazilian rosewood of Martin, flashy and exotic grains that were not straight-grained were preferred and used as veneer or plywood. Because of the flashiness of the non-straight grain, I think that the exotic feel was conveyed more in Japan when it was written as Jacaranda or written in katakana as "ハカランダ=hakaranda" rather than Brazilian rosewood.
When I started playing guitar in my mid-teens, I also thought that "jacaranda" meant a flashy and amazing grain. I didn't even know the name Brazilian rosewood. I don't think the term was used much in Japan in the 1970s.
Even now, people of the folk music generation like me have a strong desire for the high-quality Jacaranda wood, and I dream of someday getting a Martin made before 1969. I do have a domestically manufactured Morales dreadnought with Jacaranda plywood back and sides.

 

[Sigmania]

Thanks for that. So, are you saying that Jacaranda is not necessarily Brazilian rosewood, but rather is a more generic term for exotic or flashy wood?

Here are some threads related to this long running debate:

Vintage Tokai LS = Brazilian Rosewood or not?
Jacaranda And Cat’s Eyes
Shipping "Jacaranda" Versus Brazilian Rosewood

 

[HAMAMATSU]

Jacaranda absolutely means the Brazilian rosewood in the Japanese guitar industry and among the Japanese guitar people. It’s a common sense here and no doubt.

 

[hirokazu]

Jacaranda absolutely means the Brazilian rosewood in the Japanese guitar industry and among the Japanese guitar people. It’s a common sense here and no doubt.

Thank you, Hamamatsu-san! That's exactly right.
Even before the term Brazilian rosewood became common in Japan, people were attracted to its exotic grain and called it "Jacaranda." That's exactly why Japanese guitarists at that time aspired to own a guitar made of Jacaranda.

 

[Sigmania]

Thanks.

What has always puzzled me is there are at least two drastically different types of grain referred to as Jacaranda.

One is the sort of typical patterning of D. nigra with some dark bands in reddish brown wood.



Then there is the type of grain that looks very "compartmentalized". Almost as if someone mashed together different trees.

Wondering if it is some type of stump wood or where the tree broke and grew over scars?

Like this Takamine F450SA I once owned.



Or this Takamine 12 string I once owned.

 

[Sigmania]

I haven't seen that many serial numbers for Japanese-made Shennandoahs, so I don't know how to decipher them in detail.
This is just my guess, but there are two possible six digits following the "M", 014*** and 024***, so the years of manufacture may be different. I think 014*** was made in 1994, the first year, and 024*** was made in 1995.

I am wondering if it is month, month, year and then a month count?

The first two digits don't go above 12.

S MMY###

Here are the ones I have logged with possible years:


1992

S072031
S102024
S112091
S112219

1993

S013106
S033171
S033192
S033201
S053065
S05315x
S063050
S063055
S063068
S063159
S073061
S083025
S093071 (different Martin script on label)
S103115 (different Martin script on label)

1994

M014059 (Shenandoah, SN on neck block)


1995

S055045 (Korean?)

 

[Sigmania]

All the ones I have seen except yours start with "S". I assume for Sigma.

Yours starts with "M". Wonder if that is Martin?

So maybe yours is January (01) 1994 (4)?

 

[Sigmania]

I just spotted this Shenandoah.

Same serial numbering scheme. August 1993 ?

So maybe the "S" means Sigma and Shenandoah?