Seeking Info on Unusual Tokai...

I was fortunate enough to work as a photographer and play in a band in Tokyo from 1982-84. We bought a lot of equipment from Ishibashi Music in Shibuya and I became friends with Mr. Kunio Kishida who was the manager of the store. The store received three unusual Tokai Strat-type guitars and Kunio-san hand picked the guitar pictured for me to purchase. As I remember the other two were similar but had maple necks/fingerboards. As you can see the guitar is finished in an amber sunburst and I believe the body is Sen, a type of native Japanese Ash. The neck is highly flamed maple with a non-slab rosewood board. As far as I remember the p/u's are DiMarzios. (Would DiMarzios of this vintage have waxed cloth leads?). The SN# is 0012275. Mr. Kishida called these guitars "Kunio Customs" and I'm wondering if they were special orders for the store, regular production models, prototypes or something else. Would appreciate any info, help or comments! More photos available.

Thanks, Tom
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Wow, but I haven't got a clue sorry.

What a nice finish!
Tokai logo seems to be a post 85(AST) one,so it could be a new one 2000?.Colour could be a custom order,I have never seem any Tokai with that finish.The heastock is the 7ender,the new ones have the "wrong" one,but if the guitar was order for a japanese shop it can fit well.

Welcome to the board Tom.

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WOW!

That is a nice looking strat. The logo looks right for 84/85 and if it is a one off then I guess the serial numbers could be out of step.

Tokai do like to mix things up every now and then.
With regards to protypes LTD's etc, yes they do sell them - I've got one, a Love Rock from 2002 that was done as a limited edition.
Also Tokai UK have a guitar called the LoveRock II which is totally new shape, this was commissioned by them for the UK market.

But whatever from the piccy you can see that all the hardware has lots wear on it so it looks like you've done quite a bit of playing on it.

That's a nice guitar, thanks for showing it Tom.

GB

Hi Tom,

Ditto what everyone else says about the finish ? really lovely, & unusual. Very attractive guitar! The grain pattern surprised me - I haven?t seen enough Sen to know if that grain is typical, but it?s certainly very different from most European &/or US Ash ? maybe Sen is always like that ?

Ian.

Thanks to all for the replies and info! Here's a bit more information and a few more photos...Yes, I bought the guitar new at Ishibashi in '82-83. I'm thinking probably late '82-early'83, I may still have the receipt in the "archives" (aka garage!). I do remember Mr. Kishida commenting that the guitar was unusual because of the use of the nicely figured native Sen/Tamo, Japan is a relatively "wood poor" country. The guitar is pretty much all original...straplocks added and over the years I've tried different p/u's but I'm fairly certain that the p/u's in it now are the originals, which I remember as being DiMarzios. Did DiMarzio make vintage style (staggered poles, waxed cloth wires) Strat p/u's then? The volume pot died and has been replaced, I still have the original. The SN# plate is original and I wonder if the out-of-sequence SN# is due to the guitar(s) being special orders or one-offs? Would appreciate any more comments/info...I hope there aren't too many photos...Thanks!

Tom


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If pickups are original DiMarzios it would be a TST-80 model and above,isn't it?And it is a very very early Goldstar.

ian said:

Hi Tom,

Ditto what everyone else says about the finish ? really lovely, & unusual. Very attractive guitar! The grain pattern surprised me - I haven?t seen enough Sen to know if that grain is typical, but it?s certainly very different from most European &/or US Ash ? maybe Sen is always like that ?

Ian.

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Hi Ian,

I did a bit of web research on Sen and found a great page of many types of ash here:

http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/ash.htm

Look at the Tamo wood which I gather is a type of burled Sen...Some of it has figuring remarkably like the guitar's!

Best,
Tom

I have a couple of older Greco strats made from sen and the grain is much tighter on mine. But I have seen other examples of wider grain sen but never figured sen, looks nice, why can`t I fine those deals eh? Never mind, I`ve found my share. The guitar may be uncommon but it isn`t uncommon for makers to produce limited runs of guitars for chain shops here, but since you lived in the country you probably know that. I have a Fender Japan IKEBE `54 ri strat that is exquisite, can hardly see the joint line down the center the wood is so well matched.
As far as natural resourses Japan is everything poor, except maybe geothermal energy, which they are trying to harness and put to good use.
Heres a pic of a Greco with what I believe to be sen as it looks identical to both of mine...
http://www.rivuletguitar.com/electricguitars/others/othersstock033/electricorhersstock033.html

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loverockerUK said:

That is a thing of beauty. OK, so I'm currently wearing beer goggles, hic, but that is stunning. Tom - the flame on the neck is very special - much better than the flame on my '79 Springy Sound ST-80. Whoever selected the wood for it is a star

Confusing thing is that a new buy in '82/83 would make it a very early Goldstar plus a very late serial number...

Have you got a close-up of the neck plate?

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Here's the plate, it must be nickel plated because it's starting to wear!...The more I look, the more I think that the body is Tamo. I've found a number of sites that have examples and Tamo has a very characteristic figuring that closely matches the type of figuring on the guitar. I'm still not clear if it is a separate species of ash or a variation of Sen.
Best,
Tom

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Yo've got something very special......very nice!

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Holy crap! That must be one of the best looking strats I've ever seen.

first time I`ve ever heard of tano. Unless it has another name.
I have heard of nato as a tone wood... not to be confused with natto, which the locals tell me is food, but I`m not convinced.