Tokai Silver Star SS-38

About the Tokai Silver Star SS-38

The SS-38 is the bottom grade of the Silver Star, Tokai's early-1980s big-headstock Strat, a copy of the then-current seventies Fender rather than a reissue, with a standard pickup selection. It carries the cheapest electrics of the range (unmarked black-bottom pickups and rough soldering where the higher grades have grey-bottom U-stamped units), trapezoid tuners and a grade sticker at the base of the neck; a metallic colour was a 5,000-yen upgrade that made it a TSS40, MB in the body being Metallic Blue, and custom orders in Lake Placid Blue came out of the Hamamatsu factory. An early-1980s SS38 can also carry unstamped grey-bottom pickups with cloth wire that look like U or E units without the letter, Tokai's own make, told by the purple-brown copper wind and bevelled-edge pole pieces (Fender's and Gotoh's are flat with a sharp edge), sitting between the ceramic bottom-end units and the stamped grades; every Tokai of the period has a bone nut. The Silver Stars are held to be no lower in quality than the Springy Sounds or Goldstars, Tokai priced an SS-60, ST-60 and TST-60 the same. Owners date theirs from the early 1980s to 1985. Schaller tuners in place of the trapezoid originals are called so much better; if a pickup goes dead after the guitar has travelled or been laid on a bench without strings, suspect the selector switch, which takes the weight of the instrument and gets dirty or damaged.

In one paragraph

The page's figures as one paragraph, assembled for quoting; not written by hand.

Sellers are asking a median of €770 for the Tokai Silver Star SS-38 today, 108% over the €370 it actually sells for (10 recorded sales, last 24 months; most sold between €340 and €460). There are 36 listings live right now across eBay United States, eBay Germany, from €310 asking. Figures computed 19 October 2026 by Doirado from cross-platform listing data.

What owners have said elsewhere

Paraphrased from 10 discussion threads among 17 owners, 2021-2026. No names, nothing quoted.

The lower-grade Silver Stars are called great guitars once the hardware and pickups are upgraded, with no difference in build quality from the dearer Tokai Strats; a Lake Placid Blue SS-38 was snapped up the morning it appeared and its pickups called great-sounding, a 1985 was restored into a Black Strat tribute for Gilmour solos, and one tinkerer rates the unlabelled Tokai middle pickup from an SS38 part of the best single-coil set going, the perfect middle for an E-stamp set.