Every so often, I take a hard look at the gear I’ve accumulated over the years, with an eye to whether it might be better placed with someone else
[though, in reality, I seldom actually get rid of anything!]
So it was that I spent some time revisiting my first ‘proper’ guitar, a 1985 Tokai Super Edition VS-80.
Though my first ever guitar was an Encore Stratocaster copy
[black, with white pickguard which I subsequently swapped out for a black one, and painted the pickups black]
my Tokai was the first I bought with my own money – the stereotypical working of weekends and school vacations to earn the money – based upon a review in Guitarist magazine
[still one of my go-to sources of gear info and reviews]
There’s very little information online about the model, so I thought I’d drop some here for folk who may be looking.
It’s a pretty cool guitar, Made-in-Japan S-type, mahogany (I think) body – it’s heavier than my Les Paul! – with a figured maple cap and medium C-profile maple neck, medium jumbo frets. The tremolo is Tokai’s own locking unit, a bit of a pain to restring, but fairly stable
[though I rarely use a whammy bar, to be honest]
As for electronics, it has twin humbuckers
[proprietary to Tokai, I think]
with coil split on a push-pull tone pot. The secret weapon is a boost on the third push-pull pot, which offers up to 20 db
[as I recall, though it may be 18db]
of boost, more than enough to push any clean tube amp channel into gritty overdrive.
I haven’t played it much since the early-90s, when I began to add other guitars to my collection. Spending time on it the other day, I was reminded how it really is a great guitar – top-of-the-line for what was a budget line with a great reputation to this day. The neck pickup is nothing to write home about – unless using the coil split, then it has some spank – but the bridge is nice in both HB and single-coil modes.
As far as I can tell, Tokai lost their way
[and reputation]
when they got pulled into the hair-metal madness – before that, they’d built a strong brand for copying Les Pauls and Strats on a budget. I think the brand was always more popular outside of the US.
As my first guitar, the Super Edition holds such a sentimental weight for me – I can still remember waiting for it to be delivered from
[I think]
Peter Cook’s guitar shop in West London. The box arriving, opening up the hard case, the smell of it. I learned my basics on this guitar, before I lost my hands for 15 years. While I wouldn’t use it live now
[I have several much, much better axes]
it’s still nice to play once in a while, and has aged well. Interestingly, when I think of making my own guitar, it usually ends up looking something like this one
[though I’d definitely swap out that floating trem for a fixed bridge]
which to me at least feels like a subconscious nod to how much the Tokai meant to me at the time
Love-peace-trust
ps: Let me know if you like this stuff, I have a couple of other rare guitars which I’d be happy to share with you.
* * *
Ian asked for a picture of the wiring for the overdrive pot, so adding it here:
Learned on a Harmony Rocket H53/1 semi hollow and even though it was a budget copy 335 it it was and (if I could find one) would be the sweetest guitar this side of heaven to me — something about what you learn on.
Right. In fact, most of my guitars have soft spots for me – I only ever sold one, that I just couldn’t find myself in. I have a couple that I own specifically for their recorded voices, and they feel more like machines than friends. But otherwise, each one is its own love affair!
being a Tele man.. seeing as I can only hit “Like” once… I’ll just add— Like lIke Like like Like and double like…
Just wait until I post about my blonde ’96 Jackson Surfcaster… 🙂
I have the same guitar but with a rosewood board. I’ve found it to be about the most versatile guitar I’ve ever picked up. I bought it in about 19845 in a now extinct music shop in Glasgow called Thompsons. If my memory serves me correctly the body is alder and the top is a material called tortoiseshell mahogany. The Super Edition IS my desert island guitar.
Cool guitar indeed. I don’t use mine now at all – mostly because I don’t use the trem and restringing is a pain. I always found the boost to be the ace-up-the-sleeve.
Hi Vince
I have one of these but with a rosewood fingerboard.
Thanks for the article.
Hi
Has anyone got any good shots of how the preamp is wired. I have the preamp and a push pull with a resistor on it, but no idea how to wire it into one of my other tokai’s
Hi, Ian – I just grabbed a couple of pics of the wiring for that pot – added them to the bottom of the post. Looks like the boost takes a feed from the switch in parallel to the regular signal path. Not quite sure how it gets back to the volume out (which is the only connection to output jack. Hope this helps ~Vince
Hi
Thanks that is a start as I have pre amp, and the push pull with pot. Looks like preamp goes to middle pot connection and signal from pickups into switch near the top. I’ll try and dig it out and see how I get on.
Thanks
Ian
Hello Vince,
Appreciate this article is four years old but I had to comment. I think we’ve lived parallel lives! My first guitar was also a black Encore Strat copy. I bought the Tokai round about 1986/7 (mine has a rosewood fretboard).
It’s spent many years in a case while I mostly played bass or other six strings (including a USA Strat and a Gibson LP). Recently though I’ve been playing it quite a bit. I’m struck by how well it’s aged. It still feels nice to play and sounds good. The build quality is excellent compared to so many other guitars built in that period.
I don’t think I’d ever let go of this guitar, not just for sentimental reasons but because there’s not much out there like it and it has many of the features I want in an instrument – flat top with binding, twin humbuckers with coil tap and that amazing built-in distortion unit. Only thing I’d change would be that awkward locking trem system; if this had a stoptail, it would be near-perfect for me.
Anyway, hope you still have your Tokai and you enjoy playing it!
All the best,
Marcus
Super cool guitar. The top was called “tortoiseshell mahogany” by Tokai. I am guessing yours was made in 1985. I would be curious to know the serial number since I am trying to sort out when the production of these began and ended. There was also a Tele version made by Tokai called the TTE60TM. Thanks for posting!
Hey, Geoff – I believe I bought it in late-84, though I might be wrong. Serial is L27445. The guitar found it’s new owner – who is very happy – mid-2023 (it deserves to be played!). We have a ’79 Spring Sound S-type in store at the moment – it’s a beauty!
Very cool. So that serial number would be 1985/86. Thanks for the help. Enjoy your Springy. They are great guitars!