Headstock decal, again!

[Marko A]

Someone with ST50 Goldstarsound, or similar can you please get a picture of your headstock & decal and send it here or straight to me.
I?m going to reproduce the decal on my ST50 but first I?ll need a one to copy from. Thanks!

 

[Marko A]

Just for fun I?m giving an update of my project.

With help of few people I found a Goldstar sound decal that I was looking for. I?m still waiting it to get here, but I have a picture of it.

Here?s the neck two days ago. All the frets are installed. I use glue in method and have to give them some time to dry before dressing them up.

 

[Marko A]

Todays great update...

Refretting is finished!!
I finally got all the frets dressed and finished.
God, I wish could keep the neck as straight as it is right now.
We?ll see what happens when I?ll install strings on.

But there?s lot?s of things to do before that.
Next task will be cleaning all tuners and installing them.
Then hopefully the decal will show up soon.

Here?s some new pics, hope you don?t get bored..

Tokai ST50 neck with Dunlop 6105 High jumbo frets:

 

[Marko A]

And here?s pre-fitting parts together:

 

[Anonymous]

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[Marko A]

If I had half the gumption you do, I'd finally finish the project guitar that's been hanging around here for um... let's see... ulp... two years

You?re in no hurry... This guitar had been around like "unfinished" project since ?97 :roll: Actually, one of the main reasons why I started restoring it now is that I found this Tokai forum! After reading all the posts it sort of like hit me, the idea that I have nice ST50 hanging there in very bad looks and condition. And now, I got into a new band after two years since the last one stopped playing. This all got me to give some attention for my gear.

I?ll keep you updated on this one.
Right now, like I said, I?m waiting the Tokai decal. I also ordered one handmade bridge pickup. I have two ?79 strat pickups, but bridge PUP was missing. Hopefully I?ll end up with a decent set for blues.
Then all the other plastic parts. I ordered Fender aged accessory kit (couldn?t find Tokai originals), which includes everything except the pickguard which I fortunately secured from friends Tokai project where the original p-guard was leftover and it?s almost unused!

No need to tell that I?m pretty much excited now. It?s like getting new Tokai!!

 

[Anonymous]

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[Marko A]

Well, the most replaced part is pickguard. This one I know for sure that it doesn?t fit correctly. I had to fill the holes to get original Tokai pickguard to fit. Other measures I don?t know yet.
But after I?ll get the accessories I?ll let you know if they will fit correctly to the Tokai pickguard. Don?t know about the bridge since I have Tokai original.

Here?s new pics again.
First some chrome:

Electronics cavity covered with aluminum / copper tape

Some tips for doing this. If you cover the cavity with aluminum tape or similar, after you?ve got all set, use small needle to poke few holes here and there to make sure of electrical contact between different layers. You can verify this with multimeter after the job is being done. The other "innovation" here, set one layer going from cavity under the bridge and you?ll got earth contact to bridge secured. Also leave some other parts out of the cavity too and you have a good contact to the aluminum layer on a pickguard. This way you?ll end up having electrics in a real Faraday?s cage :lol:

Strings installed, no electronics. Needs VERY much work to get neck adjusted correctly. This means install it, string it up, check the action. Take the neck off, little dressing for few frets, strengthen the truss rod start all over again. Repeat this approximately 10-20 times and you?ll be ready to rock -- !

 

[Marko A]

Got the decal!!

and closer:

Looking good, eh?

Btw, I went through few pics and two guitars checking the correct place for the decal and the position seem to vary a lot. So I attached it where it looked best to me. What do you think?

Thanks to Trey, Martin and especially Nik for help!

 

[Watto]

Hi Marko,
What a Great Job you've done with your restoration.I just wanted to give you a tip.
over the years I have shielded many strats with copper sheeting and a few years back I discovered from Chris Kinman that if you shield the pickup cavity walls you will alter the tone of your pickups.
He recommends you shield the bottom of pickup ,control cavityand input jack cavity,The sides of the control cavity and the input jack cavity but not the sides of the pickup cavity.It interferes with the magnetic coil of your pickups and kills a bit of tone.He also advises to leave about a 5mm gap around the scratchplate pickup holes when putting copper sheeting on the inside of the scratch plate.If you sheet up to the edge of the pickup holes it will also interfere with the pickups tone.I have noticed the difference and have rectified all the strats I have worked on in the past.

I'd hate to see you put all that effort into your restoration and find a difference in tone due to shielding.
You can visit www.kinman.com and go to his perfect guitar and tone workshop.He explains everything there(much better than I can)
I also highly recommend his Treble Bypass mod as well.It helps keep the tone in your pickups even when you turn the volume down.
Chris was a Master strat builder here in Australia before he stopped and decided to concentrate on his pickups (which are unbelievable).His blueprint strats are very rare and highly sought after in Australia.

I have no association with Chris Kinman ,I just respect and admire his Knowledge and products.
All the best
I hope this info helps (and makes sense)

Watto