Some more goldstar and springy pics

[Suki]

For those interested (and as previously promised), here are some pics of a dismantled goldstar and springy, in the course of cleaning and treating my collection to a fret dress:

Yellow Sunburst Goldstar ST-50 - looks pretty standard from the 84'ish era:

http://s1356.photobucket.com/user/sb-1969/library/Yellow%20Sunburst%20ST-50

Yellow Sunburst Springy ST-40 - Spaghetti, no stamp on fretboard (so early 80's??), one piece bridge, Tokai stamped saddles, L+5 digit. "40" is written in china marker underneath where the neck plate goes (never seen that before):

http://s1356.photobucket.com/user/sb-1969/library/Yellow%20Sunburst%20ST-40

 

[jacco]

The L serial was introduced in 1982 as far as I know.

 

[Suki]

That's useful to know Jacco, thx. Must be an '82 I guess. I know they stopped stamping the fingerboard around '80, so I always assumed it to be '80-'82.

 

[jacco]

If my memory serves me well fretboard stamping on Springys stopped around serial number 0008500.

L prefix & Springy logo is 1982 indeed

 

[Suki]

Also, an interesting question: I notice that with all my Goldstars, the decal is placed above the lacquer. On all my spaghetti (Springy and Silverstar), the decal is beneath the lacquer. However, I've seen some Springys with Spaghetti logos above the lacquer, unless I'm mistaken.

Does anyone have a definitive date when Tokai started to put the logos above the lacquer? I understand they did this because a lot of people were Fenderising them in those days and this made it easier to remove the old decal.

 

[Peter Mac]

Hi guys,
That is not a 40 under under the neckplate. They are Japanese script, however my Hiragana is a bit rusty.
Looking at the pickups, I'm leaning towards an ST-45 built in 1982 also.

regards
Peter Mac

 

[jacco]

Ask Wulfman, he can read it

 

[Peter Mac]

As far as I can tell, there was no ST-40 built until the mid - late '80's.
ST-42 til 1980, ST-45 til late 1981.
With this serial number, I would have to recount and say 1981 ST-45 MY82
Pickups have SS-38 wires (blue/black)

Peter Mac

 

[jacco]

But it has an L serial Peter

 

[Peter Mac]

This is true Jacco, but as we know there were 1982 models released in Nov/Dec 1981. That would explain the Lserial number.

 

[Suki]

Thanks Jacco and Peter - this really helps as I'm now starting to record an catalogue my collection!

 

[jacco]

Interesting. Based on what?
The 1982 catalog is from spring 1982.

 

[Peter Mac]

Based on production figures for other years. I am aware that model changes were facilitated up to 3 months before the years end - regardless of the catalogue release

1981 Vol 4 - Mar 6th 1981 -
1982 Vol 5 - Feb 1st 1982 - Spring
1982 Vol 6 - Dec 1st 1982 - Final

---1981 had an ST-45 but 1982 did not.
---1982 had Fender Year numbers, 1981 had 7 digit
however it is likely that 7 digit neckplates ran out towards the end of '81 and they used the new MY82 plates.
When all possibilities are looked at, whatever is plausible- regardless of how ridiculous it may seem - has to be the truth.

Peter Mac