Tokai Resurrection - Or "How I gave up being afraid of doing my own setups"

Mark Wein

Mark Wein

Grand Poobah
Staff member
This morning I woke up and decided I was going to finally try and make my 1979 Tokai Springy Sound strat playable again...its pretty much sat in a case for close to 15 years as I bought other much easier to play instruments...complete shame since it is such a great guitar.

Here is a review I did of the instrument a while ago: http://markweinguitarlessons.com/forums/showthread.php?1766-Tokai-Springy-Sound&highlight=tokai

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The first thing I did was take the strings off of the guitar:


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I had a couple of the ball ends get stuck in the bridge

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so I used the old "push the ball end out with a toothpick" trick

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Then I decapitated the poor instrument. The first time in 25 yeas of playing I actually removed the neck from a guitar:

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This was necessary because it is the only way to get to the truss rod adjustment:

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After I put the strings back on I put the neck back on the guitar Oops...I turned it to the left the first time :embarrassed:. Needed to turn it to the right to tighten the truss rod and take some of the bow out. Took the neck off (left the strings on the second time and just unscrewed the neck with the strings on both ends) and gave it a turn back to where it was originally and a second 1/4 turn to tighten the rod a little bit.

Turns out it was just the right amount...tuned it up, adjusted the pickup heights (they were too low on the neck and the bridge was too high on one side) and played it for an hour or so.

It has a 7.5 fretboard radius....the guitar is a total copy of a 1958 strat so its not going to play as nice as my Suhrs or the Les Pauls but I can actually play the guitar again and it sounds beautiful..I might do some clips with it this week....

:msm:
 
That is a terrible place to have the truss rod adjusting screw, but other than that it's always nice to have all your guitars playable. That is a nice looking Strat copy....
 
Denverdave said:
That is a terrible place to have the truss rod adjusting screw, but other than that it's always nice to have all your guitars playable. That is a nice looking Strat copy....
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I've always been afraid of taking the neck off and messing with it but I guess its no big deal. The green strat I have for sale will be getting a similar treatment this week and if I can make it play like this I'm keeping it...
 
My quilty Warmoth has the heel adjustment for the truss rod. It's a PITA, but it only needs adjusted every now and then. In fact, I probably haven't adjusted it in a few years and it's still fine.

My orange Warmoth has the heel adjust too, but it's also got a side adjust that's a 'fine tuner'. As long as it doesn't have a major bow, the side adjust can take care of it without having to remove the neck. I don't think I've had to remove the neck to adjust the rod on it since a few days after I strung it up for the first time.
 
Prages said:
My quilty Warmoth has the heel adjustment for the truss rod. It's a PITA, but it only needs adjusted every now and then. In fact, I probably haven't adjusted it in a few years and it's still fine.

My orange Warmoth has the heel adjust too, but it's also got a side adjust that's a 'fine tuner'. As long as it doesn't have a major bow, the side adjust can take care of it without having to remove the neck. I don't think I've had to remove the neck to adjust the rod on it since a few days after I strung it up for the first time.
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Most of my guitars are very stable...I almost never need truss rod adjustments although I think the last time the green guitar was done was when Puddle of Mudd had it set up for 11's tuned down a step....the Tokai has not been serviced in almost a 15 years...
 
Fifteen years later the guitar is getting another facelift. It's got a Warmoth neck on it and Seymour DUncan Antiquity II pickups in it but I've ordered the other older style of Antiquity (I think they are now called "Texas Hot") and a hot rail for the bridge mainly because I need a backup/replacement for my main strat. SHould be getting the pickups later in the week but I have four gigs this weekend so I'm not sure when I'll have time to do the swap.
 
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