Score!!

[brad347]

On craigslist NYC just got an old Tokai ST-80 Springy Sound, in black with maple neck, along with a case and gig bag and accessories, AND a minty 90's Fender pro Jr. amp with cover, for $640. I think that's a pretty decent deal!

My lovely '84 TST-56 will probably go on the block soon, as I just can't justify having two Tokai strats.

One thing that's notable is that this guitar comes with the ORIGINAL tags, which have a 7 digit serial number UNRELATED to the serial number stamped on the neck plate. That number is 0173, and the number on the tags is 1013561. This lends further credence to the idea that the serial numbers on the guitars themselves are meaningless. The true serial number is in the owner's manual, which is mostly in Japanese.

Don't know how to date this one yet, but I do know that the guy said he bought it from a guy who had it for 25 years. So it's gotta be an old one.

More info later. It's a bit hipper than my TST-56, I gotta say, though not by too much! The TST-56 is a FINE guitar but I dig the nitro finish and ash body on the ST-80. In all other respects I think they're pretty similar. When I have time, I'll pull the pickguard and look at the pickups, and see if that 7 digit serial is stamped inside anywhere.

 

[javelin70]

That's interesting! My guess is that the guitar was made in the first half of 1981 according to the real serial number. My -84 Love Rock's serial is 401xxxx and I bought it in June 1984. I've seen Love Rock's from the same year with the serial 402xxxx which probably means it was made the second half of that year. The first digit is the year and the second two digits period of the year. It might actually be more periods, I have a few stomp boxes with the same type of serial and one of them has the serial 403xxxx, Tokai might have split the year in four parts so 01 would be jan-march, 02 april-june and so on. There is also a different type of serial numbering where the year of manufacture is the last digit, my JSX70 (Jackson type) has that kind of serial, it was made in 1986 and I bought it new that year.

Mike