Tokai Five-Star

This is the second Five-Star I have picked up, the first one went to my nephew so it would stay in the family. This one has been modified as the frets from the 12th on are now scalloped, and the pickups are likely not stock. It has a few more features than the other one I reviewed, namely a second pickup with the prerequisite pickup selector switch, a rosewood fingerboard, and a faux creme binding around the body. I did not buy this because of the plethora of features, however...

Here we go...I was itching to plug this in to see if it sounded like the single-humbucker model I had, but...it sounds terrible! It sounds nasty, as if someone permanently tapped the 'buckers for the humbucker-wanna-come-outta-the-closet-and-be-a-single-coil-when-I-grow-up tone! I immediately opened the control cavity, and, much to my chagrin, there are no extra wires kicking around; someone has rewired it and done a nice job, the only problem being that the pickups sound like 100% pure crap. Step #2 was checking what the pickups are, and they are a matched set of Ibanez Super '59s. I am not familiar with these, but they gotta go! I cannot believe Ibanez would make pickups that look this good sound so horrible, but it sure doesn't look as if there is any wrong way to wire these up, as no matter how closely I look there are only 2 wires emanating from each one. Judging by the other Tokai Fire-Star, this one will sound absolutely great when I pop better pickups into it. Because they are undoubtedly aftermarket units, I will offer no opinion on this aspect.

Very good, just like the other one, but this is finished in black, and all the parts line up quite nicely!

These and Chebbies are built like rocks. Whip it, beat it, call it, "Edna".

I will not play this thing until I get new pickups for it, but they are a nicely built, pro-quality instrument with a lot of growl inside and chicks dig the wyld stallyn shape. Buy Tokai, friends. I will soon have a picture of this beastie up on my duo's web-page at:

http://lutzkibbutz.stonepile.ca/

This is a mahogany-bodied, bolt-neck star guitar built in Japan circa 1985. This era of Tokai guitar-building produced a number of sought-after guitars, and their lawsuit 'Pauls are commanding big dollars these days. Even SRV played a Tokai Strat in his early days and on the cover of his debut album, "Texas Flood" he is holding one, though the painting doesn't show a headstock. The "Five-Star" reviewed here is a high-quality guitar available at an extremely attractive price on ebay, if you can handle the 80s shape and are able to find one (I have only seen two of them within the last year or so). The features are minimalist. This is great for me as almost always take the tone pot out of the circuit for a more natural sound. The Fender-scale 21-fret neck is made from one piece of maple and is finished off with Kluson-type tuners. My model has just a single humbucker and a good quality candy red finish. A funky brown leatherette Tokai gig bag finishes the package. The trem is a basic strat style, the idea of which at first did not get me too excited until I realized that, Tokai being a quality builder, maybe it would stay in tune like the really old Stratocasters did! This turned out to be true and, with a little research and patience, you can get this to stay in tune sans locks. This wields a better tone than a Floyd Rose, and it shows........

This thing has one sound...hope you dig it! It has a great-sounding, mildly-distorted Gotoh pickup under the hood and the one dimension of tone it has is very, very warm and big with a more airy, open high end than most other guitars. Absolutely great for rock, which is fortunate as the looks would not lend itself to any other style. It also is very loud and resonant unplugged, exactly what I like.

This is all absolutely first-rate; no wonder Japaniese Tokais have a following. Frets are great, intonation is accurate, stays in tune, what else do you need? This is a big-bodied beast but at the same time relatively lightweight, which, to me, says that it was properly dried and contributes to the big sound

Built to rock and built to last, no matter how inebriated you are when you are trying to show off. This is a simple, powerful tool suitable for any caveman from any period.

There is at least a user-sponsored web page out there somewhere, haven't seen any photos of one of these on it, though.

A great rock and roll guitar, though I would rather have 22 frets, a rosewood fingerboard, and a Gibson scale length. I like this.