The current owner of this guitar was so kind as to send me some pics of its innards. What we found is suggesting that it could indeed have been used for demo purposes or something along these lines:
First off, there is a color code mismatch, color code in the middle PU routing:
Hard to tell if it's GS sprayed over with LB or just a clear top coat tinting the wood under the body stamp, also hard to tell if it has a top coat at all - the LB hasn't turned green, but there are both PUR and NC top coats that don't yellow much. Matching November neck stamp:
View attachment 38622
Body and neck stamps are indicating NC, whereas the A on the body is ambiguous of course. The guitar also has a V-neck, which would make that an ST80....or 85: The idea is that this could've been a late 1981 made demonstrator for the new 1982 5000JPY custom color options, making that an ST85. Or maybe not:
View attachment 38623
The pickups are apparently having a severe identity crisis - looks like E stamped over U or vice versa:
If I'm not mistaken, the plain plastic insulation would identify them as E pickups though. The A-stamped pickguard, believed to be "phasing out 1980" is the 3rd or 4th one found on a 1981 guitar
last week by the way, and that's another indication that it is meant to be an ST85. I should also note that the serial number 1016910 could appear to be a bit out of sequence for November, but it looks like there are way too few examples registered with production stamps to say that with confidence.
In spite (or because of, it's a Tokai!
) all the oddities, it makes the impression of a legit guitar? In the early phase of the conversation with the owner he asked if I want pictures of his "blue guitar" and I told him "don't send me pics of blue guitars because when I see them I usually want them"...well...it's blue, it's mysterious, it has a maple V-neck... that's torture!