Project Team of “Guitar Freaks”

[Homer J. Simpson]

Full text:

Tomiaki "Tommy" Hidaka, according to the folklore is the guy who was lending out his '59 burst (apparently not only!) to Tokai for precise measurements, who then went on to turn this into your favorite single-cut guitars.

Thank you, Tommy! Unfortunately he died 1986 at age 36. According to this blog Tokai made a special (quilted top) version of the LS200 for him, which you can behold on that page.

Edit: The story is apparently more complex than just "lending out his 'burst":

After traveling to LA, he bought a 1954 Fender Stratocaster (nicknamed "Layla" by Hidaka) and a 1958 Les Paul Standard from a musician he met there called Paul who lived in San Diego and returned home.

Meanwhile, in the late 1960s, based on the knowledge of old guitars he had acquired while studying abroad in the United States, after returning to Japan in 1972, he worked with Makoto Yasuda, the owner of Max Guitar Gallery, which was founded in his hometown of Sannomiya, Kobe, to develop the old guitar industry in Japan.・Created the beginning era of the scene.

After Gallo (Garo) disbanded, he served as an advisor for Tokai Gakki's ``Reborn Series,'' where he worked as a consultant on a project to recreate his own 1954 Stratocaster, and after having his own instrument accurately copied, he continued to do the same. As an advisor, he imparted his know-how to Greco's ``Super Real Series,'' which reproduces Les Paul models from the 1950s. As a result, it can be said that the Japanese guitar maker supervised by Hidaka created a sense of crisis for the original guitar makers such as Fender and Gibson, and created an opportunity for original models to be reproduced by the original makers from the 1980s onwards.

Some other text bit also suggested that Tomiaki Hidaka was writing for a Japanese gear magazine beginning in 1973. So the "Project Team" may just have been a number of knowledgeable musicians (and vintage guitar owners) plus a prototyping team from Tokai.

 

[Sigmania]

Somehow I had started two threads on Guitar Freaks/Project Team with the same title back in 2021. Just combined the two.

 

[Sigmania]

This relates:

https://www.tokaiforum.com/threads/the-smoking-gun.28391/

 

[Homer J. Simpson]

https://rpx-patents.s3.amazonaws.com/US/33376-USD268685S/USD268685S.pdf

 

[Sigmania]

Hee! Hee! I had an idea.

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Tokai Musical Instruments




http://www.oldguitar.jp/book/jiyuu/SJ/SJ_168_82_07-04.jpg