My 1983 ones.
The Strat is nearly correct for an ST50, the only things adrift are the saddles which are stamped ESP instead of Prospec. Someone once said this might have been while there was a shortage at the factory. The pickups are clearly Tokai grey ones but are stamped H instead of E or U. I have not heard much about these, they are very low output but sound great. I sometimes use the guitar with a Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster pedal set to normal (none of that single coil to humbucker emulation) and have the gain set so its just about 30% louder than the raw signal, this gives great results.
The Telecaster is really just the neck and nothing else. I bought it cheap, the body is clearly not Tokai, it's pen marked inside as '88 and its quite soft wood. The pickups are a Duncan 59 in the neck and an Oil City Fortyniner in the bridge. It is a great sounding Telecaster, pure fluke. The neck is a soft V, so I don't know which 83 model it is off. The guitar has been wired so the selector is in the Les Paul position and where the switch was orginally are two new slider switches. One turns on a 0.002 cap, which nicely "de-telecasters" the bridge for regular tones, and the other slider switch bypasses the volume and tone pots and goes straight out to jack, but the 0.002 cap circuit can still be used in conjunction with it. It makes for a versatile guitar that's an easy grab for all sorts of music.
The Strat is nearly correct for an ST50, the only things adrift are the saddles which are stamped ESP instead of Prospec. Someone once said this might have been while there was a shortage at the factory. The pickups are clearly Tokai grey ones but are stamped H instead of E or U. I have not heard much about these, they are very low output but sound great. I sometimes use the guitar with a Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster pedal set to normal (none of that single coil to humbucker emulation) and have the gain set so its just about 30% louder than the raw signal, this gives great results.
The Telecaster is really just the neck and nothing else. I bought it cheap, the body is clearly not Tokai, it's pen marked inside as '88 and its quite soft wood. The pickups are a Duncan 59 in the neck and an Oil City Fortyniner in the bridge. It is a great sounding Telecaster, pure fluke. The neck is a soft V, so I don't know which 83 model it is off. The guitar has been wired so the selector is in the Les Paul position and where the switch was orginally are two new slider switches. One turns on a 0.002 cap, which nicely "de-telecasters" the bridge for regular tones, and the other slider switch bypasses the volume and tone pots and goes straight out to jack, but the 0.002 cap circuit can still be used in conjunction with it. It makes for a versatile guitar that's an easy grab for all sorts of music.
