Mystery Tokai Mustang Silver Star

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indie

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I've very recently picked up this mystery Tokai guitar. I have no idea about the provenance of this, and can find nothing online so far. Previous owner had owned for 4 years and purchased second-hand.

Body appears to be a single piece - with a contour cut-out on the back. It feels heavy like a Fender stratocaster.

Tuners are branded Gotoh
Saddles are branded Tokai

Tremolo is strat style, however body shape and neck length suggest Mustang

Scale length is about 24.5" - so close to Fender short scale length
Two humbuckers which look to possibly not be wax potted.

Tone control is a push-pull pot.

Serial is 6 digit, found at base of neck above Made in Japan stamp. Both serial and stamp are under the varnish.

Can supply more photos if helpful :)

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Cool, that's very helpful. I couldn't place the style of stamp/serial number.

So I have at least a Tokai neck that's short-scale which I haven't seen in any of the catalogues around that time.

I took some quick internal shots if these look at all familiar to anyone. Body does appears to be two pieces of wood - very closely matched. Very tidy inside.

Pickups are marked GG-750R and GG-750F.
On comparison they look quite similar to Gotoh classic alpha humbuckers. Do these feature in other Tokai guitars?

Photos to follow.
 
Interesting, the markings are like Tokai ones. YS = yellow sunburst. The other should have matching ones on the neck if they are a pair. Could be a custom order. Pups are mk3 gotoh, so even more likely it's a Tokai.
 
So I took this guitar to a local luthier to be set up a few days ago.

He said that it was very likely all of Japanese origin. He identified the hardware and electronics as being Japanese, and even went as far as pointing out the input jack was Japanese style :p . He went on to say that everything had been done to a high standard in the construction of the guitar - the wiring was very organised and tidy. Overall he was very complimentary of the guitar.

He said that the body was alder and, based on the grain, it was likely to have come from further up the tree, and that the matching of the two pieces of timber was very well done.

Short of trying to reach out to Tokai I'm not sure I can find out anything more. Thanks @mdvineng for your input.
Regardless it is a very, very, nice guitar to play (currently set up with 10-48 flatwounds) and I used it for our show last night.

Here is a slightly overexposed shot of the guitar resting against my amp at the end of soundcheck - the guitar next to it is my bandmate's G&L telecaster.

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If you email Tokai Japan they will let you know what it is, they are usually pretty quick to reply. I'm going for mid to upper level guitar.
 
Interesting. I had a late 60s Fender Mustang back in the 80s. Traded it for a new Strat. It had the sliding switches, 2 single coils, and the big tremolo tailpiece. Blast from the past.
 
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