Guitar
guitarz.blogspot.com:
Here's quite a glorious Tokai Humming Bird from the late 1960s way before Tokai had gotten into the swing of producing such accurate and well-made replicas of Fender and Gibson guitars that those companies became seriously worried by the Japanese competition.
The Humming Bird is a guitar of its age. It has the same generic pickups that we see on other Japanese guitars of the same era, plus a very basic sub-Bigsby vibrato arm. The body horns are quite pointed which again brings to mind various of its Japanese-made contemporaries (e.g. Yamaha's early solidbodies, the SG-2 and SG-3) and the body has some German carve contouring around the top edge. The front pickup is angled a la Mosrite guitars. (Mosrites were famously used by The Ventures, a band who were seriously BIG in Japan).
I admire the seller's honesty when he/she says that it is "not the best playing guitar ever made by far, but more of a desirable collectors item". There's no BS and no hyperbole, it's just telling it like it is, and I wish more eBayers would take a leaf out of this seller's book.
Likewise, the pricing is not out of this world. The starting price is £250 and the Buy It Now price is £375 (currently listed on eBay UK).
G L Wilson
© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!
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- A 1980s Take On The Extravagant Tokai Hummingbird
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Guitar
1968 vintage Tokai Humming Bird - cool Japanese-made rarity
guitarz.blogspot.com:
The Humming Bird is a guitar of its age. It has the same generic pickups that we see on other Japanese guitars of the same era, plus a very basic sub-Bigsby vibrato arm. The body horns are quite pointed which again brings to mind various of its Japanese-made contemporaries (e.g. Yamaha's early solidbodies, the SG-2 and SG-3) and the body has some German carve contouring around the top edge. The front pickup is angled a la Mosrite guitars. (Mosrites were famously used by The Ventures, a band who were seriously BIG in Japan).
I admire the seller's honesty when he/she says that it is "not the best playing guitar ever made by far, but more of a desirable collectors item". There's no BS and no hyperbole, it's just telling it like it is, and I wish more eBayers would take a leaf out of this seller's book.
Likewise, the pricing is not out of this world. The starting price is £250 and the Buy It Now price is £375 (currently listed on eBay UK).
G L Wilson
© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!
- Japanese-made, Possibly Prototype, Tokai Tsunami Looks Strangely Familiar
guitarz.blogspot.com: Damn, that's a good looking guitar. And as a Japanese-made Tokai, it ought to be beautifully crafted and a fine player to boot! It's a Tokai Tsunami and while it isn't a copy of any previously known guitar, I think everyone...
- A Couple Of (probably) Japanese Guitars To Identify... Any Ideas Out There?
guitarz.blogspot.com: Hello Gavin! I am Bruno form Valencia (Spain). I'm a huge fan of your blog, I think that you and the other members are doing a fantastic work. Just wanted to ask you about two guitars which I can't figure the brand or model,...
- Japanese-made Silvertone With A Serious Mosrite Vibe Going On And Sliders!
guitarz.blogspot.com: I couldn't possibly comment on how this vintage Silvertone guitar might sound, but it's certainly a head turner with several Mosrite-inspired design elements (reverse offset body with German carve, angled neck pickup and...
- 1980s Tokai Talbo Blazing Fire Aluminium-bodied Beauty
guitarz.blogspot.com: Here's a proper 1980s-era Japanese-made Tokai Talbo Blazing Fire with aluminium body, and definitely not to be confused with the later Korean-made wooden bodied versions. In fact the wooden-bodied Talbo is an oxymoron, since...
- A 1980s Take On The Extravagant Tokai Hummingbird
guitarz.blogspot.comUnfortunately I couldn't find any information about this Tokai, but you can't deny that it looks to the Tokai Gakki Hummingbird like the Yamaha SC looks to its SGV predecessor: a toned down metal-oriented guitar....