ian said:
Bill, you seem very sure. How do you know that one is Sen?
American & European Ash (of which there are numerous species) typically has a wide & wild grain pattern with a series of wavy curves, however, it can show, & frequently does show, a completely different grain pattern of tight straight parallel lines just like the Tokai in Clay?s link. It shows numerous other effects too, inc. quilting & ?lightening strikes?, a small oval markings like Burr?s & Birds eyes ? just about the only consistent feature is an open grain structure which quickly fills with dirt & grime (on unpainted surfaces) & shows as a series of small black dashes.
American & European Alder (again, many different species) usually has a tighter more linear grain than Ash (more like Spruce or Cedar), ie less wild swirly curves, but again its highly variable ? it usually looks very similar to the Tokai in Clays link, however, it can look almost indistinguishable from Ash.
Sen is a Japanese name for a species of local Ash. Typically the grain is like a cross between US Ash & Alder, ie usually not as highly figured as US Ash, but more figured than plainer examples of Alder.
There was a recent discussion on the Telecaster Forum (TDPRI) where many very experienced guys were ?certain? that a particular guitar body was alder, but in fact it turned out it was almost certainly a very plain piece of US Ash. Point is you really can?t tell unless you took the stuff to a Lab, & even then you?d have to rate their conclusion as a probability rather than any definite fact.
I can?t read the Japanese in the early pre-85 catalogues, so I don?t know what Tokai themselves claim, though one early translation (German I think) seems to give ST100 & above with Ash (?Esche?), and ST80 & below with Alder (?Erle?;.. see Registry). However, I wouldn?t regard Tokais catalogues as Gospel either :-? .
Ian.
Hi Ian,
I appreciate all that you say, & yes, at times it can be confusing. This particular example that Clay has bought does indeed show many similarities to various alder-bodied Fender Strats I've seen over the years, including one from 1964 which I've had since 1972 (pics on my homepage, though may be hard to see the grain in the old pics from '73)
However, I'm as sure as I can be that Clays one is, in fact, Sen Ash.
I've been playing, setting-up, repairing, putting together, stripping & refinishing strats for slightly over 30 years now, have built a few from scratch too (pics of my refinish work going back 30 years on my homepage, link below). I didn't get my hands on a Tokai (my brother's Springy) till around 1982, but have been lucky enough to play & work on many since then.
In addition to this, I have a collector friend from UK & Australia who gets Springys (& JVs & other Fender Japan Strats & recently Love Rocks, Reborns etc.) shipped to me here in Hong Kong for him to collect later (HK is a "free port" & avoids unnecessary taxes/duties/VAT or whatever, especially if will re-sell to US or elsewhere later). I get to play & evaluate, & often work on them. Some stay with me for a couple of years or more.
If a re-fret is needed, my good friend, world-class luthier Simon Pinder, takes care of that. Simon was previously based in Tokyo for several years & has been a great Tokai aficionado for a very long while. He has kindly shared a lot of his considerable knowledge about wood, Tokais, & Japanese guitars in general.
A few years ago I set up his website for him (now taken down at his request, he's permanently swamped with work), including a long section on tonewoods.
I also teach guitar (11 students today) & many of my students have Japanese "strat" type guitars, including Tokais, which I help them set up, & often do other work on.
Helping my collector friend has meant both of us scouring the net, eBay etc. daily for the last 5 years to look for likely candidates, discuss possible purchases etc., & we have got to see a fair selection of Springy photos over the last 5-6 years in addition to the ones I've been lucky enough to get my hands on. Unfortunately due to my regular gigging with several different bands & a pretty full schedule teaching 6 days a week, I can't spend as much time online as my friend, who has a far better knowledge of Tokais than I. Hence low posts in this & other forums, too busy playing, practicing, teaching & fixing guitars to spend much time online typing about it... (*& my typing sucks, hehe!)
I don't claim to be infallible, or anything near it, & of course we all make mistakes from time to time. Ash & Alder can vary a lot, & there are times, as you mention, where it can be confusing even for experts with far more experience than I. However, the alder-bodied Tokai Springys I have seen so far seem to exhibit a consistent difference to the Sen ones. I also remember reading in a couple of different places that alder was only used in the last year of production. Not sure on this point (wish "London Barry" was still here, I'm sure he'd know for certain). I have students coming & need to dash now, but I attach a few pics of what I feel to be a fairly typical alder-bodied Springy, you can see the grain & wood pattern is far less distinct than on the guitar which Clay just bought. Of course I could very well be wrong, Ian, but in this case I don't think I am.
Hope some of this has been useful!
.
