Tokai Hard Puncher

I bougtht this bass over year ago for 900 Polish Z??oty(It's something about 350$). It's left-handed copy of Fender P-Bass from 1984-85. Made in Japan. Yellowed olympic white (alder I think) body with black 3-ply pickguard and one piece maple neck with rosewood fingerboard. Four strigs, 20 frets, original japanesee split-coil p-bass pickup, reverse tuners and vintage bridge. Exact copy of P-Bass from 70s.

Great fat Precision Bass sound. Pickups with high signal that makes everything I expect. From warm bright punch to dark deep tone. Only volume and tone knobs. For me it's perfect. On stage it cuts trough drums and guitars without any problems. Works perfect with my Boss ODB-3 Bass OverDrive. Especially with steel strings. Sometimes i plugged it directly into my PC and sounds nice.

When I bought this bass, it has exchanged frets. Lutnier did a very bad job. Fret are moving and action was little high. I Install new pots, Shaller's strap locks and BadAss 2 bridge. Neck is incredible straight and truss rod works perfectly. The body of this almost 23 years old bass have a lot nicks and scratches, but it makes very vintage feel. I like it:)

I played a lot gigs with this bass and it never falls me. It's great simple bass that can stand everything. That's my main bass and I'll never sell it:)

I don't need any:)

I play bass over 4 years. I use this bass to lot of kinds of music. From metal to jazz. Tokai are great basses for a good price. Japanesee guitars from 80s are the best. I wish to have left-handed Tokai Jazz Bass copy also. That would be great:)

I'm guessing this was made in 1998 by the first two digits of the serial number. The "F" in front of that evidently designates it is MIK. No worries here, I love MIK guitars. Nice sunburst finish, nice enough hardware, great looking maple neck, outstanding fret work--low action and no buzzing anywhere, nut cut way too high (which means the action is coming down even further), really nice mint green pick guard (which I believe is original), typical P-Bass configuration. One bummer (which nearly caused me to sell this right after I bought it) is the plywood body. I'm a wood snob, this doesn't cut it for me, but more on that later...

This is a great looking, sounding and playing P-Bass (which is why I'm keeping it). I don't know how, but the ply body is really very resonant and transfers a lot of vibration into the neck (more than my MIJ Fender solid body P-Bass, which is a little disconcerting). I put this on a stand intending to sell it after the weekend. The more I looked at it, the more I liked it and finally decided to go ahead and see what I had rather than just dump it (because of the body). Someone had already upgraded the pots and put Duncan '57 reissue P/U's in it. This bass really sounds good, and is sounding even better after I put a set of flats on it. A one trick pony, but the P-Bass sound is the cornerstone of rock and blues.

MIK quality, which I think is just a touch below MIJ. Very nicely put together and it is a real looker. I can't believe the nut is so high, but maybe that is not original...an easy fix either way.

No issues here.

No opinion.

I really wanted a MIJ Hard Puncher, and still might keep looking for one. I will have to say I am very happy with this bass and love the way it looks and sounds. No one would know this body is ply by looking at it (must be the best quality plywood in Korea). I have no idea of what the original P/U's were like, but I can vouch for how good the Duncan's are.

I bought a hard puncher used from a friend i know.
Basically in orignal shape.
The guy who had it before me hasent used it since later part of the eigties.
As fare as i can figure out this one should be from 1982.

Well.. i think this a great instrument if you are looking for something that sounds rock n roll.
Basically i don't have eny kind of problems playing in rehearsals, studio or live on stage.
If you like the sounds of the seventies, this might be it...

If you are in to finish.
I might say that it looks a little bit "plain".
Anyway great action and fit.

Absolutely no back up needed!

I can't see eny problems with it.
High performance and quality.

I have been playing guitar and bass for 25 years.
Besides from this bass i have some Gibsons and a original Ibanez jem 777, loch ness green. Signed by mr Vai him self.

For amps i use mainly vintage Marshall's. Effects from Bjorn Juhl (a swedish genious), Maxon analog delays and a cry baby.

The Tokai bass i play actually through a randall 4*10 combo.
The hard puncher sounds and performes plain and simply so good that there is no need to get "high tech".

Mine's a brand new see-thru-blonde Tokai Hard Puncher from 2004. I'm from Holland and I bought it from the British distributor 'cause the Dutch guy simply seems to have vanished.
Standard vintage P-bass set up; split coil PU (passive), V/T controls, alder body, maple neck and fingerboard, medium frets. The neck has the fat chunk I sought after, the typical Precison huge, wide neck that spells T.O.N.E. It plays not all too smooth and that's just fine, I like a working horse. The original Tokai pickup wasn't THAT bad but it sure was not at par with the quality of the wood and set-up of this bass, so I replaced it with a Rio Grande Muy Grande pickup. It turned out to be one hell of a good choice, more on this later.
What came as a total surprise was the all-goldplated hardware. I never thought about the colour of hardware but I had a good laugh about it for it's so damn PIMPY. And it works, so why not? I might replace the tuners and bridge one day for something more solid, who knows. Right now it's not necessary and it stays in tune.
Since the features on this bass are all I wanted - the ol' & trusty P-bass design - I have no other choice than giving it a 10.

When I got this bass in the mail I opened the box and immediately strung an open E and was extremely surprised by the fat BOOOM in the wood. After I set it up, the bass got better and better. I experimented with higher and lower action but quite a high action has always been my thing and it works on this bass very much so. When you play this bass, your whole belly vibrates with the body of the bass. This makes a man happy.
I play 70's rock and what I wanted a P-bass for were two sounds: the bad-ass RAWK growl (tone wide open) and the Detroit soul smoothness (tone closed). When Nick Oliveri and James Jamerson use one like these, you know it's ALL in the P-bass. No Rickenbacker sounds badder, no Carvin sounds smoother (O.K., bad comparison...). I don't really need more variety than these two sounds but on a good night you have newer sounds with the smallest effort. This is definately a MUSICAL instrument.
Its' sound is rich and warm, cuts thru the mix and has lots of dynamics. The neck is awesome in all perspectives. I never found a 7ender with such a grasp in the neck. You just GO.
The Rio Grande PU's play a large role in the brute sound, I know, but hey, you can't polish a turd without getting shit on your hands - right? I mean, when a bass isn't that good you'll only hear the lack of quality better when you upgrade your PU's! The Tokai and Rio Grande just make a good - no, a VERY good - combination.
The set-up I use is mostly an Ampeg SVT-II (all tube) w/ 8x10", sometimes a modded Marshall Major (damn right all tube!) w/ 8x10". Very seldom I bring out my 2x15" but when I do it's one hell of a party. HA!
It works fine in the studio, but even more so onstage. It's an animal. A beast. Sometimes a monster. But when you treat it right, be not afraid to let it in 'cause it will back you up everywhere at all times. I like this bass.
I give it a 9 for the excellent set-up (BANG on the wood) and the overall not-to-be-messed-with, balls-to-the-wall attitude, but it lacks the last 10% for I had to replace the original pickups immediately. They sucked donkeys. Nevertheless, I really couldn't desire a better sound for this bass - it just needed better PU's. So, in fact my rate should be 10, but I'm not giving it because that wouldn't not encourage Tokai to use better PU's.

Set-up was good - not perfect or outstanding - after it travelled from Japan to the U.K. to Holland. The pickups weren't levelled though and the saddles had a wide variety of action over 4 strings. But hey, you just adjust it a little yourself in 5 minutes, play a couple of hours and then you properly set it up - no problem, right?
Definately no flaws here, in my opinion, but nothing's oustanding here. They obviously focus on making good guitars out of a good piece of good wood, not on the set-up.

A bass is a tool, not your wife or lover. You use it onstage, at home, in the studio and if it doesn't last, you will have to pick up another. Too bad, but that's the story according to me. If the hardware breaks down, you replace it. If the finish cracks, you laugh. If it falls, you pick it up. Of course, for a bass in this category of price (no more than 700 euro, buy an early 80's copy if you have the chance - I know I will!), you can expect to bump into one or more needs of modding. But hey, that's fun as well! You make it your own, it all adds up to the character.
What I think needs an upgrade first is the hardware (pickup, tuners, bridge). The wood is extremely solid, never played a 7ender with such musical wood! Hardware is O.K. while it lasts.
So... I always use a back-up but I rarely have to use it. Just when I break a string. Hey, this is a reliable guitar but you NEVER know what can happen - it wouldn't be the first time I fell offstage.

The British distributor is a good guy, he's the only Tokai-gai (or is it Tokuy-guy?) I met. I contacted him thru e-mail and he proved to be a little chaotic but very sympathetic. He has an open mind and seemed trustfull to me.
Less fortunate is that he doesn't respond to my e-mails lately. Now I want to order a Jazz Sound but if he won't respond I'll find an other way of getting a Tokai Jazz. C'mon, Bob!!
For this reason, I willing to give support an 8.

Overall, this is ALL a P-bass should be in my opinion. My first bass (about 12 years ago, I'm now 25) was a cheapo P-bass and I loved it for it was a real working horse with a punk sound. I just keep that old one locked away (you want to play it, you can have it - what am I SAYING?!) and I'm now deeply in love with this P-bass, the Tokai Hard Puncher.
Of course, I have my 'periods' when I pick up my Jazzbass more often but that has nothing to do with the bass - just personal moodswings, you dig? I'm thinking of getting another Jazzbass because I'd like to mod it Berry Oakley-style, but I see no reason at all for getting another P-bass.
This one is all I really need! (BUT if you set up a good deal for that '51 Precision, I MIGHT consider it. HA!)
I guess I should say no more.

i think it around 79 or 80.its a exact copy of a 70s precision bass.i lucked into this one in a used shop in tokyo 6 years ago .no sound came out of it so i got it for 130 bucks.it has a maple board and a perfectly quarter sawn neck.nice light body.i have 4 60s fenders and this really is in the same league.it needed new machines and some new pots but now its one of my favorite precisions.i heard from the new york grapevine that bernard edwards from chic used a hard puncher alot.more than the musicman.japan was blowing fenders away in this period.thats why fender eventually sued.

fat precision sound

chipped white finish with a maple board

after i changed the tuners to some hipshots its like a rock.i use this instead of my 60s fenders at gigs because nobody wants to steal it and it sounds killer.i changed the nut because it was slightly closer spaced than my 63.

it was already 20 years old when i got it so i gave it a little love and it was cool.

its a p bass, i read somewhere the tokai guys studied pbass waveform and built their tokai pickups to do the same, I've got the real deal - exact same colour and everthing - and I couldn't tell you the difference. I keep one with flatwounds and the T with rounds - to keep the basses covered. ( that was unintentional sorry). It's a Pbass with one good sound, the bass sound.I've had complicated modernish stuff and with this you plug it in and its right first time. I give it a 10.

thick meaty tone,like I said if you dig Pbass - its all godd

strange, to the close inspection it does have two odd paint runs on the back - only really visible to the right light. otherwise rock and roll

it's almost twenty years old and is sweet, I mean flawless - my P has more bugs - not that much older

no need,

if your into pbass fundamentals - or looking for the right bass I'd buy an old tokai.I'd buy one as a first bass ( dont tell my fender though)

Something really weird, the way i got this bass. One day as i was having a stroll through Brussels City with the kids (both guitar players) we saw two young Japanese guys taking a guitar out of its bag, together with a small amp and some cables and stuff, and putting it all down on the sidewalk. As we got closer, we saw a paper that said 'For Sale - 12O Euros complete'.
After a quick glance i just bought the whole lot. So there was this black Tokai bass and a brand new Hiwatt Desktop Bulldog amp, all for 120 Euros (or Dollars).
Got home, inspected the bass. It had a small crack in the head near the E string peg, probably from bumping into something, the G string key was bent, and the lower side of the body, where the output sits, had a bump from a fall, but hardly visible.
The bridge was all rusty and the tone and volume knobs were missing. Other than that the bass was fine, just needed some cleaning up.

So this is your basic Precision Bass, as exact a copy as you can wish for. It's got this 'Tokai' brand name in exactly the same letter type as the fender logo, and from a distance you'd swear it was the real thing.

The neck is maple with a rosewood fingerboard, frets are a bit worn in the lower positions.
Machine heads are actually better made than the ones on a comparable fender bass. I might replace them with some ultra light ones cause i like light instruments. Funny actually, given the fact that i'm a professional double bassist (classical).

Body material impossible to tell, it is painted black, has a lot of scratches and small bumps, which gives it a great look. Black pick guard and pickup, P-bass style. Overall construction is rock solid, and even the strap buttons are exactly like Fender's. Replaced the missing knobs with two Tele knobs that my son had lying around, they're exactly right for the bass. Cleaned the bridge, oiled everything, works great now.Passive electronics of course.

I asked my violin maker to glue the tiny crack in the head, cleaned the fingerboard and all the rusty parts (soaked them in coke for a day and a night then cleaned and oiled them), and now it looks really great. This instrument has a history and a life to it, it's got a great vibe, it plays beautifully and sounds just like the real thing. Actually it might just as well carry the fender logo, it's really just as good. It's become a really personal thing to me and it's an instrument i want to keep forever. It just feels so right.

And the Hiwatt amp made this an unbelievable deal.

Basic Precision Bass sound, solid and earthy. I play mainly 'easy' music, blues and stuff, and it's perfect for that. Dark, round, warm.

No idea how the original set-up was, or the quality of fretwork etc. Must have been pretty decent since it's still very good now.

Obviously the bass has lived an interesting life. Hardware was a bit rusty but not extremely so. Finish seems rather solid, overall construction seems very reliable. I would definitely use it without a back-up.

?

I bought this thing in 1980. I was looking for a Fender Precision, than I saw this Japanese Tokai. I played both basses and the Tokai sounded better. It was better built than the Fender; the company was building pretty shitty basses those days. It costed half the price of a Fender, so I bought it. The neck is one piece maple, with a skunk stripe. Pretty thick, but this takes care of a good sustain and a fine thick tone. I don't know what kind of wood is used for the body; I should say alder, because of the weight. The body has a thick layer of paint; don't know if that has an influence on the sound; could be, but,despite of that, it sounded better than the Fender. The tuners were, however, not very good. I had to put Schallers on it, but now it's a very reliable bass. The bridge was Fender-like; I put a better bridge on it (I think it was from Gotoh). The pots were fine, but after 23 years they need contact-spray.

It's a Precision sound; play classic rock on it and you got the sound you need. Don't try to slap or anything modern on it!

The bass was better than the Fender; the neck was fine, the fretwork allright. Oke, some materials could be of a better quality, but they can be replaced without spending lots of money (nut, bridge, tuners). It was worth it.

This bass suited me well 23 years! It wiil reach the 22nd century.

Never needed them, so I don't know. They have got a site, so you can reach them.

I've been playing for 30 years and tried a lot of basses. This one is a basic instrument, you can always rely on. It never let me down. That's what I love about it. I would certainly buy another if it was stolen; actually, I am planning to buy another one, just for the love of it.Strange, though, no one has ever mentioned it here.