One of the more storied vintage Japanese Strat-style guitars, the Springy Sound models were celebrated upon their introduction for being a faithful, high-quality spin on the classic Fender platform, even finding their way into the hands of players like Stevie Ray Vaughn and Billy Gibbons. Seegs, how is your Burny LP Jr.? I rate my late 80's Burny LP on par with the best off the rack production Gibson of today.Up for sale, a 1981 Tokai Springy Sound model ST-55 MR in excellent, 100% original condition and in perfect working order, boasting a custom color Metallic Red) finish with matching headstock and complete with the original Tokai-branded gigbag and hangtags. It's the reason I am not a big fan of modern MIC or MIM as I don't think they hold a candle to the aforementioned though for the record, I do prefer modern specs but I still like a few Fender style with vintage specs as it feels like home and the Gibsons do not have that issue. I went for a number of years in the past when they were a steal where I would refrain from posting about the MIJ gems as I was afraid it would affect my below the radar purchases, but have since acquired and kept the best of the best and many friends have the others so I now jump at every chance to spread the word though there are the naysayers. However sen is not a part of the ash family, in fact Japanese alder. The amazing consistency was a trademark of the best early MIJ guitars, great necks, superb workmanship, and in the case of the SQ's and many Grecos(not sure about Tokai), I think one of the secret ingredients were the sen ash bodies (JV's were not sen as far as I know)as the bodies are so well balanced and "lively." Talk about a guitar sounding great acoustically. But the Tokai Springy's and some Grecos of the similar era overall had an even better reputation. My personal favorites in Fender style due to reasonable price, availability and excellence, are the SQ Squiers. I can't wait until I hear your report on the guitar Seegs but I don't know many MIJ that do not need a pickup change no matter how good a guitar. I love a discussion on the best of the early year(through 80's)MIJ guitars. If you check out the headstock even the decal looks like the Fender but the you see things like "Springy Sound" in place of "Stratocaster" and "Oldies but Goldies" in place of "Original Contoured Body" smi ![]() ![]() This was obviously a "lawsuit" guitar in that every detail of a 1956 strat was slavishly copied. I remember a bunch of the Starcaster semi hollow guitars lying around. The guitar teacher I had at the time steered me into this Strat copy that he explained was part of what they bought from Fender wheen Fender moved out of the Fullerton factory.they blew out all the junk lying around that they really couldn't sell and this was part of a truckload of gear they had bought. I was taking guitar lessons at Sightsinger Music here in Orange and every Saturday I would drool over whatever they had on display. I had been playing guitar for only a few months in 1986 and was already looking past my $110 Memphis strat copy at Charvels and Kramers. This is something of a review of my very first nice strat.
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