Tokai: Jap copies: any good?

I've seen some ads in the UK guitar mags for Tokai

Mike Whittaker is a Tokai fan, so he'll no doubt fill you in, but, the 1980s Tokai Breezysound was an absolute killer Tele copy. Unfortunately, they now fetch rather a lot of money on the 2nd hand market.

They have some 80's Tokai Breezysound guitars at http://www.wizardguitars.com

I used to have a Tokai 'strat' in the 80's which I loved and stupidly sold when I decided I didn't want to play guitar any longer. Years later, I've realised the error of my ways and regret that stupid moment of madness. I now have a Mexican Strat and it's not as nice to play as the Tokai was, or maybe my memory is playing tricks on me. Strange how age makes you remember the 'good old days' as being better than the reality probably was!

Kevin

There's an article with the early history, including the model Stevie Ray Vaughan played: www.flyingvintage.com/gcmag/srv.html

AFAIK the models sold in the UK were affected differently by the Fender lawsuit, eg the headstock remained the same shape here. The headstock logo on the earliest ones had Fender-style writing and the 'T' was shaped like the Fender 'F' ie '7okai'. After Fender complained these were changed to block capitals 'TOKAI', then an elaborate scripted logo and finally back to the Fender-style writing, except with a normally shaped 'T'.

I picked up one of the final logo models (3-tone sunburst & maple neck) along with a 2x12 for GBP150 about 10 years ago. A mate has a 'TOKAI' that sounded better (more bass) until I replaced my pups with Dave White 'Old Glory's, now they sound similar (his has a rosewood fboard). The Tokais on www.wizardguitars.com seem overpriced - I've seen second hand models in shops for GBP200-300.

Sorry, I'm talking about *new* Tokais I've seen advertised. http://www.tokai-guitars.co.uk

I had a Tokai 54 Strat copy it was good but unfortunatley it suffered all the dreaded drawbacks of the real thing , ie string choking , unstable vibrato , shit p ups . If you get offered one cheap , buy it , if not go for a Yamaha , or an Ibanez .....!