According to Tokai's catalogs of the time, the E and U are essentially the same pickup, but hand-wound vs machine-wound. The output/resistance value varies quite a lot, but as a general rule, U's tend to be slightly hotter, in the 6-6.2k range, with the E's around 5.7 - 6k or so. But they are quite similar in character, at least to my ears. The manufacturer is believed to be Gotoh.
I have never played a Tokai with U stamped pickups, this one has the E. If the hand wound info is correct I would expect some variation within the E pickups and more consistency within the Us?
@@LostPlectrum I hadn't given much thought tbh, so I broke out my spare parts box and came out with four E-stamps and no less than 11 U's (yeah I know, but that's what a dozen years of MIJ guitar collecting and a packrat mentality can do to you... ). The U's were between 6.02 and 6.40 kOhms with most being around 6.20. The E's were 5.54, 6.23, 5.95 and 6.24k, so yeah, a bigger variation. On the other hand, the U's varied quite a lot as well. But I don't think production was fully automated in the early 80, it was likely done with a machine with a wind counter monitored by a worker. I don't think it would take much distraction and/or stress to get the wind count wrong.
Wow, 16 sets! Sixteen!!! My friend you have been collecting quite a lot of guitars I can imagine! Yeah I can imagine those winders are going fast so it's easy to add few hundreds turns. Moreover it really depends on the resistance and resistivity of the copper wire, which also can vary.
@@LostPlectrum Well, not 16 pickup sets luckily... but 16 individual pickups is kind of sad as well. :-D But I think you're right, I guess there are more factors involved in a pickups resistance value than just the number of winds.
Congratulations for your playing and chanel. Great great stuff. I saw you are a "stratocaster guru". Maybe you can help me with some additional info. I'm unable to test Tokai guitar in local shops. Own a maple neck japan fender strat and want to buy a rosewood 60s strat. Was looking at fender vintage ii 61 option and now I ask myself if Tokai for 1000 euro will be enough for my needs and if it is really a clever decision to spend 1000 euro more on a fender. Can you help me or suggest any interesting option for 60s like strat with rosewood neck? Grazie e in bocca al lupo
Thank you. Hard choices... If you buy in the used market and you score a decent deal, both Tokai and Fender will retain their value over time, so do not worry about that. The used market is now flooded of guitars, all priced too high, therefore screaming deals are definitely possible. Most of these guitars are brand new..... This is my suggestion number 1. As per a rosewood 60s stray, if you want to go with vintage specs you may have a look into AV II 61, American Original 60s (only used), any AVRI 62 (only used), Tokais indeed, Vintera 60s if you want to go Mexican, Vintera Road Worn if you are into relics. If you want more modern one, I can't stop myself to suggest you the latest iteration of American Standard 2012-2017 or a nice Classic Player 60.
You were right indeed! This one has E stamped pickups! How could I go wrong is beyond me, thanks for spotting! I cannot change the vid but I am adding some corrections in the description.
I have both. love both. like greco a lot too! In this video I prefer the U pickups. I like the Excel pickups by maxon made in the 70s and 80s a lot too
Hi Joel, they are both great Stratocaster indeed. The Tokai is mesmerising because of its body, and as I say in the video the neck is really really comfortable. Love these old mij....
Nice presentation. Thanks for your effort. Not a lot of difference in the sound of the two but i would guess they feel a bit different from each other. I have 2 similar guitars that I love also. A Tokai 1978 St-60 Springy Sound described by the shop in Japan that I purchased it from as one of a batch the first ones produced by Tokai and a Fender 64 American Reissue produced at Corona in 1994. Both very nice guitars.
Thanks. Indeed they feel very different. The Tokai has a broken in feeling in the neck, and rounded fretboard edges, very nice feel difficult to describe. It's a ST60 as well!
I've got a Tokia, and a 62 reissue fender strat, the Tokia feels and plays better in my opinion. I changed the Pickups in it, and it sounds amazing. JJ' Guitar Pickups Australia.
I would recommend doing the tests "blind" and not reveal which is which until a following video. Why? The brand-bias. There will be a tendency to side with one or the other due to personal brand bias/loyalty. Let's see what the public picks when they don't know which is which. P.S. I have a Strat and Springy Sound, my conclusion is like some things better with each one, but in the end, to be honest, I have to say the Strat, is more "playable" than the Tokai which feels a bit stiff in comparison. Tone/Sound-wise, it's close, but a lot rides on the pickups and the amp used. But strictly on the more playable guitar rating, it's the Strat, but I do really like the Tokai.
I really like that Tokai! If I well remember both pickups were set to their sweet spot (to me at least), it turned out that the Tokai's ones were a tad closer to the strings. However it also depends on the wire type, number of windings and magnetic strength of the pole pieces, here we are comparing a 44 years old guitar against a recent one, there are a lot of factors that come into play! Do you own any Tokai?
This comparison makes no sense because the bodies - you left that out - are made of completely different woods, the Fender definitely has an alder body, the Tokai has an ash body. The ash guitar has much more force in the mids.
Well, there are way more differences, like the slab VS veneer rosewood fingerboard and most importantly, different pickups. The intention here is to show how two guitars inspired to the 60s are holding to each other. It's not ash by the way, it is "sen" also known as Kalopanax septemlobus.
Well, I agree for the bridge pickup but I wouldn't define harsh and brittle the rest of the pickups. Have you listened with a good pair of headset or directly from your device speaker?
BEWARE, the Tokai has E STAMPED PICKUPS, not the U stamped claimed in the video! Sorry for that, my fault!!! Thanks @joel for spotting the mistake!
According to Tokai's catalogs of the time, the E and U are essentially the same pickup, but hand-wound vs machine-wound. The output/resistance value varies quite a lot, but as a general rule, U's tend to be slightly hotter, in the 6-6.2k range, with the E's around 5.7 - 6k or so. But they are quite similar in character, at least to my ears. The manufacturer is believed to be Gotoh.
I have never played a Tokai with U stamped pickups, this one has the E. If the hand wound info is correct I would expect some variation within the E pickups and more consistency within the Us?
@@LostPlectrum I hadn't given much thought tbh, so I broke out my spare parts box and came out with four E-stamps and no less than 11 U's (yeah I know, but that's what a dozen years of MIJ guitar collecting and a packrat mentality can do to you... ). The U's were between 6.02 and 6.40 kOhms with most being around 6.20. The E's were 5.54, 6.23, 5.95 and 6.24k, so yeah, a bigger variation. On the other hand, the U's varied quite a lot as well. But I don't think production was fully automated in the early 80, it was likely done with a machine with a wind counter monitored by a worker. I don't think it would take much distraction and/or stress to get the wind count wrong.
Wow, 16 sets! Sixteen!!! My friend you have been collecting quite a lot of guitars I can imagine! Yeah I can imagine those winders are going fast so it's easy to add few hundreds turns. Moreover it really depends on the resistance and resistivity of the copper wire, which also can vary.
@@LostPlectrum Well, not 16 pickup sets luckily... but 16 individual pickups is kind of sad as well. :-D
But I think you're right, I guess there are more factors involved in a pickups resistance value than just the number of winds.
If you like this comparison please hit the 👍 and leave a comment! Which one for you, Fender or Tokai?!?!
Tokai is insane
It's a great guitar, really great!
Cool side by side comparison!!!
Thanks!
@@LostPlectrum thanks to you to making it a fair comparison and also a nice format!
Congratulations for your playing and chanel. Great great stuff. I saw you are a "stratocaster guru". Maybe you can help me with some additional info. I'm unable to test Tokai guitar in local shops. Own a maple neck japan fender strat and want to buy a rosewood 60s strat. Was looking at fender vintage ii 61 option and now I ask myself if Tokai for 1000 euro will be enough for my needs and if it is really a clever decision to spend 1000 euro more on a fender. Can you help me or suggest any interesting option for 60s like strat with rosewood neck? Grazie e in bocca al lupo
Thank you. Hard choices... If you buy in the used market and you score a decent deal, both Tokai and Fender will retain their value over time, so do not worry about that. The used market is now flooded of guitars, all priced too high, therefore screaming deals are definitely possible. Most of these guitars are brand new..... This is my suggestion number 1. As per a rosewood 60s stray, if you want to go with vintage specs you may have a look into AV II 61, American Original 60s (only used), any AVRI 62 (only used), Tokais indeed, Vintera 60s if you want to go Mexican, Vintera Road Worn if you are into relics. If you want more modern one, I can't stop myself to suggest you the latest iteration of American Standard 2012-2017 or a nice Classic Player 60.
in your earlier video you said E pickups. in this one you say U. are they E or U? just curious.
Actually you are right!!! I am confused now, need to double check in the guitar!
@@LostPlectrum usually st60 will be E bur you never know. just wondered. i don’t have any E pickups bur i have U.
I am in doubt now, I may have confused my two tokais. I'll check and let you know, thanks for spotting!!!
You were right indeed! This one has E stamped pickups! How could I go wrong is beyond me, thanks for spotting! I cannot change the vid but I am adding some corrections in the description.
Well spotted!
I have both. love both. like greco a lot too! In this video I prefer the U pickups. I like the Excel pickups by maxon made in the 70s and 80s a lot too
Hi Joel, they are both great Stratocaster indeed. The Tokai is mesmerising because of its body, and as I say in the video the neck is really really comfortable. Love these old mij....
@@LostPlectrum that body is great indeed.....
I will share some pics in a post soon.... It's spectacular 😍
Outstanding Tokai.....
Really!
It's a great example!!!
Video spettacolare... I miei più sinceri complimenti 💯💪
Grazie mille!
Congratulazioni! Che sound 🔥🔥🔥
Grazie Pauz!
Nice presentation. Thanks for your effort. Not a lot of difference in the sound of the two but i would guess they feel a bit different from each other. I have 2 similar guitars that I love also. A Tokai 1978 St-60 Springy Sound described by the shop in Japan that I purchased it from as one of a batch the first ones produced by Tokai and a Fender 64 American Reissue produced at Corona in 1994. Both very nice guitars.
Thanks. Indeed they feel very different. The Tokai has a broken in feeling in the neck, and rounded fretboard edges, very nice feel difficult to describe. It's a ST60 as well!
By the way, a '78 Tokai must be a very early one! Cool!!!
I've got a Tokia, and a 62 reissue fender strat, the Tokia feels and plays better in my opinion.
I changed the Pickups in it, and it sounds amazing. JJ' Guitar Pickups Australia.
Tokais have the mojo indeed!
The Tokai just has that spark that the Fender is missing! Fantastic!
And she has an incredible vibe to it as well! Do you own any Tokai?
@@LostPlectrum I do. I have a 1979 Springy Sound ST80 and a 1984 Goldstar Sound TST40. 👊🏻
@@soundofwinter I'd love to see the ST80 Springy!
@@LostPlectrum it looks just like yours in this video. 😊
I would recommend doing the tests "blind" and not reveal which is which until a following video. Why? The brand-bias. There will be a tendency to side with one or the other due to personal brand bias/loyalty. Let's see what the public picks when they don't know which is which. P.S. I have a Strat and Springy Sound, my conclusion is like some things better with each one, but in the end, to be honest, I have to say the Strat, is more "playable" than the Tokai which feels a bit stiff in comparison. Tone/Sound-wise, it's close, but a lot rides on the pickups and the amp used. But strictly on the more playable guitar rating, it's the Strat, but I do really like the Tokai.
I have to agree with you mate. Will consider a blind test for next round!
Bel video e molto interessante
Grazie
fender american pickups is missing that high end spark that people are pointing out
The more Strats I play, the more I am convinced it's down to the specimens, there are differences. Some guitars are truly special.
Tokai much better... I dont know if the two guitars had the pickups adjusted the same height , for a neat comparison they should be...
I really like that Tokai! If I well remember both pickups were set to their sweet spot (to me at least), it turned out that the Tokai's ones were a tad closer to the strings. However it also depends on the wire type, number of windings and magnetic strength of the pole pieces, here we are comparing a 44 years old guitar against a recent one, there are a lot of factors that come into play! Do you own any Tokai?
Tokai is just so era perfect!!
Actually this one had some not correct appointments, for example the rosewood fretboard with back skink stripe... They got it right around 1980!
This comparison makes no sense because the bodies - you left that out - are made of completely different woods, the Fender definitely has an alder body, the Tokai has an ash body. The ash guitar has much more force in the mids.
Well, there are way more differences, like the slab VS veneer rosewood fingerboard and most importantly, different pickups. The intention here is to show how two guitars inspired to the 60s are holding to each other. It's not ash by the way, it is "sen" also known as Kalopanax septemlobus.
I prefer the Tokai.
It's a great guitar indeed!
Tokai definitely
Wonderful guitar 🎸🤩
Dumped Fender's BS for a Tokai recently; all I can say is WOW!!!
Which Tokai did you get?
@@LostPlectrum A gorgeous Dark Cherry Burst Tokai Goldstar Sound; it's fantastic with an unbelievable chug and growl!😁 Love your video by the way 😁
Great one!!!! Thanks Anthony!
2,2 good sound...i have tokai strat silverstar 1979.
Were they already producing the Silverstar in 1979?
I love those Silverstar......
Tokai
Thanks for your comment!
Gran bel like al video. Ti seguo con piacere
Grazie mille, ricambio!!!
Niether! they both sound too harsh and brittle.
Well, I agree for the bridge pickup but I wouldn't define harsh and brittle the rest of the pickups. Have you listened with a good pair of headset or directly from your device speaker?
@@LostPlectrum from my usual high quality studio monitors. very used to them so know exactly how to comopare clips etc. how did u record them?
Good! I have used a Shure MV88+ mic, so it should be quite representative of the real tones.
@@LostPlectrum maybe its the amp then