New member new (to me) Springy Sound

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basadam

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Hello,

I've just registered, so please be gentle. First a little bit about myself: I am actually a bass player from Turkey, but I needed a strat-style guitar to fill in some backing tracks in my home studio. I set my upper limit to $1000 so vintage/American strats were out of reach. I've tried some Mexicans but I didn't like them. I was set on buying a Cort G285 or G290, they're better than Mex Fenders IMO and come with Seymour Duncans (G285) or EMGs (G290).

Anyways, I noticed a Tokai Springy Sound ST-80 in a second hand shop. Being a Fender bass player I know the brand, that got me intrigued, searched the web and arrived here. Information presented here convinced me it's original so after trying I bought it today. I paid $880. Guitars are normally expensive here - a new AmSe strat sells for $2500, Mex ones are a tad under $1000. I don't care if I paid too much or too little because I bought it to play. As I said it's much better than Mex Fenders, and while Cort stuff was good for the money, this one sounds a lot more "strat" to my ears.

The seller claimed it's '79, serial# is 1013735 (on the neckplate). Body seems like ash, 2-tone or tobacco burst. Rosewood board, V-neck, and very light overall. It has a few dings here and there but nothing extraordinary considering its age. One spring and tremolo arm is missing but no big deal to me. Tuners and saddles have TOKAI stamped, the pickguard is 3-ply W-B-W. I didn't check underneath the pickups (will do tonight) for an "E" mark but the sound convinced me enough.

I hope to be able to post some pics within a few days (hey let me play it first). But here is one from the seller: http://www.srvmusic.com/index_files/gitar/tokai2.jpg

It looks like 3tone in this pic but it actually is 2-tone.

So what do you think?
 
if its an st 80 thats a great price. the ser number seems to date it as a 1981 though. you will need to look at the pickups, determin if its nitro finish. i dont know if 1981's had the stamp(80) on the 22nd fret.
 
Pickups have the "E" mark, but there is no "80" on the edge of the neck. There is a sticker residue at the back, I understand that indicates post 1980. I don't know how I can tell if it's nitro since I've never seen one before.

I took some pics but not downloaded to my computer yet. I'll post them as soon as they're ready. In any case I played it a bit yesterday and as I said it's the most strat sounding strat I ever put my hands on. Very SRV sounding (not me but the guitar).

Is it true that E marked pickups are by DiMarzio?
 
your ser number, and the sticker residue on the back, and no stamp on neck, indicates 1981. the pros can weigh in here though.

they are dimarzzio pickups, much like their ssv1 vintage pups of today.

sounds cool, need some pics though!!!! have fun
 
I was set on buying a Cort G285 or G290, they're better than Mex Fenders IMO and come with Seymour Duncans (G285) or EMGs (G290).

There's a world of difference between the Cort and a Strat dude....in fact...they are nothing alike apart from having offset bouts and six-a-side tuners. :eek:
The Cort is more of a shredder's guitar whereas the Tokai is best suited to blues/blues-rock.
Standard single coils versus Duncan humbuckers or active EMG humbuckers.
http://www.cort.co.kr/english/products/common/view.asp?product_id=116
The sound would be worlds apart.
 
Ozeshin said:
There's a world of difference between the Cort and a Strat dude....

I said I'm a bass player :)

In fact, looking at my budget, people told me to get a Mex strat and update the pickups and a Cort would be cheaper since they already come with pickups most people recommends. I'm glad that Tokai came up.

Anyways, pics soon!
 
body.jpg

bodyback.jpg

full.jpg

fullback.jpg

neck.jpg

neckback.jpg

scars.jpg

bridge.jpg

cavity.jpg

electronics.jpg

headstock.jpg

heel.jpg

hsback.jpg

pickups.jpg

surgery.jpg
 
Thank you all! Now I need to get a backplate and possibly a tremolo arm. Do you think genuine Fender parts (as sold in guitarpartsresource.com for example) fit?
 
Hi guys
This is a great looking guitar, but looks like a 1979 Rosewood neck on a 1981 ST-80 body.
It wouldn't be the first time....not that it makes a difference really... former owner may have wanted to keep the maple neck (theory)

regards
Peter Mac
 
Bonjour settebello

Hi Peter,
doesnt the 1979 Rosewood neck's have a skunkstripe?

Yes this is true, but not for the full 12 months and they also had the allen-key truss rod instead of the phillips-head truss rod, so a very late'79 - possible early '80s neck?? I used '79 from the comment made by the previous owner in the original post.
The neck and body stamps are too far apart to be from the factory IMO, they are a good 10 months apart minimum which does seem unlikely.

regards
Peter Mac
 
Thanks for the comments. I really cannot tell if that is the case, but some post in this forum indicated that sticker on the back of the neck indicates post-80. Mine had a sticker residue there as I said before.

Back to my question; I really need to know if Fender-style aftermarket backplate will fit on my bass.

Thanks.
 
basadam said:
I really cannot tell if that is the case, but some post in this forum indicated that sticker on the back of the neck indicates post-80. Mine had a sticker residue there as I said before.

togps wrote ...
Only 1978 and 1979 Tokai models do feature the model number stamped into the final fret. Thereafter they used the oval black sticker on the back of the headstock.

... so it seems to be from the 80s ... Congrats!!! :lol: :lol:

Roger
 
basadam said:
Back to my question; I really need to know if Fender-style aftermarket backplate will fit on my bass.

Thanks.

It should fit, I used an Allparts backplate for my Goldstar Sound. Also, the trem arm fits, it uses the same thread as the Fender original (10/32"). The trem arms I've bought for my Tokai's are also Allparts.

Mike
 

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