my new tokai silver star ...opinion?

firt off sorry for my english ...I am italian..
I just received a tokai silver star srtatocaster..
I own a fender american deluxe stratocaster and a fender usa standard 95..
I have to say that the tokai is a good guitar, the neck is very comfortable, the tuners are good..it stays in tune perfectly.., the wood seems to be good quality..It has a good sustain..like the fenders usa I ve got. The action is too low for me, but there is no fret buzz at all...what I don't really like is the pick up, I mean the electronics are good..( pick up selector, tone and volume pots etcc..) the thing is that I found the pick up very weak..It looks like it needs a pickup upgrade to become perfect..What I noticed is that the guitar sounds really good but it lacks something...and I think what it needs is a good new set of pickups..
what do you think? are you silver stars owners happy with the pickups? is there anybody uot there that have changed the pickups and found a better change?
also if you could help me with dating my guitar...the person who sold it to me in ebay said that is an 81-83 ..by the look of the logo...
the guitar is perfect no issues looks new!! what I really enjoyed is that I did not pay custom duty...I don t know why and I did not complain..eh eh
here's the link to the pictures:
http://imageevent.com/chingo123/may/tokaistarsb3159

Very similar to mine:

http://s183.photobucket.com/albums/x153/stratman323/Tokai%20Silver%20Star/

One difference is that yours looks like it has a one piece neck, mine has extra bits glued on to make up the headstock shape. The seller's dating sounds about right - it has the older logo, like mine.

I agree with you about the pickups, they are the weakest part of the guitar, in my opinion, in fact the weakest part of most Tokai Strats. A set of Seymour Duncans or Kent Armstrongs would be a cost-effective improvement.

If you do decide to change the pickups, keep the originals. You won't get much money if you sell them, but they might help you to sell the guitar if you find something else you like better in a few years - maybe a Goldstar or a Springy?

Enjoy!

Mike

is it goldstar and goldstar a higher model?
thanks for your posting...
did your strato changed a lot with the new pick ups?? is it worth it changing the picks..???
thanks

It isn't as simple as that - nothing ever is with Tokais! Goldstars were copies of 50s and early 60s Strats, Silver Stars were copies of 70s Strats (larger headstock, 3 bolt neck joint, bullet truss rod adjuster etc.). Goldstars were sold all around the world from 1983 onwards, Silver Stars were only made for the Japanese market, though quite a few have been brought to Europe in recent years. Personally, I think Goldstars are slightly higher quality than Silver Stars, but I have only ever played one Silver Star, compared to many Goldstars (I currently have 3 Goldstars).

You bought yours from chingo? My SS was bought from chingo by the guy who sold it to me on eBay. chingo seems to sell a lot of Silver Stars.

My favourite Goldstar is the white one:



I think the pickups are a bit better than on the Silver Star, but I am thinking about changing them - they are a bit on the thin, bright side for me. The neck pickup sounds great, but the bridge pickup is a bit too thin sounding for me. I think that is true of most Japanese pickups, but lots of people on here love them, so don't just take my word for it.

I haven't changed the pickups on the Silver Star. If I was going to use it live I probably would do though.

From left to right:

White Goldstar ST50, Silver Star, Black Goldstar ST50, Metallic Green Goldstar ST55.

my God..you have a beautiful colection of tokai's strats...
it' s exactly what I meant....the neck pickup is fine ( it could be better..) but the bridge one sound too thin...too much...lots of highs and almost nothing of bass frequencies.....anyway I think i am going to upgrade at least bridge and neck picks..because i never use the middle one.
I am quite happy with the guitar actually...I am gonna try a greco too..they look good.
thanks for your posts.

Thanks, they're not bad are they? Good value too - all 4 cost me just under ?1000.

The bridge pickup on a Strat is generally it's weakest point, I reckon. Seymour Duncan Alnico IIs and Fender Texas Specials make good bridge pickups, & you can often get them fairly cheap on eBay, secondhand. And the Kent Armstrong STH-1 high output ceramic pickup is good too - fatter and louder than the other two. Mine sounds a bit like a Tele bridge pickup - which is great. 8)

Let us know what you get, and what you think of the sound.

sure..I will
thank you very much!!!

Hi andtosi,
Nice looking guitar! Your guitar has the flat-pole pickups (all magnets are the same height), which sound a little thin to some people. I'm a big fan of the Tokai pickups with the "U" stamp on the back--sometimes you can find a spare set on ebay or the Forum. Otherwise, I like Mike's suggestions--I have some Seymour Duncans in one of my Springy Sounds and they sound great.

I think your guitar model is probably an SS-38 (38,000 Yen when new), but you could check the catalogues on the Forum to see if you find it. It's a 1982 model from the first digit of the serial number. I really like the necks on Silver Stars--they're easy to play. Is that made of ash or alder (I'm guessing ash from the grain of the wood, but someone else might be a better judge...)? I find ash tends to give a much brighter, nasal sound as well--something to think about when choosing your pickups.

Enjoy!

Chris
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Fiesta rs turbo

hello cheshirecatsmile
I think its Ash...
I am looking for pickups ...
I saw some kent armstrong at good price..I need at least one in the neck position ( even if the one in my silverstar sounds fine...) and absolutely one in the bridge position ( I HAVE TO CHANGE IT ..!!!!)..I need a pickup with a darker sound.or at least that cuts highs....
did your guitar improve when you upgraded the pickups? I mean of course it improved..what i really want to know is...is it worth changing the pickups on this guitar...is it a big change in sound? did you notice a huge difference in the sound????
thank you in advance...

did your guitar improve when you upgraded the pickups? I mean of course it improved..what i really want to know is...is it worth changing the pickups on this guitar...is it a big change in sound? did you notice a huge difference in the sound????

Click to expand...

Yes! I think if you change the pickups you'll be much happier. Those pickups with flat magnets are thin sounding--combined with an ash body they might seem harsh. I have a Silver Star that had the same pickups as yours and I changed them for some Tokai "U" (staggered pole) pickups I bought on ebay--it's very nice now. I also tried some Tokai "VII" stamped pickups which were also better, but still a bit bright. Ash bodied strats will always have a certain kind of tone that is different from alder, but with the right pickups they can sound great. I'd be curious to try a set of Seymour Duncans as well--sorry I don't know model#s, but I know I almost always like them when I hear them.

Some people like changing single pickups in a strat, but I've always had trouble with this. One of the great things about strats is how the out-of-phase pickup positions sound. With matched sets, these positions always seem to make sense, but the odd time I've tried mis-matched pickups the quality of these pickup positions has always seemed wrong. Maybe I've just had bad luck, or made poor choices in pickups when doing this?

Another thing (much cheaper too!) to consider is changing the capacitor on the tone knob. I believe you can alter the overall brightness just by changing the value/type of the capacitor. I haven't tried this yet, but I know stratman323 knows a bit about this--perhaps he might have some advice. There is at least one extensive post on this forum about changing capacitors--you can try doing a search.

Good luck!


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Chargeback insurance forum

Here's the post about pots and caps:

http://www.tokaiforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=9184&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

It was that experimentation that convinced me to use a .022 cap in a Strat or a Tele. Something like an Orange Drop .022 will cost a couple of Euros, so it's worth trying. Wiring up the bridge pickup to the tone control (either use the bottom tone control, or just use the middle one as a master tone for all three, as I do) is a big help for taming the top end as well.

If you mix different makes of pickups, just remember that some are wound opposite ways, so if you mix them, they will be out of phase in the in between postions. I think that Fender & Seymour Duncan are wound the opposite way, so if you used one SD with 2 Fenders, you would need to reverse the white and black wires on the SD or the in between sound would be genuinely out-of-phase, and that doesn't sound good - far too thin and sort of nasal sounding.

Chris is right, ash bodied Strats do tend to sound thinner and brighter than alder. That's why I changed the pickups on my Springy ST80 to Fender Texas Specials, which are quite dark sounding. The two work well together, for me anyway.

With the Seymour Duncans, there are loads of different types available - check the website - but the two you see most often secondhand are the Vintage & the Alnico II. The Vintage type use Alnico 5 magets (like old Fenders), the Alnico II type use - Alnico II magnets! These are softer sounding, though just as loud, and they can make a good match with a brighter sounding Strat.

There are loads of replacement Strat pickups out there - you just need to find one (or two, or three) that work for you, regardless of what the rest of us recommend. There is no right or wrong sound.

Agree with the post above on Cap values - the 0.22 is great in my Strats (I seem to remember 0.47 is the recommended value). A good cheap source of the larger and higher voltage 715P Orange Drops in the UK is HOTROXUK, the valve retailer on the Internet, they are very cheap, I got 10 of the larger 715 caps for the price of one on Ebay. They also sell quality amp replacement pots at very reasonable prices.

On my SilverStar (stamped 76 at the end of the neck and with the Fender style logo), I changed the bridge as I felt that was the area of economy (cast saddles) for a Wilkinson vintage steel block version, this made a clear difference (the original is still around for the future though...).

thanks to everyone...
I found some Fender Lace Sensor at a very good price...one is red lace sensor and the pther one is gold lace sensor...
I think I ll buy them, see what happens..also I will ask the luthier to have the capacitors of the tone knobs changed...
has enybody ever played Lace sensor strat?? I remember seeing lot of fender usa strats during the begining of the 90?s with lace sensor pickups..

the more I play my silverstar and the more I realize my fender usa strat is not much better... It's got better electronics and finish (bridge , tuners et..)but the tokai is 1000 euros cheaper..and with the new pickups ....

It's a matter of taste really. Personally I don't like the Lace Sensors, they sound a bit cold and clinical to my rather retro-biased ears. But if they sound good to you, go for it. If you get them for a good price, you can always sell them later if you don't like the sound.

Andtosi, is this Silver Star you ask here the one you got for sale in a spanish forum maybe?

Saludos.