PICKED UP THIS GOLDSTAR PICGUARD RECENTLY

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scotsrock

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Could someone tell me what I have here, I bought this recently, I know it is a Goldstar pickguard and it has IIV pickups that read about 5.6K Ohms. The soldering looks original so I am assuming it is complete. From the forum I understand the IIV stands for Vintage MKII is that correct?

You will see from my previous post that I own a Goldstar with U pickups, I know the IIV pickups were in a more expensive ST model, should I swap them over?

Here are some photos


http://tinypic.com/m/icqskj/1

If the advice is not to swap I may consider selling it if anyone is interested.
 
Hi guys,

The VII pickups were the replacements for the 'U' pickups during 1984 Goldstar models. Both pickups are regarded as Vintage MkII.

This pickguard is not 100% though. The pots aren't original and the brass ground plate is missing.
Curiously the stamp is back to front - IIV instead of VII - and the colour is different also.
Incedently, the pickguard with the 'U' pickups is original

Peter Mac
 
As I have said before I am not an expert in Tokai Goldstars, but I have been a member for over two years and try to keep up with the various comments from the Guitar Gods. I have formed a view from the forum that the brass plates were done away with around 1985 when the change of pickup badging changed from U&E's to V Mk 1&2 or I &II. This is confirmed by this quote.
muccax said:
hi
i think it is easy ,,,,, the early goldstar sound is the same as springy sound just with another logo :D
...they have U and E pickups ,,, with the brass plate at the pots ...
the later goldstar ,,, no brass plate and V pickups ,,,, so easy :D :D
all the best
otto

If you look at the partial photo in this post you will see there is no brass plate and the pickups are IIV so they do exist!

Twanglow said:
Hi - long time lurker here, very interested in the background of these great guitars. I've been a fan for 20+ years, having bought a new Breezysound in the Camden Rockshop in 1989. Still have it, tuned to a 5-string open G for Stones covers...

The question here though is my Goldie, which I bought used in 2005. It's an absolute cracker to play and is my current favourite all-rounder for pub covers gigs. People are often a bit dismissive when they see it, unless I let them pick it up and play it - it's great watching their expression change! The neck in particular is a beauty - U-shape carve, rock-hard seasoned and nicely aged maple, with a bit of tiger ripple through it. Not sure what the radius is - it does have quite a camber on it. VII pickups, quite quiet so I just crank the valves up a bit... And the lump of teak that I used to lock the trem when I first got it still does the job beautifully.

I think it's an ST-50, but it's long since lost the sticker at the base of the neck, and it would be interesting to get the views of people who see a lot of these.

Selected, not brilliant photos attached - I know, it would be really useful to have an image of the serial number on the neckplate, but I'm at work now and forgot that shot. Will add it at some point...

Thanks in advance for any thoughts/comments.

IMG_1156.jpg

IMG_1154.jpg

IMG_1153.jpg

IMG_1146.jpg

IMG_1144.jpg

IMG_1142.jpg

IMG_1141.jpg
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If this is the case then with the exception of a couple of wires mine is in original condition.
 
I can confirm that with the guitars that I own, the brass plate seems to have been replaced by foil around '85/86.

The selector switch looks original, the pots are of the correct size and type, but the wiring does look odd. Usually, the casings of the pots are not soldered on the tone controls.
 
scotsrock said:
. I have formed a view from the forum that the brass plates were done away with around 1985 when the change of pickup badging changed from U&E's to V Mk 1&2 or I &II. This is confirmed by this quote.
muccax said:
hi
i think it is easy ,,,,, the early goldstar sound is the same as springy sound just with another logo :D
...they have U and E pickups ,,, with the brass plate at the pots ...
the later goldstar ,,, no brass plate and V pickups ,,,, so easy :D :D
all the best
otto

Not totally correct, there are ST's with a brass ground plate that have V pickups.
 
Hi guys,
I think I covered this on another post but here we go again.
VII replaced U and V replaced E. This happened gradually through late'83 to mid '84 as Springy stock was used up.
The brass plate remained until '85/86.
There are other changes that occurred but thats not the point. It is a bit curious that only now do we seem to be getting a glut of odd marked pickups.

In my 5 years as Tokai Guitar Specialist in Australia ('82-'87), I never saw any of our imported guitars have these IIV stamps, they were all VII.
Until this thread, I didn't know they were out there. Might be a European thing.
Peter Mac
 
As mentioned before, I definitely have at least a couple of guitars with IIV pups - I'll try to get photos. But I also checked the parts bin yesterday and found one IIV pup amongst them.

Peter, from what you say, this means that any U pickup guitars cannot be later than '84? This could be very useful information for me.
 
I have never seen a brass plate later than 84/85 In my opinion your scratch plate is from the later 80s I also agree with Peter that the Us were substituted in 85 .Gabe.
 
Hi Peter

I think you have got the change of names round the wrong way, my understanding is that U's measure around 6.2 Kohms and E were the vintage less common pickups measuring around 5.6 KOhms. The IIV in the pick guard I have measure 5.6 KOhms and are E's and I presume the U's were replaced by the V's ( can't be sure Because I don't have any guitars with V's)
 
St 60 pickguard eh? Ya wee numpty ! 11V replaced e stamped pickups did they? Of course they did,anything you say Professor Tokai !



http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TOKAI-GOLDSTAR-SOUND-ST60-54-56-PICK-GUARD-COMPLETE-/221547154488?pt=UK_Guitar_Accessories&hash=item33953d4c38
 
Hi guys,

OK, OK, by all means don't let the facts get in the way of a good selling platform.

Firstly check the catalogs from 1982 then from 1984 in the pickup section.
With 1982 Springys, Vintage MkII were stamped 'U' ...and Vintage were stamped 'E'. we all on the same page now.
During 1984 Goldstars, the Vintage MkII were stamped 'VII' or 'IIV' however those rascally Japanese decided to stamp the Vintage just plain old 'V' - thats it, nothing else, just 'V' and only used them on TST-60 and TST-70 models and put nasty old DiMarzio into the TST-80 and TST-100.

I personally know these facts to be accurate and correct because I WAS FUKKIN' THERE.

End of post

Peter Mac
 

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