Tokai TST-56
guitar
Has sold for €530 over 2015–2026, across 20 used sales. Too few in the last two years for a typical price today.
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Not enough sold data for a typical price. 1 for sale, from €916.
About the Tokai TST-56
The TST-56 is the maple-necked twin of the TST-62 and Tokai's only 1956 Stratocaster copy. It arrived with the 1983 Traditional Series and continued as the AST-56 under the modified headstock once the logo changed in 1985-86; early examples wear the 7okai script, and some the modified headstock, which is why the Tokyo Strat versus American Strat story is doubted, they were sold in the United States as well as Japan. The 50 grade has a poly finish, E-stamped hand-wound pickups (U-stamped on some), Final Prospec saddles and a soft V neck like the TST-80's; the 55 grade adds a special colour for 5,000 yen. Owners date theirs from 1983 to 1986. Dating: a four-digit serial marks the 1948-57 copies, with 1101 to 1500 falling in 1983; the three-digit code on the selector switch gives year and month and runs a few months ahead of the build, and the stamp on the body under the pickguard gives the month; the block logo is the 1982-83 transition; E-stamped pickups are hand-wound and U-stamped machine-wound; and the colour code is in the pickup cavity, FO being flamingo orange, Tokai's fiesta red.
For sale right now
The best-priced as cards, a row of them; every other ad as a line, by ask. Each ask is the seller’s own number; the platform’s mark opens the listing. Each one says when we last confirmed it at its source: the price and availability are from that visit, so check the marketplace before you go.
Price history
Every recorded sale, one point each: 20 of them, placed by the day the ad went up. Too few sales to draw a trend through them without inventing one, so the points speak for themselves. Condition is mixed, so some of the spread is a mint against a fair rather than the market moving.
Recent sales by listing date
| Listed | Price | Condition | From | Platform | The listing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Jul 2026 | €534$599 as sold | good | Reverb | Details | |
| 23 Mar 2026 | €690$800 as sold | excellent | Reverb | Details | |
| 29 Aug 2025 | €846$950 as sold | very good | Reverb | Details | |
| 19 May 2024 | €869$975 as sold | excellent | Reverb | Details | |
| 18 Feb 2024 | €108$125 as sold | good | Reverb | Details |
A date is the day the ad went up. Marketplaces do not publish the day a sale closed; each of these had sold by the time we recorded it, in August 2026 and October 2026. A price is what the listing last asked, converted at that day’s rate.
Show all 20 recorded sales
| Listed | Price | Condition | From | Platform | The listing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Dec 2023 | €380$440 as sold | good | Reverb | Details | |
| 21 Feb 2023 | €561$650 as sold | very good | Reverb | Details | |
| 1 Feb 2023 | €886$995 as sold | excellent | Reverb | Details | |
| 29 May 2022 | €446$500 as sold | good | Reverb | Details | |
| 15 Mar 2022 | €625$725 as sold | excellent | Reverb | Details | |
| 28 Jan 2021 | €431$500 as sold | good | Reverb | Details | |
| 24 Dec 2020 | €445$499 as sold | good | Reverb | Details | |
| 12 Jul 2020 | €477$535 as sold | very good | Reverb | Details | |
| 9 Nov 2018 | €267$300 as sold | good | Reverb | Details | |
| 16 Jul 2018 | €519$601 as sold | very good | Reverb | Details | |
| 24 Jun 2017 | €427$495 as sold | very good | Reverb | Details | |
| 16 Mar 2017 | €561$650 as sold | very good | Reverb | Details | |
| 10 Sept 2016 | €625$700 as sold | excellent | Reverb | Details | |
| 30 Sept 2015 | €534$599 as sold | good | Reverb | Details | |
| 30 Jun 2015 | €441$495 as sold | good | Reverb | Details |
A date is the day the ad went up. Marketplaces do not publish the day a sale closed; each of these had sold by the time we recorded it, in August 2026 and October 2026. A price is what the listing last asked, converted at that day’s rate.
Cheapest live: United States €916 · before shipping
20 recorded sales of the Tokai TST-56 from 2015–2026, all-time around €530. Too few in the last two years to quote a typical used price. Cheapest live €916 before shipping. Figures computed 18 October 2026.
What owners have said elsewhere
Paraphrased from 19 discussion threads among 14 owners, 2021-2026. No names, nothing quoted.
The TST-56 is praised above all for its neck, the best one owner has played, and identical in feel to a genuine 1956 Stratocaster tried at a Nashville vintage dealer for another; the 56 and 62 are called the best necks Tokai made and its most underrated Strats, with the craftsmanship the best of the company's Strats; one owner prefers the 56's soft V to an AST-62, another has kept a 1985 since 1986 changing only the bridge pickup, and set against a Fender American Vintage 56 it is said to hang. Modifications are common but modest: Lollar or Manlius sets and refrets on one owner's three, a hand-signed Texas Hot in another's bridge since the 1980s, a Seymour Duncan Hot Stack in a hardtail partscaster, while the E-stamped originals are prized enough that an owner who lost one still hunts a replacement.