Pops Popper
Member
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2008
- Messages
- 5
- Reaction score
- 0
A couple of weeks ago there was a "Goldstar" on eBay in North London,it didn't sell first time,but second time around it went for just under ?300.
Here is the link,anyone remember it?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=230256435233&ssPageName=STRK:MEAFB:IT
OK,so to cut a long story short...I won it 'cos I was after a Tokai,had been buying a few JV strats of late,but I could remember in the early 80's people saying how good Tokai's were to play....so I looked at it in the shop paid the man,and took it home.
Then I jumped on your site and started to have a comparison of the axe,I thought I had a "Goldstar" in good condition,but upon looking at the serial number and comparing it to your info on dating,it appeared I had something quite different.So that was it! I was going at it all night until I could get to the bottom of the mysterious purchase that was supposed to be a "Goldstar"
It had a seven digit serial number that looked well old on the neckplate and it started with a 1.
"Alas!" I thought, "I've been well had!" "This isn't a 'Goldstar!' it's a bit of this and a bit of that"
Well,eighteen hours later I had a better idea of what I had boughtThanks to all the posts info and pictures on this site I could finally figure out,with a bit of help from above of course,that somewhere along it's history some smart Alec had done the usual "Let's make it look a bit more like a Fender" and took off the Tokai decals.So another chap ,somewhere a bit more recently had said "OK this is a Tokai but it's got no decals,so let's put some on and then I can get a bit more money for it".
So-sorry to drag it out,but it was a great all-nighter spent figuring this thing out-the last bloke who put the decals on had put the "Goldstar" decal on,but I could plainly see underneath the faded remains of an earlier 'Spaghetti' "S" decal.So by then I knew,I was onto summat.
So I took it apart totally,which didn't help at first,but then I could see it had "E" pickups with an "A" stamped scratchplate.So I read all that info up about pickups and stuff and still couldn't identify it!
Under the neck joint were no clues or serials,and all I could really find was the letters 6=9 GS A W...which just confused me even more.At this point I was going nuts at it,after ten hours of googling and poring over your site over and over again,I got a lucky break and found a Japanese promo poster listing a "Vintage" catalog poster that I noticed had the letters "GS" after the model number. "Aha! Wot is dis den?" Yup,that was the big clue that everything else fell into place with.
It had a v-neck,it had a skunk stripe,and "E" pickups with an "A" scratchplate,maple neck-but no model number on the last fret,and it was more than likely an "81" model judging by the seven digit serial,nailed it at last!
I went on all the Japanese guitar sites that had plenty of luverly Tokais for sale and found that I had actually bought an "ST 80GS" masquerading as a "Goldstar".
"Oooooh,that's nice"..........
Thanks to you all out there in Tokai world for the help in identifying my Vintage "Springy" and of course the next question would be "Anyone got any Springy decals for sale"....... :lol:
Sorry,haven't put up any pics,I'm not computer literate enough to figure out how you do it yet on your site,but if someone can explain then I'll post some!
Cheers a lot everyone!
BTW,anyone selling a JazzSound by any chance???????
Pops.
Here is the link,anyone remember it?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=230256435233&ssPageName=STRK:MEAFB:IT
OK,so to cut a long story short...I won it 'cos I was after a Tokai,had been buying a few JV strats of late,but I could remember in the early 80's people saying how good Tokai's were to play....so I looked at it in the shop paid the man,and took it home.
Then I jumped on your site and started to have a comparison of the axe,I thought I had a "Goldstar" in good condition,but upon looking at the serial number and comparing it to your info on dating,it appeared I had something quite different.So that was it! I was going at it all night until I could get to the bottom of the mysterious purchase that was supposed to be a "Goldstar"
It had a seven digit serial number that looked well old on the neckplate and it started with a 1.
"Alas!" I thought, "I've been well had!" "This isn't a 'Goldstar!' it's a bit of this and a bit of that"
Well,eighteen hours later I had a better idea of what I had boughtThanks to all the posts info and pictures on this site I could finally figure out,with a bit of help from above of course,that somewhere along it's history some smart Alec had done the usual "Let's make it look a bit more like a Fender" and took off the Tokai decals.So another chap ,somewhere a bit more recently had said "OK this is a Tokai but it's got no decals,so let's put some on and then I can get a bit more money for it".
So-sorry to drag it out,but it was a great all-nighter spent figuring this thing out-the last bloke who put the decals on had put the "Goldstar" decal on,but I could plainly see underneath the faded remains of an earlier 'Spaghetti' "S" decal.So by then I knew,I was onto summat.
So I took it apart totally,which didn't help at first,but then I could see it had "E" pickups with an "A" stamped scratchplate.So I read all that info up about pickups and stuff and still couldn't identify it!
Under the neck joint were no clues or serials,and all I could really find was the letters 6=9 GS A W...which just confused me even more.At this point I was going nuts at it,after ten hours of googling and poring over your site over and over again,I got a lucky break and found a Japanese promo poster listing a "Vintage" catalog poster that I noticed had the letters "GS" after the model number. "Aha! Wot is dis den?" Yup,that was the big clue that everything else fell into place with.
It had a v-neck,it had a skunk stripe,and "E" pickups with an "A" scratchplate,maple neck-but no model number on the last fret,and it was more than likely an "81" model judging by the seven digit serial,nailed it at last!
I went on all the Japanese guitar sites that had plenty of luverly Tokais for sale and found that I had actually bought an "ST 80GS" masquerading as a "Goldstar".
"Oooooh,that's nice"..........
Thanks to you all out there in Tokai world for the help in identifying my Vintage "Springy" and of course the next question would be "Anyone got any Springy decals for sale"....... :lol:
Sorry,haven't put up any pics,I'm not computer literate enough to figure out how you do it yet on your site,but if someone can explain then I'll post some!
Cheers a lot everyone!
BTW,anyone selling a JazzSound by any chance???????
Pops.