Owners of recent production AST/ATE guitars - opinions?

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Own a recent production Tokai Strat/Tele and...

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tureen.hurray

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Hey,

Considering purchasing a recent production tokai AST88/96/104 strat model soon, and was looking for some reviews/comments on any of these recent production models.

How do you like your new tokai strats?
How's the fit and finish, in particular the fretwork?
General playability?
How's the quality of the electronics, and the sound of their pickups?

If you happen to old one of the vaunted 70s/80s goldstar strats, how do you think the new ones stack up to them?
 
The new ones from Tokai are comparable to the high end Suhrs. The have the same type hardware and attention to detail that the Suhrs have for half the price. The new Tokai pickups are much better than the vintage ones from the 70's-80's. I have one new Tokai strat 2017 (AST154) and two old ones 1980 ST-100 and 1981 ST-65. All of the Tokai guitars use cheep wiring. The pots are okay but CTS pots are better. I kept the pots and wiring in the new 2017 AST154. I did shield it though. On both my vintage ones I re-did the pots, caps, wiring, pickups and shielded them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yka2usXYmNs

The new Tokai guitars seem to need shielding more that the old ones not sure why. You take your hands off the strings a there is a buzz. My newer fenders have it to but the new Tokais have it much worse. Maybe not so bad or noticeable with the guitar but with my 2 Tokai basses it was really bad.

The new Tokais have 9.5 radius fret boards the older ones from 70's-80's have 7.25 radius. At least my st65 and st100 have 7.25. Some older models have 9.5 some have 7.25. New models have poly finishes though you can order nitro for around $225 USD or so upgrade. The old st80 and up have nitro the 60 and below have poly. The new frets are more like new Fenders medium size not tall or short. The old Tokais have short frets like the 57 models they are coping.

The old ones come in 1 piece bodys (st100) 2 piece st60,st80 and 3 piece (st40 or 50 not sure). My AST154 is SEB

http://www.tokaijapan.com/sebstructure.html

I think you could order it in whatever piece you wanted though for a upgrade though. Like SEB, 1 piece 2 piece etc.

Tokai can upgrade the pickups but they only use Japan made ones. If you want something boutique just order it stock PUs and change them later.
 
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