Tokai Gold Star Tele

2003 Gold Star Tele. 21 frets. Ash body. Standard Tele set-up: Tone, volume, three-way.
Two singlecoil pickups -- again, standard Tele. Lovely black, glossy finish with a white, pearl pickguard. Looks very nice and resists scuffs and scratches. Two-piece maple neck and finger board. Very nice look and action. I guess it gets a 5 because it's a Tele, and that's as basic as basic can be.

I'm just a basement hacker who plays through a Marshall Valvestate practice amp. I love the warm, bluesy sound of the neck pickup as well as the chunky, bright sound of the bridge pickup. Great surfer sound from the neck with the treble turned right up, reverb on and no effects. Also has a pretty decent heavy-distortion metal sound. I can even get that Lindsay Buckingham chainsaw growl out of the bridge pickup. So it's surprisingly versatile for an inexpensive guitar.

This where things get interesting. The setup was awful and, as someone else said, Tokai does the cheap stuff really badly, but the expensive stuff well. The body, neck, tuners and pickups are all really nice. The nut and the pots, switches and input jack were a mess. Also, notes were different all over the fret board, and there was a sour thump coming from the sixth string G note that was barely music. I took it to a guitar tech, who tore out the pots, pickup switch and input jack and replaced them with high-quality parts from Texas. Then, he put in a bone nut, which he hand notched. Then he filed the frets and redid the setup. The results were amazing. The only explanation I have for the hidden beauty of this gem is that Tokai must ship Japanese body, pickups, necks and so on to Korea, and the factory still hasn't got its act together. The result is a guitar that needs to be finished. The good news: purchase, repairs, set up aand everything, with tax, came to $547 CDN with tax. I doubt Fender can match that.

I can't say for sure, but it looks pretty solid.

Nobody seems to know where the company is -- other than that it floats in space somewhere between Japan and Korea. Forget about warranties. But at the price they sell for, Tokais are still a great deal

I've played a lot of electrics over the years, but I've alwayss owned acoustics. For someone who can't justify paying big bucks for an instrument that's just for fun, but plays well enough to know the dfference between value and junk, this is ideal. I doubt I'll ever be tempted to trade up.

Here is a followup review to my previous review of this guitar. It's worse than I thought.

However, this thing does get a 5 in this category, the tuners seem ok.

The neck isn't well fitted to the body, so the only way to get buzz-free performance out of it is to put the action way up. No matter what I do with the truss rod, it can't be adjusted properly.

Also, the body has it's own annoying vibration - nothing visible is buzzing, so this thing may be hollow!. What a joke. This is by far the worst excuse for a gutiar I've ever seen. It's gotta go.

Just what you'd expect from a tele. However, let's not get carried away, there seems to be this idea that you can get a super high quality guitar - just like or better than your american tele - for next to nothing. That's how the story goes - "Tokai is better than the real thing" so they say. Don't believe it. This is a pathetic excuse for a telecaster. See below and believe it.

The pickups on this thing remind me of something you'd get in the 1st grade from Walmart. They are brittle and lifeless. I expect a ton of character from tele pickups. The bridge pickup is reminiscent of a telecaster bridge sound - albeit distant. The neck is dull and lifeless, no life at all. why isn't it a 1? for me a one would be no sound at all, a 2 would be scratchy and non-disticnt. Get it?

Guys, don't be fooled here. This is a cheap Korean imitation of the real thing - it's eye candy and that's all. Here is my long list of gripes:

1 - the neck nut was horrible, abysmal, atrocious. It's a soft, hollow, molded piece of junk with plastic shavings coming off of it. It was way too high - strum any chord and it's horribly out. I immediately replaced it and it was much better.

2 - the pickguard is atrocious as well. poorly finished, soft, flimsy, and poorly cut. there was a pointed edge on the horn. The holes didn't match well with the holes in the guitar.

3 - neck pickup is tilted and not centered in the pickguard. looks terrible.

4 - the bridge pickup is plastic crap with crappy looking poles. The bobbin is plastic and hangs way out.

5 - the jack plate is football shaped with two screws on the outside. how atroucious. no tele should be this way. no guitar should ever ever have football shaped jack plates. are they trying to imitate the '52?

6 - the 3 way switch is very very flimsy.

7 - don't look under the control plate - not a lot of solder (good job), but damn if there isn't a lot of wire sticking out that should have been cut off. and there's a lot of stray wire under there.

8 - neither pickup sounds very good. they are either too soft and dull (neck) or very very brittle and bright (bridge). there is no character whatsoever in these pickups.

9 - the body of this thing is made from no less than 4 pieces of wood. a good tele is two, this one is four. Cheap cheap, just like a good Korean junker should be.

10 - the neck is not fat like a '52, nor is there a skunk stripe. who are they trying to fool?

11 - the conrol plate is not parallel to the bridge - very distracting. i'm appalled at this.

12 - go ahead, replace the nut. then your low e string will rub the neck!

13 - action? what action. it was 6 feet off the frets and the nut was way too high. i had to set it up myself.

Gibson - are you listening? why would you sue this company? they are no threat at all!

There are some good points however:

1 - the neck is a dream to play. It's smooth, thin, and looks like nice maple, and once I set it up properly, it feels pretty good.

2 - in general, it plays nice.

3 - the tuners are pretty nice.

I don't suspect it'll fall apart.

Can you ever get hold of Tokai? They're always hiding from Gibson.

What can I say, I spent next to nothing on it, so I don't expect much. However, I'm really thinking there a lot of deluded Tokai owners out there who think they have some great replica of a real Fender or Gibson. Think again. If you spend $250 for a guitar, will it be anything close to the $1200 model? can it possibly be that the $1200 model is so because it took that much to make it? don't kid yourselves guys, it's a cheap Korean guitar. i give it a 5 because it's easy to play.

200? Korean-made. Maple board, 21 fret, solid top. No idea if it's ash or alder. Weird burst tone. almost exact copy of old-school Fender Tele. Had a gloss finish on the neck, but I lightly sanded the back with 2000 grit sandpaper. Smooths it out a bit, but I leave most of the finish on. People compliment my necks all the time! Vintage bridge: the big three saddles, and the sides that rise up. Basic tele. Cheap plastic nut though, but I guess it works, I won't replace it.

Sounded quite cool for my rock 'n roll. I play straight up, raw rock through a cranked up Marshall. All-rounding killer. Bright cuz of the maple fingerboard, but not too bright. Excellent tele sound, much nicer than mexi Fender. Only problem is once I kick in my solo boost, I realise that the bridge pickup is micrphonic. Not a problem unless you are a high-gain player. I threw a Jap Fender pickup in, it was microphonic too. Now I have a Fender Noiseless, and it sounds killer! Awesome sound, but subtract a point for micrphonic at high gain.

Fine action. A bit high for my tastes, but I didn't like it lowered cuz of the old school bridge. Left it as is. Top looks cool. Neck is a little yellow for my taste, supposed to look old. I dig satin finishes, thats why I sand my necks. All plays right though! It's pretty much perfect so far as I can see, only changes based on preference.

This guitar IS for live playing. I have an American Deluxe tele that I uh, damaged a bit at my last show. It was fixed, but I wouldn't wanna take a chunk out of it or whatever. This guitar is for gigs. Had solid strap buttons, but I threw locks on it anyway. Throw it around, kick it around. It'll stay alive I figure. I would never gig by choice without a backup, but that more me than the guitar. Teles are meant to be beaten, and they can usually take it.

This tele does not sound like my American Deluxe. It never will. But it sure does sound great, and I pick it up all the time. I don't need to worry too much about scratching it and all that junk either. I love it's sound, my only change was $85 CDN for the new bridge pickup. This guitar looks, sounds, and plays like a serious tele. Only problem is it seems a bit nice to be my beater! Oh well, wont look too nice for long! Let there be twang, and let there be rock!

2003 Model, Korean, Butterscotch 52-Tele Copy, 21 frets, appears to be a solid top. Usual Fender 3-way, lipstick rhythm + bridge p/u, passive electronics. Body is supposedly Ash. Three saddle vintage bridge, vintage tuners. Fat baseball bat neck maple/maple. Strap buttons were solid, but I replaced them with Dunlop straplocks. Neck is only adjustable at the bottom, and forget that idea bout just lifting the pickguard--you gotta take the neck off to adjust it. I've done it twice and hit it on the nose to my satisfaction both times on the 1st try. It really isn't that difficult to adjust just loosen the strings and remove 4 screws. Besides, I think a bottom adjust is stronger and I've heard horror tales of headless Axes from trying to adjust at the top. Nut material was plastic, I went wtih graptech.

Thing sounded okay out of the box, probably close to a Mexican Fender, which is comparably priced. The pups were a tad noisy, maybe typical of a tele, but give a decent sound for casual play. It pretty much sounded like a tele. Replaced the pups with Lace Sensors, replaced the brige (but it come with a pretty nice bridge) with a Wilkinson pivot (3) brass saddle bridge. Replaced the Tuners with Gotoh vintage locking tuners; I didn't have to make new holes, they slipped right in the place of the old ones and looked nearly identical as far as appearance. Only issue is the ferrules they send are a bit oversized for the posts and the originals appear maybe 6 mics tighter, so I left them on; the posts do lean a bit upon close inspection, still. I put a graphtech nut and a vintage round string tree to replace the flimsy butterfly tree common to these and new Fenders.

I've played a few dozen teles here and there, and I must say I'd put this one against about any of them as far as sound.

The finish looked so pristine, I thought it might be one of those photocopy tops Fender has been known to use, but after removing the pickguard, it seems like the grain of the wood.

The Maple on Maple neck/fretboard is in a great antique yellow finish.

I got it 2nd hand, but never played. The action was ok, now it's rather low and has a nice slinky feel to the strings.

The original stuff wasn't bad, but I replaced it with really good gear anyway. I also bought a Stew-Mac wiring kit (the pots looked really small, and I only trust the Tele half-moon switch. My Luthier told me the wiring and pots and switch looked decent and worked perfectly, so I'll hold off on further soldering for a while.

Reliability?! It's a tele what is there to go wrong?

I don't speak Korean

I'm a 40 year hack on guitar. I own a Frankenstrat (Am. Fender replacement neck, SD pups and lots of great gear--a greasy axe for sure) an upgraded Epiphone DOT, a Gibson SG/Melody Maker hybrid, A Washburn Acoustic, a thinline Tele, a Mex Tele, an American Jazz Plus Bass, and a Warmoth P-Bass with Active EMGs (I think that's all or most). I love the feel of this tele neck and freboard. At first appearance, it looks like a 52 Tele wannabe, until you see "Lace" on the bridge pickup, and "Wilkinson" on the bridge, and notice that the vintage tuners are locking you might get the idea I'm goofing on the whole wannabe issue--I am. This ax, albeit upgraded, doesn't need to take a back seat to any Fender Tele in terms of finish, electronics, hardware, and most of all, feel. Handling that neck is like foreplay.

I purchased the Tokai Goldstar last summer (summer 2004) and think this a great value. Granted there are some things that they didn't get right like the qaulity of the neck pickup and the pots. The tuners aren't great but for a couple of hundred buck all that can be remedied and you are still under the list of a comparable fender model. As copies go this is the only guitar for my money.

I've palyed and recorded with two strats for about ten years now and I was looking for something to add to my arsenal. This guitar was a good fit. Mostly becuase it gave me the tele look in a reliable package for a reasonable price. Sounds, looks and feels like a tele.

The factory setup wasn't bad. The store I bought it from set everything up so it didn't really matter. Needed to repalce the neck pickup as I found it didn't have the output I desired.

This guitar is well built. I plan on getting some new tuners for this guitar eventually. One thing at a time as it's not a guitar that sees a lot of playing time. After replacing the neck pickup I found a world of difference. I got a standard tele bridge pickup for cheap as a friend of my replaced his with a fender noiseless pickup, I think.

Finish looks great and it's a tough instrument.

I would never take any guitar on gig with a backup. Or a backup to the backup for that matter.

Haven't dealt with support but the guys at the store I bought it at are friends and take care of the folks that buy guitars from them.

I'm very happy with this guitar. I paid half the price of a fender but didn't get half the guitar. Which is what I hear about most of the tokai's.

I was curious and recntly bought a 52 reissue via ebay. Going price 400 bucks. No case. The neck is fatter than a Fender. The input jack is loose, the pots are cheap and the pickup is seated improperly. Hardware is impressive, Gotoh and appears cast rather than stamped.

Sounds great for the price point, although I'm going to replace with Fender 52 reissue pickups. Sounds like a tele.

Finish is sweet, the headstock tasteful. It was setup suprisingly well for factory. Also the the nut was terribly rendered, and plastic. Setup with 9 strings. For 50 bucks I had a luthier replace the nut and give it a proper setup with a heavier string gauge. Again, the neck position pickup is crooked, and not a quick fix.

Hardware's pretty good.

Bought it via ebay auction from a Canadian vendor. He shipped promptly. I felt a bit burned that the deal failed to mention the problem with the pickup but I never gave him the opportunity to make good. You get what you pay for and $400 doesn't buy much of a guitar.

This is a follow-up to the review immediately below (I have now owned the guitar for a year).

I find this guitar continues to please me with the range of worthwhile tones available. Two people with notable recording careers (a Juno nomination in one case, and a top 20 hit in the other) have played this guitar and stated how impressed they were with the tone. While the single coils are certainly too brittle and unwieldy for loudly overdriven music, they are an ongoing joy in the jazz, blues, country, and even surf departments. My 4-track loves the definition/detail of each note, and the instrument takes effects very well. The sounds are balanced all over the fretboard (something that still surprises me). As I gravitate toward jazz, I tend to use the neck pickup 90% of the time. Frankly, I find it a better quality pickup than the bridge edition (but I still can't tell if that's just because I have a natural preference for warm and clear over bright and snappy). I do know, though, that I am never dissatisfied with the response I get from the neck setting, but I am consistently (if vaguely) not as impressed by the bridge--it requires more tweaking on my part to get closer to the tone quality I want, and I never quite get there. Overall, though, this guitar sounds as good or better than any other guitar I have played or owned, all of them costing much, much more. The value here is incredible. I am still impressed with how resonant this guitar is. I think the tele-way of anchoring the strings through the body and the basswood body distinctly contribute to this.

Believe it or not, for a cheap guitar this was set up quite well. I've made adjustments over the year to match my needs. These are so easy to muck with. There were no flaws, and the tuning pegs (which I thought seemed dodgy) have actually been fine so far. Segue to the next category...

This guitar did let me down in a predictable way: The volume and tone pots needed to be re-soldered and, in one case, replaced by something more substantial. Annoying crackles were followed by intermittent functioning and failure, so $20 and about 15 minutes fixed them both up, along with the input jack (which was in particularly shoddy shape). Seems funny to me that the manufacturer did the difficult things so well and the easy things so poorly. I've had two expensive Les Pauls with much the same problems, though, so don't go all anti-Korean on me. The non-custom shop yank factories aren't any more consistent. I saved so much money by choosing this guitar that who cares anyway.

I've been playing since 1976 when I was a little kid who got a Simpsons-Sears guitar for Christmas. This guitar, unlike that one, has everything a person needs. And it's dead simple. Any tosser can play it or repair it. Even you. Ha. The telecaster style/sound is just so utilitarian. Any design that can be used so satisfyingly by musicians as diverse as The Gruesomes and Ed Bickert just has to have something to offer everyone.

Tokai's version is truly worth being checked out by anyone with an open mind, a clue about what to look for, and a love of good value.

Mine matches predictably well with my Fender Princeton Reverb (circa 1979). Like the guitar, that amp is simple and understated, but makes a reliable, balanced noise that responds to what YOU put into it.

Tokai has been well-respected in Canada and the UK for ages. Get hip to it, yanks. This is a hot tip.

I have the same guitar (colour and everything) as the fellow immediately below me. Butterscotch blonde, Korean, etc., etc., the body is made of basswood...and is very soft/easily dinged. Good weight to it (or lack thereof...). It's not fair to rate the features, because it's just copying a telecaster, and so one buys it expecting/knowing those limitations and particular strenghts.

I compared this guitar to various price levels of Fender (a Mexican tele, and a 1952 reissue for the ridiculous price of $1,800, and a mid-priced, or regular model). I believe marketing and American protectionism/prejudice have too long coloured the thinking of guitar consumers. The Mexican tele was definitely not $1,300 less worthwhile than the apparently coveted 1952 reissue, for example. And, as for the Tokai "Goldstar Sound" (hilarious name, isn't it?), it sounded better than all three in my opinion, though it was the least expensive. I find it to be more resonant, and with greater inherent versatility to the tone. Go figure. It can, to my surprise, do a fine job on jazz of all things without deadening out. In fact, I bought it primarily for that reason. The pickups have great detail and warmth at mid or low volume levels, but do let me down with some microphonic feedback and a bit too much razorlike tin when I turn it up too high. But this is not very much different than a full on Fender model. Telecasters in general are guilty of that. It's one of the opportunity costs, as it were, of accessing what is good about a basic tele sound. I used to play Gibsons only (Les Pauls and, most recently, an ES 135--a fabulous and versatile instrument, but too nice for me to justify having around the house waiting for my group to gig), so it is a big leap for me to go tele-style. I just adore the clarity and bass definition. And remember: I mostly play traditional jazz. There is an almost liquid quality to the tone up to a certain volume anyway. Just love it. I play this much more than I did the 135. I am less respectful of it, and therefore, am freer and more creative with it. I play it through an old Princeton Reverb from the 70s. A near-perfect match. They really suit each other. From surf to country to blues to jazz, it's a great clean-sound combination. And, there is the added bonus of still being able to wank on the Zeppelin every now and then.

For an inexpensive guitar made by a purposefully elusive company for what must be minimum profit, it was set up well enough. One always has to tinker with this sort of thing anyway. The job Tokai did putting this together was commensurate with the job Fender did on theirs. The neck feels great, the instrument is highly playable, and anyway: it's an inexpensive telecaster, so I can tinker away on it however I want without worrying. They're dead simple. That's the beauty of 'em. Three flaws, though, include the input jack (a bit loose) and the tone pot (frustrating crackle noise which I'll have to address...I read somewhere how, but I can't remember...hopefully someone can help me out), poor quality tuning pegs...probably the worst I've ever seen. But the body and neck are wonderful and invite playing.

This guitar will undoubtedly not be the most durable I've played, but Fenders and Gibsons fail, too, and not infrequently. The tuning pegs will cost me money at some point down the road maybe. Or, if I get prissy, the pickups, but even if they do, I'll still be hundreds of dollars better off than if I bought a Fender. So how can I complain?

Are you kidding? The company is half a world away and the Canadian distributor is apparently notorious among his few dealers for being 404. I'm on my own. But again, it's a telecaster. How tough can it be to work on?

While I may replace the pickups (or bridge pickup) at some point, that kind of defeats the coupe of getting a good sound out of an inexpensive guitar. As long as my group never needs me to be too loud or distorted, I will probably leave it as is. I'm convinced these guitars are excellent values, I'm extremely pleased to not be another Fender-wielding tosspot, and I enjoy the jaw-drop the tone earns. Even my wife notices the sound quality of the intrument is as good as or better than any of the more expensive instruments I've owned and played. Hats off to Tokai. Everyone should have one (but then I'd have to buy a Fender, so scratch that on second thought).

This is the KOREAN made version with butterscotch coloured body with maple neck. The vintage bridge, tuners and basic black pickguard bring back the 50's look completely. I don't know what the pickups are but they sound good. This guitar is a bare bones 50's replica.

I play Blues and Classic Rock and this guitar fits nicely. It sounds incredable infact. The stock pickups are suprisingly good but eventually I'll through in a set of vintage Fenders to really make this thin smoke! I've never come accross a more accurate tele replica and built solid. The tone that you get is pure Blues, very sweet. I'm currently playing through a 50 Bassman RI and Matchless DC-30 and this tele dilivers a solid performance. To think, I almost bought a real Fender RI when this thing gives me the same feel and similar sound for a quarter of the price. These guys should really get sued again by Fender...

Factory setup was very nice. Perfect hight on the strings and the action is very smooth on the neck. This guitar is a very clean looking peice and feels just right IMHO I couldn't see any noticable flaws, beleive me I was looking closely...These Tokai's are very consistant and well constucted guitar all-round.

The hardware is ask good as what's found on Fenders, guaranteed. The pickups are inferior to Fenders US models (lace sensors) but certainly don't suck.

n/a

EXCELLANT! Do not hesitate to buy Tokai.