Tokai AST-50

Tokai Japan AST 50
Alder body , nice fat maple neck and fret board. Finished in vintage white.
6 hole vintage trem isn't the best but then vintage trems aren't the best anyway which is why Leo designed the 2 point trem for his G&L guitars and Fender quickly followed suit. Tuners are ok as long as you don't wish to use submit them to severe trem action. Plastic nut well fitted.
Enough features for most although some are not the best.

These Tokai pups seem to split opinion. They are personally not my taste.. but... this is a vintage reissue guitar and therefore the pups give a vintage sound. They are not EMG's and they are not trying to be.

So in summary , a good vintage sound if that's what you're looking for but don't dream of playing with distortion cause they can't handle it. I have fitted some seymours in this thing which is what I intended to do before I bought it.

All that said it is quite difficult to score on sound as sound is so much about taste rather than quality or clarity of sound. Another reviewer hit the nail on the head when he suggested listening to a guitar unplugged to truely understand what they sound like as you take the pick ups out of the equation that way. If you do that with the AST 50 I think you'll be pleased !!

This is why people buy Tokai, especially the Japanese models.
Absolutely perfect, gorgeous finish , frets beautifully finished , neck pocket nice and tight. As I said build quality is why most people buy Tokai Japan and it shines through on this guitar.

No brainers on this section.
It's Tokai Japan so will withstand live playing, built to last longer than the player !! Highly dependable although I would always suggest a back up..... what if a string breaks !!?!!

No Idea , I bought a Tokai so I didn't have to find out.

Been playing for about 15 years. Owned all sorts of guitars including guitars made by Gibson, Fender, Tokai, Gordon Smith, Washburn etc etc.
I must have owned in total upwards of 20 guitars and I like to refresh my collection regularly. However the guitars that I will never part with are my Gordon Smiths and ... you guessed it my Tokai AST50 !! It's just not worth getting rid of this guitar because you simply can't buy better for less. I bought this guitar because I wanted a solid base (without breaking the bank) with which to modify. I have changed the tuners, bridge (both Wilkinson), nut (Graph Tech trem nut) and pick ups (Seymour Duncan JB Jr., Alnico II and a Hot Rails) and it's absolutely fantastic!!
Well worth getting even if you want to keep everything standard but if you're looking for the perfect base for modifications then you simply can not do any better than this guitar !!

Made in Japan, recent model (propably 2005/2006) strat-copy by Tokai.

Features an Alder body, maple neck (profile is somewhat a "thicker C", rosewood fingerboard (also available as maple) with the vintage 7,25" radius, 21 vintage style frets (medium-jumbo's I guess), 3 single coil pickups (alnico magnets, 1 volume & 2 tone knobs, 5-way switch, vintage style bridge (6 screws) with tremolo, kluson-type tuners and a bone nut. Basic strat features all around.

I'd point out first that the neck on this is absolutely fabulous, thick and "sweet". The guitar is a joy to play, truly plays like butter. The body resonates well and has a nice sound in itself. This makes for a great guitar. This qualifies it a 10 on this area.

Well, the Tokai pickups are good in their own right. They are great for clean strat sounds, they get a bit creamy when distorted. But as I said, the guitar resonates well, so this guitar takes upgrades/changes very well.

I play mostly Altern Rock and Heavy Rock, and this holds up with me and gives the classic stratty single coil-sound. Sure, you get hum etc., but that is life with strats.

I am planning to change the pickups to Lace Sensor Hot Golds some time in the near future, THOUGH the Tokai-pickups are VERY FINE for now. The Lace Sensors just have that slightly compressed sound I like and have a bit more output. The 60 Hz hum is not a problem for me, though.

But I would strongly advice you to at least check out the Tokai pups, and not buy a Tokai with pre-installed aftermarket pickups (like here in Finland they sell "Seymorized" Tokai's with pre-installed SSL-1's). These Tokai pickups are as good as the SSL-1's, or even better on some ares, in my opinion. See and try yourself, you are the best judge on the tone/sound. For the Tokai pickups, I give this a 9.

The finish in the guitar is beautiful and there were no flaws. Top notch work all thru. My guitar is finished in 'vintage white' (a.k.a. 'creamy white') and I absolutely recommend it. The other finishes, like sunbursts etc., were also great.

The guitar was set-up very good, neck had a bit of relief and the action was low and comfortable. As a personal preference I tighted the bridge (I do not use tremolo, and it helps to keep your guitar in tune longer) and raised the action a little bit at my guitar tech. This guitar will serve you any way you like it.

Yes indeed, this guitar seems to be a workhorse. The finish is of quality, and I cannot see it coming off for a long time. Everything in this guitar is solid, even the strap buttons.

I would, and I have, used it without backup.

Tokai doesn't really have a direct customer support, but our local dealer/importer here in Finland is great.

This is the best guitar I have ever owned and was just what I needed at this time. After 6 months it still amazes me every time I play it. Fantastic value at under half the price from a Fender.

Go for Tokai, you will not be dissappointed. This is as great as strats get.

A pretty recent (2006/2007?) classic Japanese-made Stratocaster. Features almost straight out of '62, save for wide and relatively low medium-jumbo (?) frets, which I greatly prefer to the small vintage-style ones. A rather heavyweight ash body with some kind of sunburst finish, an excellent medium-thick neck with a rosewood fretboard.

Basically, it's a vintage-style Stratocaster, all of which have almost exactly the same features, so I don't know how to rate them.

Acoustically, this is definitely the best sounding Strat I've ever played -- a fact most probably attributable to the particularly resonant ash body. The store also had an alder-bodied AST-50 on display, and, while very nice on its own, it sounded pretty boring compared to this one.

The pickups -- not too surprisingly -- suck. I didn't even bother to plug the guitar in at the store, because I knew I was going to swap the pickups anyway. I'm going to replace them with a set of Kinmans.

Conclusion: acoustically (an therefore also amplified, with a decent set of pickups), this guitar gets a straight 10. The less-than-stellar stock pickups lower the overall rating to 8.

The setup was perfect for my tastes, I've only needed to adjust intonation after changing the strings. Which brings me to a small but annoying minus in this section: the intonation adjustment screws are made of a very soft metal, and it's very easy to screw them up by turning a bit too forcefully.

Another minus are the tuners. They are typical non-stamped Kluson-type vintage tuners, and not the best possible ones at that. I'm probably going to replace them with a drop-in set of vintage-style locking tuners.

Otherwise, the fit & finish is almost perfect, save for a bit of extra glue near the nut (and on the side of the fretboard near some frets!), which is a purely cosmetic thing, and could be removed with some fine-grid sandpaper.

The body is made of two almost perfectly bookmatched pieces, there are no sticking frets, and the neck pocket is tight enough.

Overall, build quality is very high, but the hardware could be improved.

I haven't gigged with it yet, but (at least after replacing the tuners) I would rely on it to work through a gig without backups.

I haven't dealt with them.

I have been playing for about seven years. I'm particularly fond of Strats and have played quite a few of them. The reason I bought this particular guitar was its incredible acoustic tone and high build quality (especially considering its price).

I don't let the poor stock pickups and tuners affect my rating because when buying the guitar, I knew I was going to replace them anyway, and it would still come out cheaper than a Fender with similar features. After changing them, this will definitely be the best guitar I've ever owned, probably even the best one I've ever played.

Tokai's japanese made answer to the 50s strat reissue. Big, chunky vintage style maple neck (one piece), alder body, alnico magnet single coils. This one is finished in a beautiful vintage white. REcent model, probably a 2005.

This is where it really shines - this has pretty much THE perfect stratocaster tone - loads of growl when you dig into the strings, lots of quack in the in between positions, searing, crystalline highs and a powerful resonant low end. Think gilmour, clapton or any other masters of the strat tone and this is exactly what this guitar gives, plugged into any old amp it delivers. Others complain about tokai's pickups, but the ones in this guitar sound as good as the SD SSL-1s in my fender 60s reissue strat, I have no plans to change them.

Plays like a dream right out of the box, action is nice and low (but good tension on the strings), neck perfectly straight, trem nicely balanced.

The finish is exceptional - beautiful to behold and long-lasting by the looks of it.

This guitar is built very very solidly indeed, and whilst I take good care of all my axes, I do believe this could withstand the rigours of live use. Just like the oldies it is modeled after. Tokai have a stellar reputation and SRV even endorsed them back in the day. Very well made instrument and although it deserves to be treated well, hammer-handed guitarists out there will love its solidity.

No idea!

I've been playing about 13 years, owned a fair amount of fenders and strat-type guitars, and I have to say this tokai strat is bloody amazing. Everything the strat is about is encapsulated in this guitar. It's not the best guitar I own, but it's pretty close. Perfect for my style. Im so glad I bought this and not a fender reissue. I know I got many times bang for my buck buying a tokai.

2005 Tokai Goldstar Sound - (the famous Stratocaster copy, this time around with Tokai headstock because of copyright issues), made in Japan, Alder body, maple neck, bought in 2005 for 350 gbp.
Features as in any strat!

This guitar is all about playability and wood craftmanship.

The hardware can be improved. I removed the Tokai pick ups and replaced with those of my old Fender Japan. Now i have the best of both worlds. Excellent sound. Forget about the Tokai pick ups though. Hence i have to give an 8. In the current set up it is a 10.

As said before, the hardware is slightly under par. Tuners, pots, are fine i guess, but i did replace the bridge saddles.

Excellent set up. Flawless finish. Gorgeous beefy neck.
This is by far the best playing electric guitar i ever had. It invites to hold and to play. I simply love this guitar. Fender eat your heart out.

no opinion - like any other stratocaster i guess.

Never dealt with them - But i think Tokai may want to work a bit on their marketing - get a proper website, brochures, advertising! Your products are worth it!

I know a thing or two about guitars, stratocasters in particular, having played them for 25 years. As stated this is the best playing guitar i ever laid my hands on.
If lost or stolen i would be devastated, i just hope Tokai will keep up making this quality guitars.
I rate this 10, even though i strongly recommend changing the cheesy pick ups. The fantastic value is just for the playability - at a price of a fret job on my Fender.