Hi charlie,
To understand the Tokai logo, you have to understand the Fender one also as this is what was replicated.
The Fender logo used from 1948-1965 is called "spaghetti" because it is thin and gold. When CBS bought the company in 1965 they changed the style to a larger lettering but still in gold. By 1967 the logo was black with a thin gold outline and had a larger headstock. There were slight colour variantions thru the CBS years but the style remained the same. When the company was bought off CBS in the late 80s or early 90s the style was changed back to the original pre-1965.
Tokai originally used the gold spaghetti logo (7okai)up to late 1982 when they were being sued. Strats were called "springy sound". By 1984 they were using the (Tokai) thicker "script" logo in gold which has been maintained to this day. Strats were called "goldstar". There is evidence that in the U.K. at least, 1983 springy sounds had a black "block" logo during the lawsuit transition.
Tokai also produced a line of CBS-era strats called "silver series". These used the Black spaghetti logo for pre1983 and black script logo for 1984 and 1985 and had the larger headstock. They seem to have been discontinued after 1985. These were only available in Japan it seems.
For the U.S. market Tokai changed the shape of the headstock, logo, pickups and model to avoid more legal hassles. These models were designated AST56 for maple necks and AST62 for rosewood. All were MIJ. This was around 1983-4.
As with all production there will be variations in Market models and "crossover" models so this is only meant as a guideline. It should be rather accurate but anybody who can add more, please do.
regards
Peter
Can someone explain the different styles of logos? and the choronological appearance (this is in reference to strat style guitars) i know the 7okai was befor the tokai, but there are other diffs, what is meant by spagehetti logo? the all blackas opposed to the black with gold outline, this sort of thing? thanks
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