How Rare is the Tokai "Jaco" jazz bass copy?

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Colin

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I was interested to see that Tokai produced a fretless bass that looked like Jaco's.
Are they hard to come by? And how much would I expect to pay for one? I live in the UK.
 
Hi Colin,

There is one advertised in Loot (www.loot.com) at the moment for ?325. Whether thats a good price or not I don't know as they don't turn up that often. Its about the same kind of price as is being asked for an 80s Tokai strat, so it seems OK. If its built to the usual Tokai standards then it would be a good buy.

Cheers

James
 
Glad to be of service Colin.

How is it? Give us some details.

Don't forget you can enter its details at the registry to help other Tokai owners if you want (says the man who hasn't quite gotten around to registering his yet :smile: Sorry Ned, once they're all out of storage I'll do it).

James
 
Its fantastic in very very good condition. A few scratches here and there but it sounds great.It has an unusual headstock logo Tokai is just Plain black no gold.have you seen this before and the serial number dose not begin withan L it is "101516".The guy I bought it from had been trying to sell it for a year on and off and I was the second person to see it.Got it for ?300.
I will get some pictures and post them soon.
 
Hi Colin,

Take a look here for the specs on your base:

http://www.tokairegistry.com/images/catalogs/tokai86_5.jpg

There are 2 fretless models: TJB70J has position markers and TJB70F doesn't. They're marked as special models, so they're probably quite rare (in comparison to the regular basses).

As to the logo, is it black capitals or black script? To see what I mean go to the pictures page at the registry. Mr Chilli's Jazz Sound has capitals, but the other basses (Hard Punchers which are Fender Precision replicas) have a black script logo.
The black capitals logo seems to be a transitional logo, between the original spaghetti style on the very early Tokais and the mid 80s script style. See the guitars page at the registry for more info.

Whichever it is it sounds like you got a real bargain there. Enjoy it!

Cheers

James
 
When I say 'base' I do of course mean 'bass' :smile:

Not sure about the serial number - check the registry database and compare it with others. Wonder if special models had different numbers?

Yeah, I'm sure I remember seeing that bass being advertised in Loot before. I guess its a niche instrument - good luck for you!

And don't forget: anything else you find out about it, send us a (weather) report. Sorry, that was terrible..... :wink:
 
It is a TJ70F it has fret inlays but they are black so it almost looks unlined.The headstock logo is the same as the one on the 1983 strat pictured on this site. The volume and tone knobs are black plastic with numbers 1-10 and the words volume and tone.
I intend to change these for the metal type that can be found on Jaco's bass this is the only change I intend to make.
It is a great sounding bass I can not believe that the guy was trying to sell it for a year.
 

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