Metallic Pink Goldstar - but it's confusing me

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OK, after a lot of screwing up by eBay, I won the Metallic Pink Goldie that was "guaranteed to make me play like Gary Moore" on a second chance offer.

I'll pause a minute to allow you to finish laughing. :lol:

Anyway, I collected it yesterday, but there are a few points that are puzzling me, so please let me know what you think.

So, here it is.

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The advert stated that everything was original except the pickups, which are Fender Tex-Mex. Does anyone know what Tex-Mex pickups look like? I don't.

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Either the whole bridge or maybe just the saddles have been replaced, I assume, as the saddles are unstamped.

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But here's the bit that really puzzles me. I looked at the scratchplate - no brass plate under the controls. OK, I thought, the scratchplate has been replaced - not the end of the world. Then I noticed that the screw spacing was in the 1962 position - not the 1964 position that Tokai always seem to use on Goldies.

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Here's the usual '64 spacing - see the screw by the middle pickup.

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OK, well that figures if it's a replaced scratchplate. So I should find an extra screw hole in the body from the original SP?

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Nope..... Now I'm puzzled!

Well maybe it's all a fake? Well it's a good one if it is - the body code is exactly what you would expect from Tokai.

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And the neck code matches the numbers in the body. Surely nobody would fake that?

The decal looks right

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But the tuners seem too tall & they are stamped KLUSON DELUXE

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So what is it that I have here? Can anyone explain any of the various anomalies? I'm baffled by this one.

:-?

Mike
 
Eel done Mike, lovely guitar, get those photos over to me asap. The nut has also been changed. Is this just another anomaly, everyone check their 3 ply scratch plates now. Collecting Tokais is like following Lost on Tv, the mystery deepens and you just know it won't all be explained by the end of the last season!
 
Hmmm, is well done the right thing to say? I'm beginning to wonder. The replaced nut was something I knew about before, but it needs cutting properly.

Those are just rough pics, I'll do some proper ones later or tomorrow, & hopefully, by then, I'll have a better idea of exactly what I have here.

:eek:
 
I think not all ST scratchplates had the brass plate - I've got one that looks totally unmolested but doesn't have it.

The routing in the pickup cavities of your new aquisition looks a bit rougher than usual as well, although the stamp looks authentic and I doubt that anyone would go to so much trouble to fake a body code stamp.

I'm sorry not to be able to point you in the direction of any specific posts, but I do remember seeing the odd picture here and there on the forum and on ebay that leads me to believe that Goldies went a little bit downhill quality-wise later in the 80s (or early 90s?). I remember seeing a picture of a very late one that had a plain black script logo instead of gold with a black outline. Could this be a late Goldie?

I also half-remember seeing some blank saddles on a Goldie at some point (again either on the forum or on ebay). While they could've been replaced, the trem unit itself looks like a Tokai unit, and I know from experience that it is very hard to get replacement saddles for a MIJ trem unit - in fact I gave up looking becuase the only options I could find were silly money. Perhaps Tokai just gave up stamping them at some point?

Assuming that Goldies did change in specification towards the end of the time in which they were originally produced, this is something we know next-to-nothing about...
 
Thanks for that Blake, that's certainly the explanation that I am happiest with, so I hope you're right. If you're right, I guess it's nice to have an example of one of the post '85 Goldies.

I took off 2 of the tuners to check for extra holes underneath.

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Here's a clearer pic of the bridge & saddles.

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The serial number is also not the L prefixed number we would usually expect on a RW board Goldie

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One more point - the frets seem to be a little bigger than usual, but it doesn't seem to have been re-fretted.

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Though the frets do seem to be surprisingly unworn, compared to the body.

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Can anyone help to identify the pickups? Is this what Tex-Mex pickups look like?

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Date codes on the pots? No idea, I didn't know pots had date codes. Anyway, if they're CTS, they must surely be later replacements? Same with the switch - if the guitar is a later model as Blake suggested, I imagine it originally had one of those cheap-and-nasty platsic switches. I'm guessing that the pots & switch were upgraded when the pickups were changed?
 
I also have a Goldie I suspect is a bit late... perhaps not as late as yours, as it has more typical Tokai pickup routing, but it has a six-digit serial - just like yours - and though the frets have been leveled at some point, they are very wide.
 
Marcus - thanks for that - I assumed you could answer that question!

Blake - thanks again. The story does all seem to be coming togther, based largely on your comments.

One other piece of information, though I'm not sure it proves anything, it's the lightest Strat I own @ 6lb 15oz. Previously my lightest Strat was my ST80 @ 7lb 4oz. You could argue that means they used cheaper wood I suppose, but I'm not convinced that's true.

Any other comments or theories?
 
MIJvintage said:
OMG NOOOOOOOOOO, what have I started; Mike is now weighing Strats?????????????? :lol: ...........

Yep, it's all your fault! :lol: You'll have me counting the **** rings next.....

I checked the Fender website for the T-M pickups

http://www.fender.com/uk/products/search.php?partno=0992131000

Fender state bridge 7.4k, M & N 6.4k. Mine measure B 5.8k, M 5.9K, N 6.0k. So I'm not sure what that proves either!
 
Welcome to the Pink Goldie Club Mike, it will be great to have the two variations in the book :)
 
Cheers Mike for purchasing a guitar that throws up lots of queries, hopefully a means to progress the knowledge of Goldies. Nice to see that the stamp in the pot. cavity is about as Tokai as you can get, I note that the scratchplate screw by the Tone control seems to be more Fender style than Tokai, is this original?
I've got a theory for people to knock down if they're at all interested in the first place. As you have posted lots of pics of your Goldies I have noticed that what seem to be the earlier production batch with "U" stamped pups seem to have the circle cut in the bottom of the pickup routes, the later Goldies with the IIV stamped pickups are routed as per your Pink metallic, not very interesting I know, but I thought I'd just throw it into the mix as an observation. The trem block seems to be exactly the same as my ST55(?) natural finish.
 
njnall said:
I note that the scratchplate screw by the Tone control seems to be more Fender style than Tokai, is this original?

I've got a theory for people to knock down if they're at all interested in the first place. As you have posted lots of pics of your Goldies I have noticed that what seem to be the earlier production batch with "U" stamped pups seem to have the circle cut in the bottom of the pickup routes, the later Goldies with the IIV stamped pickups are routed as per your Pink metallic, not very interesting I know, but I thought I'd just throw it into the mix as an observation. The trem block seems to be exactly the same as my ST55(?) natural finish.

Tokais are usually 64 copies (cap board) & use the spacing as on the blue one on page 1. Most Fenders are 62 copies with the slab board & use the spacing on the pink one's SP. But this one has a cap board & the 62 spacing, & no extra screw hole to suggest it's been changed. So did Tokai move to the 62 spacing later in the 80s? If so, why?

Strange.

I wondered about those holes too, so I did a quick check:

OW, circles, U
GM, circles, VI or VII, hard to tell
SO, circles I think (shielded), VI
Natural, circles, Us I think (long gone!)
FO, circles, non-original pickups
MG RW, circles, U
MG MN, no circles, VI
MR, no circles, non-original pups
SR, no circles, IIV?
BB, no circles, unstamped pups, but Us I think from the measurements.

This includes guitars I don't have any more.

I'm not sure that proves or disproves anything does it? :lol: I can see the logic in your theory though, maybe you're right? Springys seem to have the circle. Once again, why would they change?

:-?
 
Mike,
Haha :lol: just what you would expect from Tokai....Tokailand where nothing is what it might at first appear. When I bought my IIV pickups it was as part of a loaded scratchplate, the pups were obviously Tokai, the switch was one of those nice ones and the pots were as I have seen many times in pics on this forum, though strangely not all of the same type, however the scratchplate resembled a Fender '62 not a '64 and as it was aluminium foil in the place of the brass plate I assumed that the pups and pots had been fitted to a Fender scratchplate, well now I look at your Pink metallic photos, I see that it seems to be the same type of scratchplate. The screws for the switch and pickups are the usual Tokai type. I attach photos of the scratchplate currently being used to store the Schaller pups.

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So it's beginning to look as though Tokai changed to the '62 screw spacing at some point - all we need to do is find out when! Late 80s? Early 90s? We don't even know for sure when the Fender headstock shape was changed, do we?

I suppose they might have just sourced a new, cheaper, supplier of scratchplates?

One other thought - would this pink Goldie have had ceramic pickups & cheap pots? If so, that would explain why an earlier owner would replace everything under the scratchplate, which is what I assume has happened.
 
Hi mike, Nice! Another goldie ,How many is that now! That is what i love about tokai and japanese guitars, tales from the unknown!Just when we think we have sussed out and seen every variation on the catalogue specs,up pops another like yours....... :eek: q

I Think you collectoin of goldies has more colours than a pack of skittles! :lol:


Would be intersting to find out when tokai did change the headstock !

MOJO HOBO
 

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