is there a pictorial example anywhere where i can learn what to look 4?
i searched the net and found some history. maybe everyone here knows it. if not, read on.......
By Larry Meiners ....
During the mid-1970s, Tokai helped satisfy demand in guitar market for look-alike old Stratocaster guitars. Tokai's Strat-clones were available in Japan beginning in 1976 and were intended to be high-end guitars, not low-cost copies. These early attempts by Tokai to meet the markets demand for replica Stratocasters pre-date Fender's own reissue models by several years.
Tokai's goal was to make an old-style Strat-style guitar available to local (Japanese) buyers at an affordable price point. Also, Tokai built these cool reproductions as a tribute to the one of the most sought after vintage guitars and certainly the most copied body style in the history of solid-body electric guitars. Tokai initially introduced both a 1954 (maple-neck) and a 1959 (slab-board) style Strat copy. Tokai designed these guitars to be similar versions and not exact, carbon copies of the originals.
Examining Tokai's version of a 1954 Stratocaster guitar, you notice a highly figured, light ash body finished in a 50s style two-tone sunburst with a deep rear-body contour. The hard rock maple V-shaped neck has a button string-retainer and single-line, Kluson-like tuners. A single-ply, eight-screw pickguard was used along with great sounding staggered-pole single-coil pickups. Tokai made two obvious changes to this guitar when compared to a true vintage 1954 model and were made to accommodate function over form. First, these instruments were equipped with a five-way pickup selector switch and second, the adjustment end of the truss rod is not a screw type, but a metric Allen wrench socket. These guitars came with a 1950s Fender-style tweed case.
Probably the most interesting feature of these guitars is their headstock logo decal. Looking from several feet away, the decal appears as though it is an old Fender 'spaghetti' logo. Upon closer inspection, 'Tokai' script is placed where the word 'Fender' would be located on a Stratocaster headstock. Tokai replaced the backward F with a T (without a line through the letter). The words 'S P R I N G Y S O U N D' were used in place of 'S T R A T O C A S T E R' in block letters. An original Stratocaster decal reads 'WITH SYNCHRONIZED TREMOLO', the Tokai has 'THIS IS THE EXACT REPLICA OF THE GOOD OLD STRAT.'. Finally, at the knob end of the headstock the decal says, 'Oldies BUT Goldies' which substitutes for 'ORIGINAL Contour Body'. Maybe the guitar wasn't an exact replica, but it has a cool vibe.
Most early replica guitars made by several manufacturers during the mid-to-late 1970s are correctly or incorrectly referred to as "lawsuit" guitars. One story is repeated with some regularity and alleged to have happened to a shipment of replica guitars in the mid-1970s. American Customs officials stopped a particular shipment of replica instruments and literally cut-off the headstocks of the guitars because they violated the original manufacturers trademark.
Several well known guitarists have played these Tokai replica Strats, the most famous being the late Stevie Ray Vaughan. Stevie appears on the cover of Tokai's 1985-1986 Edition of their Electric Guitars catalog. Also, an interesting piece of trivia concerns Stevie's Texas Flood (Epic 1983) album cover photo. It was taken while Stevie was playing a Tokai replica Strat. On the cover, the Tokai logo was removed, however, many music shops sell a poster of that album cover and "Tokai Springy Sound" is clearly visible on the headstock.
Tokai wanted a piece of the solid-body electric guitar market in the USA and began selling altered versions of these early replica Strats that would not violate any existing manufacturers trademarks. Early into the 1980s, Tokai introduced the TST-56 and TST-62 models. The TST-56 emulated the '56 Strat with a maple neck and the TST-62 likewise resembled the '62 Strat with a rosewood fingerboard. A January 1983 Tokai USA Price List indicates either guitar was offered at a retail list price of $570.00 with a tweed case. These guitars deviated significantly from the earlier Tokai guitars. Most apparent was the headstock's logo and outline changes to avoid looking like the pre-CBS Fender headstock and decal. Tokai added a flat side to the normally rounded knob at the end of the headstock and the logo was changed with 'Tokai' in fatter script with a regular 'T', not a backward 'F'-style letter. The model number is in block letters and doesn't resemble the original Fender Stratocaster decal. Overall, they were still an excellent value in 1983.
Fender noticed Tokai's superb workmanship and high quality during the company's efforts to find a partner to build instruments in Japan. According to The Fender Book, written by Tony Bacon and Paul Day, they spoke with Tokai and others regarding possible manufacturing partnerships. Fuji Gen-Gakki Corporation was eventually chosen to build Fender's guitars in Japan (Fuji is the maker of Ibanez brand guitars).
Check out the early Tokai replica guitars and decide for yourself if they have the right 'vibe'. These instruments certainly hold their place in guitar making history and helped launch the now dominant vintage guitar reissue market. These early Tokai Strat replica guitars are considered rare and it seems a small but growing group of guitar enthusiasts are always on the lookout for them.
