The Unique Guitar Blog: August 2020

I used to be a devoted reader and subscriber of all of the guitar publications. I recall that sometime in the past due 1970’s I ran across advertisements for some guitars that looked spot-on like a Fender Stratocaster, but the name on the headstock said Tokai. As time went on there were more Tokai ads, however, not just for Strat copies, there have been copies of Telecasters, Les Pauls, ES-335’s, SG Specifications and Juniors, Flying Vee’s, Explorers, among others. These guitars appeared between 1977 through 1978. I was gobsmacked that Fender and Gibson allowed these outright copies of their products to be sold. However in June of 1977, the Gibson Guitar Organization (Norlin) filed a lawsuit against Elger Music of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Why Elger Music you might ask? It is a long story that started once the owner of the Elger Music shop, Harry Rosenbloom was discouraged that the nearby Martin Guitar Company would not award his business a franchise.

He hired some luthiers and constructed his own guitars under the Elger brand name. And I must state, his Elger guitars were very impressive. The venture lasted about a year, when Mr. Rosenbloom recognized this was too expensive. He contracted with Hoshino Gakki Gen of Japan to build and ship acoustic guitars utilizing the Elger brand name. Hoshino Gakki, possessed the Ibanez brand, and realized they may possibly also ship their “replica” electrical guitars to his store. Hoshino purchased Rosenbloom’s business in 1971, and utilized it as a U.S. Because the Ibanez versions they sold were fairly authentic looking Gibson duplicate guitars, Gibson decided enough will do. They took this possibility to protect their intellectual house. However, by that point, Ibanez had currently made some changes with their guitars to differentiate them from Gibson. The lawsuit was settled out of courtroom. From then on most Asian guitar manufacturers understood their look-alike, and tribute guitars had a need to differentiate in some way from US produced instruments, if they were going to sell them in the usa. Since then at least until most US guitar producers, including Gibson, started using Asian businesses to manufacture their lower cost guitars.

But I've gotten off this issue. The Tokai Gakki Firm of Hamamatsu City was founded in 1947 by Tadayouki Adachi. Also to this day, it really is still a family group owned business. The company began by making harmonicas, melodicas and pianos. By 1965 the business offered classical guitars, and 3 years later on they offered their first electric powered model guitar. The initial model was known as The Hummingbird, and was loosely based on the Mosrite Mark I and Tag II models. In 1970 they entered a three 12 months agreement with the G.C. Conn Business, who was best known for manufacturing horns; trumpets, trombones, and saxophones. Tokai constructed acoustic guitars for Conn. In 1972, Tokai entered into an agreement with the Martin Guitar Firm to provide acoustic parts that would be assembled in Nazareth, Pennsylvania because the companies budget Sigma guitar line. In addition they built that eras Martin electric powered guitars. By 1973 they began making banjos, and harpsichords. And in 1975 they provided a power piano.

It was in 1974 when Tokai released it’s own make of C.F. Martin guitar replicas, that they called Cats Eyes acoustic guitars, which are still in production. The Tokai guitars I saw in the publications were some of the best reproductions of your day. I am aware the Stevie Ray Vaughn may possess possessed a Tokai guitar at one point. After 1978 the models somewhat changed. For example, the look-alike Les Paul was renamed Les Paul Reborn. But by 1980 the name was changed to Like Rock because of threats from Gibson and others. The Fender Stratocaster copies received the name Springy Audio, which was transformed to AST. The Telecaster copies were known as Breezy Sound, which later on became ATE. Since the lawsuit effected American guitar, Tokai was, and is certainly, still producing copies, for domestic production and for distribution throughout European countries, and Pacific countries. Their Fender Accuracy Bass reproduction was called The Hard Puncher, and their Strat was known as the 38 Particular. In 1983 Tokai did eventually come up with a very unique and unique guitar called the Talbo or Tokai Aluminum Body.

As the name says, the guitars body is manufactured out of cast aluminum. The neck is constructed of maple, with a rosewood fretboard, that is topped with a six-on-a-part maple headstock. SenniGuitar included two single coil pickups, and a bridge humbucker. In addition, it includes a tremolo unit. Sometimes we forget that a lot of Japanese manufactured guitars were intended for domestic use, import was a big plus for these companies. Knowing that, it is definitely interesting to know that the titles of a few of the Tokai versions reflected the instruments cost, in Japanese currency. For instance, the TLS-100 marketed for 100,000 yen in Japan. This was quite much like Gibson’s first numerical system for the first year of manufacture; 1958. In that years the price of a Gibson ES-335 was $335.00, and a Gibson ES-175 retailed for $175.00. Tokai has made guitars within their personal factory, and in addition has built guitars for other companies. OEM contracted with Tokai. Tokai and Dyna Gakki produced the Fender MANUFACTURED IN Japan solid-body guitars from 1997 through 2015. The more expensive Tokai guitars are created in Japan. Beginning in the mid-1990’s, Tokai began building more affordable instruments in Korea. One distinguishing feature of the Korean produced Tokai guitars may be the truss rod cover. The possess 3 screws. Japanese models only have 2 screws on the truss rod cover. This will not hold true for each guitar, but is an excellent litmus test. Another check is the Japanese manufactured Tokai guitars have an ABR-1 type bridge. This is the original model designed by Ted McCarty and his group back in 1954. The made-in-Korea models include the Nashville bridge, which was designed in 1977, as a noticable difference, when Gibson transferred its plant to Tennessee. You can find not a lot of U.S. Tokai guitars. One exception may be the on the web site, Drowning In Guitars.