Tokai AST-62

I dated my non-lawsuit Japanese Tokai model AST-62 to 1985 using the Tokai Registry. It came stock with a 5-way selector, s/s/s pickups, poly finish, a pretty average size C neck, and a black case with red velvet-like lining. I give this 9 stars because it didn't come with a nitro finish and the frets are a little small for my liking - otherwise perfect.

The original pickups were okay but I have since changed the pickups to either ones i ripped off of a 1962 RI Fender or the custom shop SRV style ones... i forget which. It's been kind of an experimental guitar for me in learning how to solder, setup, PLAY, etc. It has a real rich and wide range of sounds which is partly due to the fender pickup$ but the sound rings through the wood real nice regardless.

Absolutely amazing craftsmanship. Most of the guitar's (excluding custom shop) i've bought from Fender have had some ridiculous flaws like paint over the frets or the ends of the frets hanging over the neck and rubbing against your hand. Mine has a nice rosewood fretboard and a cherry finish like a 62 fender.

This thing has no isues and has held up well to the beatings that it's been given - only one small paint chip and i'm sure it was my fault (or intention, who knows).

Bought it used, N/A

for what it's worth, it's just as easy to work on as a fender.

This was the first guitar i've ever bought and it was also the only one i've kept for all my 5 years of playing. I just wish it had a nitro finish. Totally irreplaceable instrument.

My tokai was a japan made, non-lawsuit headstock strat copy. I have own vintage strats, mij stats and peavey strat copies. This is the best built, highest quality most accurate strat I have played. Wood, finish, hardware, craftsmanship is equal or better to the 74 fender I had. The feel is even the same as a vintage fender

This guitar is suitable for any type of music and probably superior to any vintage vintage fender in materials or workmanship

I purchased the guitar used but was in exceptional condition and all original. Guitar was easy to set up the way I wanted. MIJ fenders are great. This is in a another league both in parts, craftsmanship and feel. Guitar had the same feel (impossible to describe but if you pickup a vintage gibson, fender or Ric you can just feel the workmanship and playability) all tokais of this era have it. I had a 57 reissue bass. Damn. Same as my 74 precision and better than my 60s/70 music master bass.

more indestructible than a peavey.

I hope to own another some day. This is the highest quality strat you can own. Vastly superior to a USA/MIJ fender and has the same feel as a vintage one. The easiest playing strat guitar I ever had though is a peavey predator (don't laugh necks on these are unreal) The tokai is the highest quality made strat guitar I've owned (even superior to current or 70s Fenders) I would take this over a 74 fender it's that good

Early 80's Tokai AST-62, see thru butterscotch over highly figured ash body, figured maple neck, aged pick-guard and all other plastic hardware. 3 single Bill Lawerancepick-ups, 5-way switch, Tokai stamped saddles in Vintage bridge w/trem. Vintage slotted tuners(like the 80's Jap re-issues) and a single string tree.

The combination of the upgraded pick-ups on the ash body gives it a nice vintage strat(a 62 thus the AST-62). The guitar sounds great clean with a touch of reverb or highly distorted. It makes it very hard to put down as it covers a lot of ground sonicaly. The guitar is very quiet due to the pick-up upgrade and the tuners are good enough to keep it in tune for a long time. This is nice enough to quickly become my #1.

THe guitar has had several owners so I tweeked the set-up a bit to my liking, 9's were on it and 9's will stay on it. The routings are very well made and neck pocket very tight. The quality on these guitars is far superior to USA guitars(62 re-issues) plus they are a third of the price. No flaws wre evident however the bridge is rusting slightly due to age and sweat, but hey, it's over 20 years old. The highly figured 2-peice ash body is matched up very well, looks like one peice.

Like I said the guitar is over 20 years old and is in fantastic condition. It will out live me easily. I would definatley gig with out a back up since I never break string even though I bend them quite a bit. It isn't difficult to know you're guitars capabilities and play within them. The hardware is extreamly durable and meant to last. A little guitar wax and WD-40 is very important to the longivity of any guitar.

What warranty, Tokai who? These guitars are idiot proof and require minimum maintanance to keep them up. Most people up-grade the pic-ups but that info can be found on the internet. These guitars are a great candidate for hot rodding cause for a mimimun investment you have the foundation to go crazy with up grades. When all's said and done you have a couple hundred dollar guitar with a couple hundred dollars in up grades sounding better than a guitar that cost thousands. That simple!

Been playing over 35 years and have more guitars than I'll ever need. Many expensive one's that seldom get played but the Tokai gets played almost daily, it's that sweet cause it has the "sound" that you search for and seldom find. The only one that comes close to it is my 86 Jap 62 re-issue(hot rodded) of course. The 80's Tokais and Jap strats are simply awesome. If something happened to either I'd replace them and tailor them to my liking.

Made in 1986 one of the last productions of a terrific Japanese built strat clone. This is a 62ish copy with non lawsuit headstock, medium frets, pearl dots, and a three color sunburst finish on an alder body that is a dead ringer for a 64-65 Strat. I recently found this guitar after hearing for years about the quality reproductions of strats Tokai had produced from late 70's through 86. The legends are true. This is a superb instrument. Tokai combined some of the best features and vibe of the pre CBS Strats of the 60's and created a fine playing instrument. The main features of the guitar are Alder body, meaty neck with rosewood fretboard, med frets expertly crowned and low, Fullerton Accurate pick-ups, traditional strat bridge, deluxe Kluson tuners, and a useable 5-way pu selector. Came with a decent repro tweed hardshell case.

I was extremely pleased with the sound of the pu's in this guitar. I was planning to go to some custom wound, but after set up and a little tweaking to original Fender specs, the pu's are very accurate to that of early 60's strats. I hear a more authentic tone than the Fender Japanese reissues or American reissues I have played recently.The guitar has a great acoustic tone that is full and rich, the neck position sounds full with the chime so desired from the old Strats. Both out of phase positions have a lower output and great quack. Just a terrific playing and sounding guitar, no matter what name is on the headstock.

The guitar was in 9.5 condition when I purchased it. It is now starting to mature at 16 years and after a good set up it plays perfect. I was a little upset that the other wise flawless workmanship was overshadowed by a hasty mounting of the pick guard assembly. The original position was off enough so the neck pole pieces did not line up under the strings and the pick guard was not centered on the lower horn. No problem though, I just plugged the old holes and repositioned the pick guard. All materials and workmanship were identical to the 60's era this guitar was created to emmulate.

Built like the guitars of old. All hardware solid and good quality. The neck is very stable and finish is holding up great after 16 years.

Not needed any support.

I think these are the closest thing to the real deal due to the meticulous work in wood selection, body prep/finishing, neck and fret work, pick up winding, and pot selection. The sunburst finish is yellow dyed body with red and brown burst and nitrocellulose finish. It is more authnic looking than the current reissues I see now. I have several other custom built Strats and have owned a variety of Fender Strats over the years. I have access to several vintage Fender Strats and have made my comparisons based on feel and sound of those great instruments. These are somewhat rare guitars now and are appreciating in value for a Japanese made guitar. The lawsuit headstock models of the late 70's thru 82 production are especially sought after since they are near perfect reproductions.

This is Japanese Strat copy mde in the early eighties. It is standard strat specs. When I caompare it to my American reissue Strat it is almost identical in size and specs.........Standard set up with 3 single coils, knobs and five way switch. The body is transparent blonde/yellow, relvelaing a beautiful wood grain that looks like ash. Standard style strat tremelo bridge (which I have blocked)

This sounds like a Strat. Standard single coil noise at high volumes, but that is what it is! Nice range of tones and good flexibility with the five way switch.

I bought this Tokai used, but it is a beautifully built instrument. It is nicer than most Fender Strats...and, I have four Fender Strats to compare to it! This guitar is built as nice or nicer than any of them. The finish is nice and lustrous, the wood is beautiful. I did my own tweaks to the set-up to suit my taste, but the neck is straight and plays without buzzing and the action is great

Dependable. Solid. Built for long term use. The pots are noisy and coudl use cleaning or replacment, but not worse than a 15 year old Strat!

Not applicable

It feels good, It plays well. It has the Start tone and attributes! I think these are great...especially at the price I paid a few year aog.. They seem to have developed a well deserved reputation so prices are higher now.

80s Japanese Statocaster copy. Cream-colored alder body with white pickguard. 1962 Kluson-style tuning keys, Rosewood fretboard on a Maple four-bolt neck. This is actually a hybrid between a Goldstar model (the body) and an AST-62 (the neck). I have replaced all of the stock pickups (several times), the 5-way switch, and have rewired the pickup switching to a 7-position design. The neck pickup is a Seymour Duncan Alnico II, the middle an Evans silent single-coil Hot Lead, and the bridge a Seymour Duncan Little 59(?) Humbucker. The volume and switch controls the neck and bridge pickups, the middle pot (originally the neck tone) the middle pickup, and the other tone control applies to all 3 pickups.

Sounds like a rock'n guitar should sound and yet it is very versatile. It can get all kinds of different tones and dimensions. The single coils stay clean and cut through the mix. They are not bright or harsh. I can mix all three pickups together in almost any combination. This gives even more flexibility. The neck is quick and thin but not pencil thin. It mostly stays in tune from fret to fret. The whammy bar does not detune the guitar unless you really get on it.

I have had this guitar for about 20 years. Yikes! It has withstood the test of time and is always at the gig.

I do most of all my own tweediling.

Bolt ons are almost always pretty tough. Tokai did a very good job of crafting very affordable and playable guitars.

If you find a stat that you like, it won't do you wrong. There is a lot of junk out there, keep looking for the one that plays itself. Cost is not always a determinate of quality.

I saw this guitar in the shop when I was looking at amps I'll never be able to afford ;-). I was looking at a Fender Blues DeVille 410 (I'd still love to get one) and saw this guitar sitting on a stand. It's a replica of a 62 Fender strat, with all the trimmings of a 62 strat. It had been modified somewhere along the line, and a previous owner put in EMG's. They appear to be S/SA/S neck to bridge respectively. The finish is an antique white with a few dings in it, and it's clear that this guiter was used a lot. The parts have some of the chrome gone in places and a little bit of rust in it's place.
The new owner of Turner Music said he rescued the guitar at a garage sale and as he fixed her back up. Well if he did, he did a crappy job of it. It had ancient strings, the wrong saddles on the trem bridge, and no bar. What he did was buy it and then bring it to the store to sell it. He priced it at $399 and expected to make a tidy profit off of it.
I traded my Steinberger Spirit GT Pro for the Tokai in an even swap, but it took me 30 mins to get to that, because he kept dicking arond on the trade value of my Steinberger with me. I got angry told him so and instead of going down I went up and started asking for more than the Tokai, like a case and several sets of new strings. He tried to tear down the Steinberger as "too strange, won't sell, can't get strings for it, wasn't worhth the $399", all in front of a crowd. I shamed him with a little help from the crowd on all his points. He then told me I needed to give him the steinberger and $100 bucks for the Tokai. EVERYONE in the store laughed at him, he backed away from that position, fast. Oops! The whole trade process came to a halt when I got tired of being screwed with in my opinion, so I grabbed for my Steinberger and told him to stuff it, I was no longer interested in doing the deal with him, and made him look bad in front of his other customers who's numbers were now growing much larger. He said stop, he wanted the Steinberger, but didn't know if wanted to trade the Tokai off for the Steinberger. I gave him one minute to make up his mind and immediately got four offers to buy the guitar if he said no. The others gave me there offers out loud and so he could hear them. Even his own employees were like, "Dude take the trade, and give him strings at least, you're not doing yourself any good here." '
Amazing, I walked out with the Tokai and a few sets of stings.
The store changed nemes, locations and I believe owners as well.

The guitar I wouldn't touch during the trade in the fall of 97 sounded great then and still does. The EMG's are truely awsome pickups. I play rythm guitar at church backing our lead instrument, the keyboards. On a few songs I'm taking the lead, and that is growing. For 90% of the stuff we do, the single coils are fine, the other 10% I really need a humbucker. I'm not willing to give up the EMG's or route out the body for a humbucker. I might be able to off set the need for a humbucker with the EMG SPC for a fatter sound.
As it is, the guitar's clean sound is SO clean and bell like it's scary. I can plug right into the board if I want and that makes our sound guy a bit nervous. With an SPC I could get the Humbucker sound I want, but I don't need the guitar to have a setup done again until summer. I get a lot of sounds out of the guitaras it is, from clear almost acoustic to highly overdriven and distorted tones. The guitar can do it all from blues, to country to rock to jazz with out a problem.
When I got the guitar I was going straight to my old Crate G-40c, but now I go to my RP-7 and then to the board. The crate is an overgrown monitor of sorts now...

The guitar was setup fine exept for the strings. I had to replace those immediatly, they were so old they had rust on them. Yuk! Other than that and the above mentioned saddles being the wrong type it was fine for a heavily used guitar.
Recently I noticed a slight buz in the frets below the 12th and discovered that the 21st frett is too high and needs to be filed down or somehow lowered. I raised the action a bit and it fixed alot of it, but not all of it. Being an SRV fan I don't mind the higher action, but that fret needs to be lowered no matter what.
The trem unit now works better than it did. Used to be, I'd bearly use it and need to retune, now it works better and the need to retune the guitar after it's use has minimized.

I play this guitar live all the time. It's been to 3 outdoor events, and more indoor events then I'd care to count. It's played on at three services a week, and it's my No.1 Without any other guitar I have to depend on it. It's rock solid!
A few months ago in the middle of a performance my low E started to buzz a whole lot. After the service I was looking at the guitar trying to figure out what happened, the nut broke. So, I used the down time to have the nut replaced with the GraphTech Tusq nut and had the incorrect saddles replaced with Saddle Savers, and have a new battery installed. The guitar works better now than it ever did before. I worry about it even less now.

The company is long gone, so the only support I have is myself and my local luthier

I've been playing for 11 years, and never owned a guitar I was totally sold on. This is so close, with the SPC I think it will become my first guitar that I'm totally sold on. If this guitar was lost or stolen, I'd be so upset, I don't think I could replace it. It's a one of a kind. I've had several offers to buy it from me, and if I ever do decide I need something ese (can't imagine that though) I'd sell it to another Tokai fanatic I know.