'79 7okai Silver Star

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Teenslain

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Hi folks,

I just picked up a '79 Silver Star from the Japanese guy selling Tokais on eBay at the moment. It's a great guitar, just like the one on p36 of the '82 catalogue, and plays beautifully. I've changed the plastics to 70s style white and it looks even better now.

Coupla questions tho': Mine has 36 stamped on the neck suggesting it would be a SS36 model but the '82 catalog refers to them as SS60 models. I know there are three years between the guitars but that would make it a huge leap in price!

This guitar has a flame neck too, fantastic surprise for me, but is that usual?

Any comments greatly appreciated, Joe

PS Been a Tokai fan for a few years now (this is my third one) but still on the lookout for a nice Les Paul Reborn and a B-bender Breezy.
 
Page 37 of the same catalog has an SS38 in the bottom right corner, so this might be your model (with a slight price rise). Lower price (as with most makes) meant lower quality hardware and perhaps cheaper wood. Thats not to say its a low quality guitar though - the Silver Stars were built to the same high standard as all the others. People are only just starting to realise this so, as you've found, they can still be picked up for bargain prices (especially as Japanese prices seem to be generally lower anyway).

James
 
Hi James,

You're quite right, I didn't check the bottom of the page.

Quality-wise, I'm very pleased. The pickups sound great too which was a pleasant surprise as I expected them to go the same way as the black scratchplate, knobs etc.


Thanks, Joe
 
Hi Joe,

I assume that your guitar has a bullet trussrod to go with the 3 screw neck plate - that would make yours a post 70 Strat replica. I notice that the two higher numbered models on the same page don't have bullets at the headstock, making them more a replica of the Hendrix era 65-70 Strat (wonder if these still have the 4 screw plate as the originals did?). Pity all the info is in Japanese, as it would be good to know if this was intentional - given Tokai's attention to detail I expect it was. Anyone out there know?

Cheers

James
 
Hi james,
Hey Joe,
The Silver Star was made for 2 models - a pre-70's with 4 bolt neck, no bullet truss rod,white plastics and no skunk stripe but still with the larger headstock and gold 7okai logo....and a post-70's with black plastics, black logo, 3 bolt neck, skunk stripe and bullet truss rod.
The only real difference between the models was the hardware and pickups covering all models except the SS-60 ( These were totally different)
regards
Peter
 

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