1979 Breezysound

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Skipper Tail

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Hello all!

I just got this telecaster. It's my first vintage Tokai and now I'm a believer. I thought I'd share some pictures with you because this guitar is certainly not something you see every day but a bit of an oddity. A beauty to one and a blood-soaked beast to the other.

I have being searching the forum and found out that the serial indicates the guitar was made in 1979 and the colour code is "Wine Red", but that's about it. I don't know the model number and can't unscramble the codes on the neck. It has a double bound one-piece ash body and the tuners are stamped 'deluxe'. Any help will be greatly appriciated.

Thanks.

TokaiBreezysound_8_zps8ddb88c2.jpg


TokaiBreezysound_5_zps7c4eb578.jpg


TokaiBreezysound_1_zps0c9489a7.jpg


TokaiBreezysound_6_zpsa9d1df9a.jpg
 
The nut was gone, but fortunately I got it out by drilling a hole in the middle, tapping a some-size torx bit in it and gently turning.

Forum member Slopic 2 posted this picture a while ago. The original nut is a horrid pot metal piece. No wonder they break.
DSC_0040.jpg
 
Skipper Tail said:
The nut was gone, but fortunately I got it out by drilling a hole in the middle, tapping a some-size torx bit in it and gently turning.

Skipper Tail said:
I have being searching the forum and found out that the serial indicates the guitar was made in 1979

A 1979 neck should have had a hex type truss rod nut.
 
Hi Skipper Tail,

Nice looking Tele ... congrats !
Only TE-70's were offered in red.

Your TE neck + body were produced between May 1980 + May of 1982,
and more likely between May 1981 + May of 1982 as that color choice didn't
appear in catalogs before 1981-82.

Unfortunately your neck plate isn't a Tokai plate (not within vintage Tokai serial # ranges or placements either).
That serial # is not from any Fender serial # format that I'm familiar with either.

A Tokai Japan neck plate would always have the following serial # placement
and always begin with 900xxxx in 1979.
The spaghetti headstock decal would be wrong for 1991 models
as would the last 4 digits of your plate # number range.

We would love to see body stamp pics, if you took any before reassembly :wink:
It's a fairly uncommon vintage color as you say.

Thanks to Stefan for use of his 1979 Springy pic

19192203an.jpg
 
Ok, thanks for the information, Felix and Reborn. I have now taken some cavity shots as per request. The only other code I can find is in the control cavity, the neck pocket and the heel of the neck are blank. The control cavity code reads '4=6WR____Z'

I have learned that WR stands for Wine Red but is there any further information that can be extracted from the code? Anybody know what 'Z' means? Or 'PA' on the neck? Anybody know which guitar that neckplate came off and if the pot and caps are original? And how about the tuners? Shouldn't they have 'tokai' engraved instead of 'deluxe'. This tele came to me a few weeks ago from Japan and think it has spent its whole life in there. Thanks for reading and let the information flow. Thanks.

TokaiBreezysound_9_zps55772f89.jpg


TokaiBreezysound_10_zps352f3e4a.jpg


TokaiBreezysound_7_zpsc3a37f8e.jpg
 
Thanks for the extra pics !
It is the best visual proof to date that neck and body codes don't necessarily match in all instances. :wink:

Sorry not too much info on what the letter codes to the right of
date=line run/finish color codes might mean.

The caps aren't original. Green chicklet caps and/or flat round ceramic caps were used normaly. Not too sure on pots, but all the Tele pots from that era that I've seen only have "D 1M ohm" inked on backs.
 
Switch looks correct for Tokai.
The neck plate with the plastic backing looks very late 80's Japanese Squier to me - not to say the plate is unoriginal, but the plastic back is not really a Tokai thing in my experience.
 
Thanks again Reborn and Barks.

Is this red neck something you see once in a while or is it the first for you too?

Anyone know which guitar the neckplate might have come off???
 
Hi guys,

The neck has been swapped.
Not only is the logo wrong for the neck, the stamp is wrong for the year the logo would indicate.
Body is a pre-85 TTE-70 WR but the neck may not even be Tokai - just had a Tokai logo put on it - and in the wrong position to boot.
Also the guitar is not 1979, nor does the serial number indicate that.
The neck plate is not a Tokai one to begin with as pointed out previously.
Also TE-70 was not released until 1981


PM
 
Thanks for your reply, Peter.

Well, the plot thickens, as they say :) We now have a quite clear consensus that this Breezy is not from 1979 but 1981/82. The reasoning is mainly based on the fact that Tokai didn't offer bound bodies before 1981. Peter suggests that the body and the neck may not have come out of the factory bolted together but I'm not yet convinced. I'm positive that the neck is a genuine Tokai as the code markings at the end of the neck seem period perfect. Also, I examined the heel of the neck in good light and found traces of an oval '60' burned into the finish.

But, why would they put the headsctock logo in 60s RW board position? One answer could be that the customer who ordered this one-off wanted it there. Because is matches with the bound body. Just didn't want rosewood board. ??? Highly speculative, admittedly, but until someone tells me what production model came with a Wine Red maple neck, I'm sticking to this fantastic story o' mine. Oh yea. 8)
 
It is entirely possible the neck has been refinished and a new logo put back - albeit in the wrong place?

Something about the way the skunk stripe is shaped reminds me of my early 90's Fernandez:



Putting the logo in the wrong place is also easy for a manufacturer to do - check out my 1983 Fender Telecaster JV. The logo is not in the correct place for a slab board neck:


 
I finally got some work done on this. I put in a new truss rod nut as the original one was shot, installed a working TEB bridge pickup as the original was shot, dressed the frets as they were also shot, and now she's a player. Very nice guitar with a very stable neck that you can count on. Never goes out of tune. Nice and inspiring instrument that sounds great both acoustically and amplified.

BTW, I WTB a genuine Tokai neck plate for this. Anyone sitting on a spare 1981/2 plate? Will consider any spaghetti era plate with 7 digits.

Breezy%20done_zps74un0erh.jpg
 
Hi guys,

so my original statement of a swapped neck seems correct.
The neck is TE-60 and the body is TE-70.
Logo placement is correct for a Maple neck '58 replica.

Peter Mac
 
Yes, Peter Mac seems to be right about the swapped neck.

I would still love to hear your thoughts about the red neck. Have any of you ever seen one of those before? What is the model of the guitar to have that kind of neck? Can't find one in the catalogs. ???

An Ibanez RS155 that is currently for sale on Ebay.de has a red neck just like this, so Tokai was not alone producing red-tinted maple necks. The ibanez is from 1985.

ibanez_roadstar_ii_rs155%20(6).JPG
 
To close the loop, looks like you have a parts guitar.

The neck seems to be off of what is possibly a 1982 THS60. These were never in catalogs but were mentioned in a couple of ads.

Here’s a link to others.

All Over Red Stained Breezy's 1982 THS60 ?


And the body is from a TE70WR from April 1981 it looks like. I found another 1981 TE70 with the same production code.

The neck plate came from someone’s parts drawer I would guess.
 
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