Tokai article in Guitar & Bass magazine

I took my 6 Tokai Strats to Croydon today for a photo shoot that villager referred to in a separate thread last week. Originally they were looking for a Springy to photograph to accompany an article, but it turned out that they were interested in Goldstars & Silver Stars too, so I took examples of all 3.

Apparently, a freelance writer has submitted an article about the various Tokai Strats, and Guitar & Bass magazine will be running it as a main feature in the next issue. This is due out at the end of May, though it will be the July or August edition - don't ask me why! I didn't see the article, so we'll all have to wait and see how good it is......

Anyway, they spent a few hours taking high-res pics of my 2 Springys, 3 Goldstars & 1 Silver Star. You will have seen all these guitars in various posts, but the images they took looked very impressive, from what I could see on the screens. They are not sure which ones they will use yet, but the Springy ST60 may be the cover girl. 8) They took a few shots showing the different Tokai decals, as well as the more usual pics.

Apparently owning 6 Tokais makes me a collector - I hadn't really thought of myself as a collector before. :-? I'm not sure if I should be worried about this.

Anyway, if any more information reaches me, I'll let you all know.

Mike

Cool!!! remind us Mike when it actuall comes out...

Of course. 8) I should be getting a cd of the pics, and as they will be such high quality, Ned may wish to consider using some of them in the gallery on the Registry site.

You were mentioned this afternoon Ken - I mentioned your blonde ST100. Such a shame there wasn't time for you to ship it over to me for a few days/weeks/months.....

Only so that we could include it in the pics, of course. :wink:

stratman323 said:

I hadn't really thought of myself as a collector before.

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Kubler-Ross stage 1!

Sounds intriguing; i'll definitely pick up a copy. Did you get any royalties?

AlanN said:

Did you get any royalties?

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A coffee and a little money towards my petrol. Not a lot since it took me two hours to drive to Croydon. :evil: I love London, as long as I don't have to drive through it!

I enjoyed it anyway, it's not often you get the chance to look "backstage" and meet the people involved. I just hope it doesn't push prices up.....

I wonder who the freelancer was who wrote the article? Surely he/she must be a forum member? It would be awful if the article was full of errors. At least we can be fairly sure that the captions for the pics should be correct.

i would think the article will be factually correct, they are usually good about stuff like that..

What?

You will not be asked to approve the text first?

"Gitarre und Bass" has some 40 pages on the Frankfurt show this month. The only word you shall not find in it is "Tokai".

+1 Mike

:wink: :wink:

Hi Mike

did you happen to get the name of the freelancer?
could it be Andrew Munro?
I have a suspicion i may know something about it . .


regards
Peter Mac

Hi Peter,

No, he didn't mention his name. I suppose I could ask? He did say that, until I phoned, they only had one Tokai for the shoot, and that wasn't in completely original condition. I'm not sure if this guitar belonged to the author of the article.

I must admit I'm wondering now who wrote it. It must be a forum member, surely? If not, there must be somebody who knows enough to write an article on the various Tokai Strats without any help from anyone on here? Strange - why would they not be a member? And if they are a member, why haven't they told us it's them?

:-?

Hi Mike,

I had a call about 7 months ago from a guy who had an '82 ST-50 GS.
He was a nice Scottish lad and he had been to the forum and contacted me about his axe and about an article he was writing and wanted some help with info, which I gave.
He did send me a draft of the article and it does mention the Tokai Registry and Forum, so it will be interesting to see if this is it.
I hope it does help open the gates a bit but if so, the price would rise - that's economics, but it will stabilise.

regardsw
Peter Mac

Peter Mac said:

Hi Mike,

.
I hope it does help open the gates a bit but if so, the price would rise -

regardsw
Peter Mac

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too late already.

I've just had a reply from Marcus Leadley from the magazine. Yes - it's Andrew Munro who wrote the article, so you were spot-on, Peter. It's good to know that the article was checked out by you before submission.

Marcus comments:

Please note that we are essentially a mainstream magazine so the piece is designed as a generally introduction (I?m expecting a number of our readers will have Springy Sounds etc that they got years ago and hadn?t realized there is growing interest and a story to tell) and as such may not go far enough into the detail for people with a consuming passion for Tokais. For readers who want to find out more and get involved we are printing a link to the Forum. And subsequently I?ll be more than happy to print letters from Forum members who want to write in to add their bit or comment on the piece.

It will be in the July issue, which goes on sale on 23rd May. So that all sounds good to me. 8)

I was a regular Guitar Magazine UK buyer until magazine literally dissapreaded from (big) newspapers&magazine stores in my town and no distribution was done I was told by local distributor, so I was not able to buy it anymore.Not sure if they decided not selling here in Spain.So if any Tokai article or Tokai related info is published, I would like to read it .Have to get that released,will see how to get it...Guitar UK Magazine has been spreading Tokai info since 6 years ago which is great.

Peter,it?s great you being as a consulting guest :wink: you?re the main man regarding Tokai info to me......I?m willing to buy your book!

Regarding Tokai prices nowadays I guess they are over the top and won?t go down as far as collectors and speculators exist......bad thing for us players.

luis said:

Regarding Tokai prices nowadays I guess they are over the top and won?t go down as far as collectors and speculators exist......bad thing for us players.

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plenty of real players still buying luis....

It certainly won't help prices level off.

I remember a similar piece in Vintage Guitar magazine in 2000 about early Hamer Guitars that were a steal at 500 dollars or so... not for long!

For me the Strat type prices are already too high. Only if I find the occasional one for the old price will I buy.

well everyone is entitled to choose to buy or not to buy, as these guitars get rarer and rarer, which is what is happening significantly over the last year then prices will continue to rise, from my point of view, and i probably sell more of these high end MIJ than anyone else, the buyers are certainly still buying, its a myth that collectors are buying up everything, i sell 95% of my guitars to people who play them , not to ''collectors''

double post

Even though I was called a "collector" by the magazine people, my guitars get played. If they don't get played, they get sold. The more expensive they are, the more likely they are to get sold if they don't get played often. The ST80 ain't going anywhere.....