Donkey Oaty
Well-known member
I came across two Tokai's that were aimed at the budget market yesterday.
One was a Gibson Explorer copy and the other a Flying V. They came in a bundled shipment of 400 Guitars from a factory in Indonesia that makes for Stagg, Squier , Jay Turser and a few other brands .
A good friend of mine has been buying and selling large volume guitars like this for quite a few years now and always gets a few surprise guitars in the shipment, but this one was quite out of the blue.
The Tokai logo is on the truss rod cover and the SN on the Explorer is 0576533. No other markings show where they were made. He contacted the company to see if this was a new range and they explained that Tokai were having a few budget range guitars produced under trial with a view to competing with Epiphone and Squier. But they never progressed with it. The guitars are not purpose built , they are re-badged versions of there standard production line runs ( The Explorer is sold under 3 headstock names at present ).
The retail price in the UK would have been around ?149.
The Flying V was sold within an hour by a collector of Tokais and I mangaged to skank the Explorer. It aint bad and is made out of Solid Mahogany.
One was a Gibson Explorer copy and the other a Flying V. They came in a bundled shipment of 400 Guitars from a factory in Indonesia that makes for Stagg, Squier , Jay Turser and a few other brands .
A good friend of mine has been buying and selling large volume guitars like this for quite a few years now and always gets a few surprise guitars in the shipment, but this one was quite out of the blue.
The Tokai logo is on the truss rod cover and the SN on the Explorer is 0576533. No other markings show where they were made. He contacted the company to see if this was a new range and they explained that Tokai were having a few budget range guitars produced under trial with a view to competing with Epiphone and Squier. But they never progressed with it. The guitars are not purpose built , they are re-badged versions of there standard production line runs ( The Explorer is sold under 3 headstock names at present ).
The retail price in the UK would have been around ?149.
The Flying V was sold within an hour by a collector of Tokais and I mangaged to skank the Explorer. It aint bad and is made out of Solid Mahogany.