Feb 10, 2018 - Just got this Tokai Breezy Sound Tele from a pawn shop for 300 bucks. Replicas have no year specific info on the serial/production numbers.

Tokai Guitars – What You Need to Know The Tokai Gakki Company Ltd. Is the brand behind Tokai guitars, also sometimes known as Tokay guitars. This is the most popular guitar brand in Japan, and the guitars themselves are very highly regarded by musicians the world over.

So, what do you need to know about Tokai guitars? Is the fame well-earned?

Are they better than American or European guitars? And how do you go about choosing the best ones? About the Tokai Gakki Company Ltd. – An Early History The Tokai Gakki Company Ltd. Was founded in 1947. Back then, it was just a small and obscure instrument manufacturer operating out of Japan, and with nothing particularly setting it apart.

It wasn’t until the 70s and 80s that the company began to grow and gain popularity. Initially, this was sparked by the creation of some replica Fender and Gibsons. These were able to accurately recreate the old-school sounds of those instruments, while costing far less than the originals.

In fact, by the early 80s, these guitars started to become more popular than Fender’s own American-made guitars in their popularity. They also began to develop a sound of their own – referred to as the ‘Springy Sound’ or ‘Silverstar Sound’, which was undoubtedly nostalgic. Sramakrishnan books pdf free. Demonstrating just how successful the Tokay guitars had become, Stevie Ray Vaughn was seen posing with the Tokai Spring Sound on the cover of the album Texas Flood in 1983. Similarly, Billy Gibbons took a Tokai replica on the road with him during a tour.

At this time though, the guitars were still considered effectively knock-offs. In fact, they were sometimes referred to affectionately (?) as ‘lawsuit guitars’ owing to the potential legal issues surrounding their nature and use.

Despite some flagrant attempts at intellectual property infringement, Fender never went as far as to sue Tokai. Partly, this was likely due to the fact that many patents, trademarks, and copyrights are very difficult to police overseas.

This is why it’s still possible to get knock-off handbags and a whole host of other imitation products. Growth and Maturity of Tokai Guitars While many companies start out this way and never grow to become anything else, Tokai eventually went on to develop a more serious name in its own right. It was in the 70s that Tokay guitars really struck gold. At the time, Fender was actually struggling with its own products, when Tokai and several other similar companies identified a niche in the market for high quality, vintage reissues of classic guitars. Tokai was in an ideal position to execute on this concept. To that end, the Japanese firm started producing its first reissue – a Stratocaster replica – during the mid 70s.

This was built to the original specifications and was accomplished by reverse engineering the original vintage Strats. Engineers literally stripped them down for parts, took measurements, wrote notes, took photographs, and then recreated them from the ground up. This was the birth of the ‘Springy Sound’ guitar. And despite being technically knock-offs, the quality of these guitars was second to none.