you can feel these features when you pick it up”. Tokai made a great effort to replicate this precise shape, explaining that “it takes very long to sandpaper a corner. In its 1978/79 Tokai catalogues lamented that “The ‘54 Strat's body shape was significantly bolder than it is today, with distinctive deep back cuts and armrest cuts these large cuts fit the guitarist's body and keep a high degree of performance and styling”. The 50s Fender catalogues advertised the Strat’s “contoured” shape fitting the players body snugly and providing comfort. Finally, however, Fender entered into an agreement with Tokai to manufacture Fender guitars at their Japanese factories in the late 1990s. I believe the two companies were exploring a partnership of some kind in the 1980s which did not materialize and might have cost Tokai some financial setbacks. A communication from Tokai to Leo Fender in 1982 expressed the budding company's respect for the iconic design of the original Strat and explained that Tokai had no intentions of interfering with CBS's business in the US. These guitars were becoming an actual threat to Fender’s own sales at the time. And the results were clearly appreciated by players, even as famous as Stevie Ray Vaugn who has been pictured in a few places with a Tokai Strat. A rough translation from a catalogue tells us that Tokai “formed a project team consisting of about 10 people including musicians and veteran craftsmen (and) as a result of thorough research and tireless efforts, we have completed a series in which the performance has been upgraded as well as completed restoration of the original.” They dismantled and reverse engineered actual vintage Strats in their efforts to achieve “ thoroughness and transcendence”. In fact, not only did Tokai claim to reincarnate the iconic Strat, but they were audacious enough to suggest that they “improved it”. The catalogue explains how the ‘54 Strat was the ideal guitar according to musicians and hence Tokai attempted to reincarnate it. They were chasing the “springy sound” of the vintage Strat that was “sharp, crisp, yet warm”. Tokai’s 1978 catalogue mentions this fact explicitly several times, even calling it, “ the returned 54 Strat”. Munro Article-July2008.In the late 1970s, Tokai launched the Springy Sound model that was based on the 1954 Strat. I assume that Ireland was seen as part of the UK for the purposes of guitar distribution, though I had never thought about that before. The walls of the guitar shops in the 80s were covered with them in all manner of pretty colours due to very effective distribution from the UK importer, Blue Suede Music. To be honest, in much of Europe & certainly in the UK, Goldstars are a long way from rare, which is why they can still be bought for a reasonable price. Which is a little strange when so much else about Tokais was "vintage correct", but that's how it looks to me. It seems to be that the two different types of sunburst were matched quite arbitrarily with either rosewood or maple boards. Seems to be 3 tone sunburst with maple, so the opposite to the guitar in this thread. The Goldstar that you have just posted in this thread I don't think they are particularly rare.
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