It’s clever how when you choose the middle and bridge pickup together the guitar just uses one of the humbucker coils. The Mexican Stratocaster uses single coil pickups with ceramic magnets to give it slightly more abrasiveness. It’s still got that Strat sound and character though. It’s overall a more raunchy guitar than the Tokai GoldStar, with less effort involved in driving it that way. I’d say the sound from the Mexican Stratocaster might be called less refined but it’s still great to these ears! Using the same amp presets you get a bit more bite on the cleans and more focus and bite on mid-gain sounds. Vintage, now rusting, shorter allen screws on outside saddles Vintage style, with sharp allen screws, high mass bridge block When bridge/ middle selected bridge acts as a single coil S/S/S vintage alnico magnets, standard vintage wiring H/S/S ceramic magnets, centre pickup reverse polarity, hum cancelling when 2 selected Yes, best to stick to clean and low to medium gain settings, they can really show off this guitars’ beautiful tones and picking response.įender Mexican Stratocaster 2009 & Tokai GoldStar Sound 1985 comparison chart When pushing this guitar to heavy rock, it can do it, but it seems to take quite a lot of fiddling to get a good sustaining overdrive sound that doesn’t muddy up, also you’ve got to watch the usual single coil problems with hum etc. I love this guitar for clean and low gain playing. The out of phase sounds are a lot more ‘quacky’ than any other Strat I’ve tried. They have great clean tones, great funky tones and are extremely “stratty” in my opinion, giving all those typical stratocaster tones you know and love. The Tokai Goldstar Stratocaster is quieter overall, the Alnico pickups are, some say, under-wound compared to most modern pickups. Slightly larger but not huge frets make the neck overall excellent to play. The silk finish is a newish thing (for me) and it’s great because it never seems to drag on the hand. The Mexican neck is a good compromise between this roundness (good for chording work) and the flat profiles like Jackson/Ibanez etc. The radius isn’t very flat on the MIM but the Tokai 1958 clone is quite a rounded profile. In general I think I prefer the 2009 Fender Mexican Stratocaster neck with it’s flatter radius (see table below) and the silk finish. In play the most obvious difference between the Tokai SSS and Fender HSS is the sound of the pickups and the feel of the neck. This is a more of a comparison than a review of these guitars as most people will know what a Stratocaster is and sounds like. Fender Mexico Stratocaster 2009 vs Tokai Goldstar Sound Stratocaster 1985 I’m left thinking why I didn’t like the USA Strat, all I can think is that I am used to maple necked models and it just felt weird with no feel or sonic benefits to the Tokai (or this MIM one I have now). I am very happy with this purchase and think it’s a really great guitar. I’ve often thought about getting an HSS Strat and when I saw this Mexican black one for sale including hard case for less than half the price I sold the USA Stratocaster for I bought it. However I didn’t get on well with the American Stratocaster and sold it, it never felt right to me and it was honestly a bit of a disappointment. Also the contemporary bridge was nicer than these vintage bridges. The American Strat had special bypass circuitry on the tone controls that would click to signify the circuit has been bypassed. This Mexican Stratocaster replaced an American Stratocaster from 2006 that I had, which was a rosewood necked 3 tone sunburst model. This is an upgrade to an upgrade because there already was, at least, one previous upgrade – the 2006 upgrade model, so I’m glad to get this version. The Fender Stratocaster HSS Made in Mexico is a recent addition to my wall, it’s a 2009 made and is known by people in the know as the 2009 upgrade model. Tokai Goldstar Sound, MIJapan, 1985, aging gracefully Whereas Fender re-issues are of the 19 years Tokai used to describe theirs as 19 for very similar combinations of necks and finishes. I came home with this cream coloured maple neck model, said to be a 1958 Fender Stratocaster clone. I must have chose from about 25 or 30, with all the different combinations of neck and body colour. There were lots of them for sale at that time, I went round 3 guitar shops in Leeds City Centre. I’ve owned the Tokai Goldstar Stratocaster since new when I bought it in 1985. At this moment in time, I’ve got just 4 guitars, these are two of them! Yes, two Stratocasters.
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