Tokai ST-42

About the Tokai ST-42

The ST-42 is the bottom of the Springy Sound range of the late 1970s, a 58-pattern Strat like most Springy Sounds from ST-42 to ST-60, with an alder body of two or more pieces, a U-shaped neck, polyester gloss, the cheaper trapezoid tuners and no soldering plate under the pots. Its pickups are the catalogue's ceramic-magnet or ST-B type, though U-stamped and even E-stamped grey-bottoms turn up in guitars owners swear are untouched, which starts an argument every time; the ST-50 above it adds the soldering plate and vintage-style tuners, and the ST-60 the hand-wound ST-A (E-stamped) pickups. Owners date theirs to 1978 and 1979. Identification: E and U on a grey-bottom pickup are only sorting stamps, E is the hand-wound ST-A reproduction of a 1954 single coil at about 5.6k ohms, U the production ST-B of the same alloy at about 6.2k, and the pickguard carries a matching A or B. The grade lived on an oval sticker on the back of the neck that is usually long gone, so the pickups and the soldering plate are what tell an ST-42 from an ST-50 and ST-60; the neck and body carry matching month-and-day stamps, the switch a three-digit date code, and the two-letter paint code sits in the pickup cavity (MB is Metallic Blue, Tokai's Lake Placid).

What owners have said elsewhere

Paraphrased from 15 discussion threads among 20 owners, 2021-2025. No names, nothing quoted.

For a bottom-of-the-range guitar the ST-42 collects real affection: a 1979 in sen with a maple board is among its owner's favourite guitars, with tone like no tomorrow and a poly finish nobody would pick out, and it holds its own against any Strat once the pickups were updated; one owner calls it the best model of the range, the same body and neck as the ST-60; others simply call them great guitars, quality-made the way it is supposed to be done, and a bare ST-42 body was thought worth rebuilding with period Tokai parts.