Tokai Hard Puncher PB80 Date?

Tokai Forum

Help Support Tokai Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Hi again!

I have found another Hard Puncher and bought it for backup for the PB80.

The price was low so I bought the bass without seeing it. The seller says he think it was the lowest modell and had play it for years. Ok for me for a backup bass.

I did not expect so much, but it is a lovely bass! My main bass!

Looks like this:
https://reverb.com/item/45654569-1979-tokai-pb-60-hard-puncher-p-bass-with-gigbag-white

My has 4 screw tuners, spagetti logo and 6 digits serial number. The neck is perfect and stable so I have not remove it to check any stamps or markings.

What modell can it be? Logo says before 1983, 4 screws higher than PB40. Not nitro so probably PB60. No marking on the fretboard.

The 6-digits serial confuses me (starts with 100###) - Is it from 1982-83 or late 1970? The neck feels different than my PB80 (1983-1985).
 
Pictures required and no need to hide the ser #

Late 80 the serial numbers changed from 7 to 6 digit but the first digit gave the year, so looks like an 81 designated model (Oct 80<Oct 81)
 
Thanks and sorry for the serial number. Sat at work just remembered that it started at 100.

The serial is 100847

I have a lot of pictures but must figure out how to post them here? Any idea?
 
Ok, here it is

img-3359-jpg.4453896


img-3361-jpg.4453905


img-3360-jpg.4453906


img-3362-jpg.4453937
 
I'm going for late 81just after they left the 7 digit ser#.
Pickups changed.
77 style logo
Alder body
PB60 unless the tuners have a tension screw, which would then be an 80.
 
Ok!

Yes, the pickups are changed. The old ones are dead and need a new wiring.

What do you mean if tuners have a tension screw? How does this screw looks like?

Best,
 
It's a small screw on the end of the shaft. Adjusting it, alters the friction feel of the tuner. No screw means not an 80.
 
Ok, its a black hex screw in the bottom/end/under the shaft. Is that the type of screw it should be?
 
Try it and see if it alters the friction. Mine are a different style due to it being the VSB80 Model with the friction adjusters built into tulip key. I've not had the pleasure of a PB80 to hand to check what style of adjuster it has but it will be at the opposite end next the gear box.
 
Here is another type of tuners. Lovely Jazz Sound Bass and the only one bass i have found that shows the tuners from that kind of view.
http://www.tokaiforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=15014&start=15

Divots_799.jpg
 
Yes, maybe (perhaps) but I am not 100% sure because I got no reaction when I test the lacquer.

And I normaly do not have my basses at home so I can not check the tuners on the other PB80 bass now, but the picture I have says there is an other type of tuners, but it may be because it is a manufactured later?

This white Tokai is a lovely bass even if it is not a PB80 :)

Thx
 
Tuners could be replacements, so if the finish isn't lacquer we are back to a 60. The differences are absolutely minimal anyway.
 
I will check the lacquer again some day! :)

But something interesting about the tuners is that I have got a photo sent on the tuners on my PB80, reverse, but do not have the hex screw in the bottom/end of the shaft. The tuners looks the same as the Jazz Sound tuners.

Here is the tuners in the Tokai catalogue. PB page 10. And the bridge looks like PB60 (the PB80 has another type)
https://www.vintagejapanguitars.com.br/en/tokai-1981-flat-top-series-catalogue/
 
Hm. Looking at the headstock pic in the original post and then diving into the catalogs (which are never quite gospel, but still), there seems to be some oddities going on.

Apparently, it's got a slab rosewood fretboard, not the veneer you usually see on rosewood-neck PBs and TPBs (which were billed as 1964 copies). As far as I can find, the only official catalog model with a slab board was the 1982-only PB-70, a 1960 copy, which would clash both with the model number sticker and the later script logo.
As for the manufacture date, the decal with Hard Puncher in small caps below the logo is last seen in the 1984 catalog.

The Made In Japan sticker suggests that the bass was exported new, you hardly ever see that on instruments intended for the Japanese market. If so, it could be an export models with different specs. I don't know of any source of export catalog scans that could confirm it, though
 
mdvineng said:
Iirc only the jazz had a slab for the 1960 model.

Here's the PB spread in the 1982 vol 6 catalog, with the PB70 to the right of center. Billed as a 1960 model and definitely depicted with a slab board (I have the original catalog as well). Really rare bass, I can't recall seeing one in the wild.

http://brochures.yokochou.com/guitar-and-amp/tokai/1982vol6/en_21.html
 

Latest posts

Back
Top