Goldstar sound pickups

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james

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I bought a Goldstar Sound strat a while back and it had replacement pickups in it. Theres nothing wrong with them but I may be able to get hold of the originals and was wondering if its worth it? The guitar has a maple U-shaped neck, so I assume from looking at the early 80's catalog that its a TST-50 and thus would have had Vintage MkII pickups, as opposed to the Vintage pickups on the TST-60. Has anyone had a chance to compare the pickups? I've seen pictures of Tokai pickups with V, VI etc on the base - which of these is the Vintage MarkII (maybe the VII)? Just want to make sure, if I can get them, that they're legitimate.
 
Hi james
the pickups on a TST-50 have "U" on them, the TST-60 had "V" and the TST-80 had "E".
The "VI" was for the later models. Depending on the brand of the replacements, it may not be worthwhile to replace them with the original p'ups - as good as they are.

regards
Peter
 
Thats good info to have if I do go back for them, particularly in this case as when I bought the guitar the shop owner tried to tell me the replacements were Fender Custom Shop 50s, but the magnets weren't bevelled, so I insisted on taking the pickguard off and the pickups didn't have the Fender labels on them. Later I was talking to another assistant and he let slip that they were Kent Armstrongs - they sounded great so I didn't care and bought it anyway, but its certainly good to know your facts when dealers are trying to bullsh*t you!
 
hi james
The other point about old Strat pickups is the staggering of the pole pieces, the 3rd string pole being highest. This was done because in the 50's, the 3rd strings were wound and not plain. It was continued thru to the late 60s-early 70s.
Personally, I like Seymour Duncan pickups. Ive used a fair few of them over the years and while they're not cheap, you know what you're getting is quality and accuracy.
 
Hi Peter,

I've just entered my Goldstar sound on the registry. I put it in as a TST-50, as the neck does not feel particularly 'V'd, but I've just noticed from another thread that you said a four digit serial number seems to equate with the TST-60 (mine has four digits). Is the 'V' very pronounced or is it subtle? The neck on mine is certainly a bit different to the 'U' on my Breezysound, but if its a 'V' its very subtle.

Another point is that I notice from the early 80s catalog that the TST-50 is supposed to be a 58 replica, while the TST-60 is a 54 replica. My guitar has a round string retainer on the headstock, which Fender only used very early on so would this mark it as a TST-60? Did the TST-50 have the butterfly type?

Cheers

James
 
James, is the body made of more than one piece of wood? The TST-60's and 80's seems to have one piece bodies but the TST-40 and 50 have two or three piece bodies.

Michael
 
Hi Michael,

Its a 2 piece body, right down the middle.

What do you think about the string retainer though? Maybe I'm reading too much into it but thats a feature of only the earliest Fenders, like the 54 Strat. It had changed to the butterfly type by 58. Would Tokai have gone to that much detail I wonder? I guess we need other owners who know for sure what model they've got to say what the string retainer is like on theirs.

I've emailed the shop I got it from in the hope that they still have the original pickups (I saw them when I bought it but didn't look at them in detail), so I might be able to find out the code on the base of them.

James
 
I'll have a look in my catalogs, maybe it's possible too see in one of the pictures, the scans here are of too low quality too see details like that.
 
Thanks Michael.

The pics of Joe Potter's guitars on the pics page show a maple board Goldstar with the round retainer and a rosewood board one with the butterfly type (I guess this is as expected as Fender didn't use rosewood until the end of the 50s by which time the retainer would have changed). In the registry his maple board guitar has a 4 digit serial like mine, but sadly he doesn't say if its a TST-50 or 60 or what.
The picture of John's (?) maple board TST-50 looks like it has a butterfly type.

Anyone out there who has got a confirmed TST-50, 60 or 80 (must be maple board): what shape is the retainer? (Note: NOT Springys as all the pics I've seen of these have the butterfly type regardless). Everyone, check your retainers! :smile:

James
 
Hi james

The "V" is a soft one, not as pronounced as ,say a CF Martin. It sould feel as though there is a slight ridge along the "skunk stripe"
It sounds like a TST-60. The string retainers are round and the neck plate is 4-digit - hallmarks of 1954.
The butterfly type is used on all rosewood board models (1960 - 64) and TST40 & 50 maple boards which are 1958 replicas.
My strat is the '54 replica but I changed the string tree to a different type so my tremelo doesn't go out of tune. I can "wang" up by 1 tone and down by 2 tones and it still returns back into tune. I also have my springs set differently to achieve this. I use heavy strings (10-46)to get a big tone from the guitar
regards
Peter
 
hi james
about the body...
for a Goldstar, a 2 piece body is right for the TST-60. By 1984 when the Goldstar was released, the 60 series was not utilising the same manufacture methods as the Springys.
The models had fallen from 7 down to 4 and 1 piece bodies were only kept for top-line models.

Peter
 
Hi Peter & James, a person I know here in Sweden bought a TST-60 a few weeks ago and it has a one-piece body. Regarding the string retainer I'm confused, in the '85 catalog the TST-60 mapleneck ('54 replica) has a round retainer and in the "traditional series catalog" ('84?) the TST-60 and TST-80 ('54 replicas) has the butterfly type but the TST-50 ('58 replica) has a round one!

Michael
 
Hi guys,

It makes sense to me for the 54 replica to have the round retainer. As to the neck on my guitar, it sounds like it could be a soft 'V'. I think the reason why I thought it wasn't was because I remember playing a Strat (Japanese reissue I think) that had a pronounced 'V' (like playing a Toblerone! Sorry, do you guys have Toblerones? Its a pyramid shaped chocolate bar, in case you don't know :smile: ) and I was using that as a reference point.
So what distinguishes it as 60 rather than an 80? Pickups and 1-piece body? I'm still hoping to hear from the shop about the pickups.

James
 
Possible confirmation: Alan Davies has just entered several TSTs in the Fender section of the registry, and the serial number of his TST-60 is 2411 - mine is 2415. Think I'd better get Ned to delete my entry so I can re-do it.
 
Hi guys,
The Toblerone neck is very CF Martin.

The basic differences between the ST-60 and ST-80 is the pickups and body. The body woods also differed. All Goldstar TST60 had alder whereas the TST80 GS (2t burst) was ash. The grain on ash is more dynamic than alder.

There is a misprint in the "traditional series" catalog - yes it is 1984. The models from L to R are:
{floor TST60 MRR)TST50 OWR; TST70 FO; TST70 ET BBR; TST80 GS; TST80 YSR; TST70 ET MRR; TST60 BB; TST70 YS and TST50 GS.
Hope this clears up the round string tree confusion.

regards
Peter

 
Hi Peter,

The grain on my guitar is quite prominent, so I'm not sure, but I think its probably alder. I'll have to try and get some pictures taken and send them in. I guess the pickups would be the clincher.

James
 
Hi Peter,

An update on the pickups:

I called the shop today and they still have 2 of the original pickups (apparently the neck one died). I got the guy to describe them to me and they had grey backs as expected but didn't have any letter or other markings on the back. Looks like they didn't always have the letter then? Anyway, I doubt I'll bother getting them if one is missing, but it would've been nice to get the confirmation from a letter code.

I see from the latest info posted by Ned that in 82 the ST-60 had a 5 number serial where as the ST-80 had the 4 number serial. So this changed for the TSTs, right? So if TST-60s have 4 numbers how many do TST-80s have?

James
 
Hi James,
Yeah, you're right about the differences from ST-60 to TST-60 and the change in style from springy to goldstar.
The TST-80's still had the 4 digit neckplate but there were changes in the wood. The body was ash for the GS and YSO finish and AA-grade alder for the solid finishes. The maple necks quite often had flame in them and of course the pickups were DiMarzios(i think) Thats what you got for your extra 20,000yen.

regards
Peter
 

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