What Tokai do I have

[Sigmania]

No. We are going by the serial number.

But need the pics of your pots and 'under the hood' so to speak.

Need to see any markings that are in the pickup compartment and neck pocket including the butt of the neck.

 

[StanleyDenmark]

No. We are going by the serial number.

But need the pics of your pots and 'under the hood' so to speak.

Need to see any markings that are in the pickup compartment and neck pocket including the butt of the neck.

More than the pictures I uploaded the day before yesterday? There are no markings at all in the neck pocket.

 

[Sigmania]

Sorry. I got mixed up with another guitar from the same period. SN 214092. Probably from 1986. Just before yours. Hoping to see the pots.

A little help please.

I’m getting old….

 

[Sigmania]

So, I found your guitar's cousin. It was the one I confused yours with.

Made the same month! Crazy!

Different neck, and a different second digit which perhaps indicates the batch of necks used at the time?

A little help please.

 

[Sigmania]

Looks like it is a 1987 AST40R.

I just discovered that they still made the 40 in 1987. I wasn’t sure.



Your tuners



and ceramic pickups



are on 40 level guitars.

I had thought with inflation the 40s disappeared but they still made them in 1987.

 

[StanleyDenmark]

You say mine is with ceramic pickups, but specs on the Photo says vintage alnico? No doubt about the fact that the ones one mine ceramic, but then it doesn’t quite add up?

 

[Sigmania]

Yeah, that catalog description is very confusing. It seems to lump 50 and 40 specs together.

The 40 level guitars have always been separated from the 50 guitars by the tuners, pickups, etc.

Here is a pic from the very beginning with the ST42 and 50 in the 1978 catalog.

 

[Sigmania]

The ST42 had those same tuners even then.

ST50 had Kluson style.

Tokai Springy Sound ST-42 1979 (MIJ) | Reverb

 

[Sigmania]

You say mine is with ceramic pickups, but specs on the Photo says vintage alnico? No doubt about the fact that the ones one mine ceramic, but then it doesn’t quite add up?

Quote of the decade...

That is a part of Tokai guitars...

There are often things that don't fit. Translation issues from culture to culture. Outsourcing production. Secrecy. The list is long.

See here:

Tokai Curveball Hall of Fame

The fundamental problem is that your guitar was made in a period where information is scarce.

Most people focus on the earlier years as collectors, before all sorts of stuff hit the fan with Fender, etc.

The late 80s are a period of soul searching and chasing fads in my opinion.

But what bluejeannot said was true, those tuners and ceramic pickups were used on the base model. And in 1987 the base model was the TST40 as shown in the catalog.

The problem is in how they worded that catalog description. Probably a function of trying to fit all of that into a tiny space, symbolic of the bigger issue of them squeezing traditional designs into the back pages of a catalog while pushing Super strats and the pointy guitars of the day.

 

[StanleyDenmark]

I was told it was a st-40 from 1984 when I bought it - so in some ways I was a bit disappointed with it being 3 years later, but I guess it doesn’t make that big a difference as it being the same model?

 

[Sigmania]

I believe the seller had no idea. Not many people know what these are.

It is only with using the pot codes that we have just recently been able to get some idea of the time period these Goldstars were made with the six digit serial numbers starting with 2xxxxx.

The Registry would not tell you that and that is why I have been pushing to have it updated. It is misleading a lot of people because it is outdated and biased towards some markets.

I'm sure the seller was relying on the info there.

Time For An Overhaul/Update Of The Registry?

 

[Sigmania]

Feel free to add your voice on the need to update the info on there.

Time For An Overhaul/Update Of The Registry?

This is what the seller was probably going by.

He basically had to guess.

Some of this info is dead wrong. Like when the headstock shape changed. It was 1982/83 for the American market TST56 & 62, not 1985.

Tokai Guitar Registry - Tokai Fender Copy Information

 

[Sigmania]

If you’re interested, I started piecing together a timeline for Tokai STs in this thread:

Tokai Strat Copy Timeline 1977- Present

 

[Sigmania]

Just spotted this right in front of my eyes in the 1985/86 catalog.