Japanese Sen Ash as Tonewood and Pickup Combo's

[urchinslayer]

Hello,

Let me preface this by saying I'm new to Electric Guitars. I own lots of them, but only as a hobbie.

I recently bought what was advertised as a Tokai ST-60. It is a beautiful (and I mean BEAUTIFUL!) Amber sunburst. It has the proper logo, stickers, headstock and neck design to be a Springysound.

It does not sound as good as my other guitars. As a player I can say that it does have some characteristics about the tone I like....mainly the ability to cut through a live mix. That it does well, but ****, all my strats can cut well (though this is uniquely better). It just has a dark but harsh nature to it. Its very dark sounding for a maple neck guitar.

1.The guitar is about 9 1/2 lbs. of Japanese Sen Ash.
2. It has "E" stamped on the pickups
3. Maple neck, Nitro finish, vintage appointments.
4. The volume knob has a 500k Ohm volume pot (this might be the prob)
5. Tone pots are 250K Ohm Pots
6. I don't know how many Farads the capacitor is but it seems like its OEM (unlike the volume pot)

In your opinions:

1. Is Sen Ash good tonewood? If so what are its normal characteristics. (I know Am. Northern Ash is heavy like Sen, but its not a good tone wood like Swamp ash is. Its heay like Sen, but Sen is softer)
2. Does anybody else have the same prob - harsh sound?
3. Has anybody changed out the pickups for other set?
4. If has anybody tried Fender custom shop 54's or 69's?

Thats it for now - thanks.

Rick

 

[lasher]

old strats had .1 ufd caps,,new ones have .050 ufd caps....i have a 54 with the original cap,,,best strat tone i've ever heard. i've since changed my other strats to .022 ufd caps. and put a 250 k in that volume pot.

 

[prince bishop]

Hi Rick,I've messed around with different wiring and pickups on strats and came to the same conclusions as Lasher ,.022caps and 250k pots.
I have one strat with Kinman and one with Fralin pickups, both totally different, but both sets have quality tone (worth checking out)

pb

 

[jeotokai]

i have an all original '78 tokai st60 1pcs maple neck, 3-T s/b zen ash body. its my best strat so far. Anyway i tried installing fender's custom 54, texas spl, and an original 70's fender pickup set.
The original tokai "E" pickups are great and it closely identical to my custom '54. The "E" are more open and less compressed compared to the '54s.
Then i tried my old fender 70's pickup, which then sounded, well, hendrix like tone.
The last i tested it to a texas spl. well, it enhanced the guitars tone but with more compression, mids became prominent but not to much. treble was a bit sacrificed.
I'm now also in a situation in chosing which pickup to put in my st60.
Whether i stick with the original or the fender texas spl. Both has its pros and cons. In summary if im looking for a clean 50's sound ill stick with the "E"s. But, if you like a better overdriven gritty tone go with the texas spl.

 

[jeotokai]

try goin back to 250k volume and tone pots. and .047mfd tone caps. go to this link for parts. www.guitarpartsresource.com

 

[bluejeannot]

1.The guitar is about 9 1/2 lbs. of Japanese Sen Ash.
2. It has "E" stamped on the pickups
3. Maple neck, Nitro finish, vintage appointments.
4. The volume knob has a 500k Ohm volume pot (this might be the prob)
5. Tone pots are 250K Ohm Pots
6. I don't know how many Farads the capacitor is but it seems like its OEM (unlike the volume pot)

In your opinions:

1. Is Sen Ash good tonewood? If so what are its normal characteristics. (I know Am. Northern Ash is heavy like Sen, but its not a good tone wood like Swamp ash is. Its heay like Sen, but Sen is softer)
2. Does anybody else have the same prob - harsh sound?
3. Has anybody changed out the pickups for other set?
4. If has anybody tried Fender custom shop 54's or 69's?

Thats it for now - thanks.

Rick[/quote] Hi Rick,St60`s were poly finished not nitro!Gabe.

 

[jeotokai]

bodies are usually finished in poly
necks are almost always in nitro

 

[Anonymous]

bodies are usually finished in poly
necks are almost always in nitro

Really? Where did you get that information from?

Mike

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Rick,I've messed around with different wiring and pickups on strats and came to the same conclusions as Lasher ,.022caps and 250k pots.

I agree. A .1k cap is far too much, it reduces the volume when the tone pot is turned down beyond 5.

 

[jeotokai]

Got the info from a friend who's also the no.1 luthier here in the Philippines. I brought my tokai to him to be refinished the body from 3t s/b to natural. Well he then discourages me to do so because of the value of the guitar. He also has tokai's, so he knows. I talked to him about what are the original finishes. here's his site:
http://guitarhospital.net/home.htm

 

[Anonymous]

did you ever try to couple a 1K with a .22?
Rup

 

[bluejeannot]

bodies are usually finished in poly
necks are almost always in nitro

Really? Where did you get that information from?

Mike

Here we go again Mike!Gabe.

 

[Anonymous]

I don't think I'm prepared to accept that "bodies are poly, necks are nitro" theory based solely on the word of one luthier, wherever he might be. That contradicts almost everything else I've read and heard about Tokias, and it simply doesn't make sense.

Mike