by dave robinson » 28 Jan 2024, 14:52
In the early 80s, it was nothing to do with Tokai having nothing to compete with, as their early offerings were first class and as good as any Fender from the early sixties, I know this because I bought one and these are the ones commanding good prices today. They had names for these models like 'Gold Star Sound' and 'Springy Sound' and I never quite understood what all of that was at the time, as they were all excellent guitars.
The Tokai that I ordered recently of which I speak of being of poor quality is a different instrument altogether to the early offerings. The parts appear cheap and tinny and don't feel good like those 80s ones did. The trem felt 'awkward' and not convincing to me and the tuners were cheap too. The fretwork and build quality was not as I remembered and back in the eighties it was their amazing quality that made Fender take notice and eventually get their act together again. In fact the Fuji Gen Gakki factory who were building Tokai, set the example and that's why Squier appeared, now owned by Fender, to offer competition at similar prices and it is those JV Squier guitars that eventually had their logos switched to Fender Japan, with Squier product being manufactured somewhere else such as Korea. Those Squiers retained their spec and became Fender MIJ instruments.
Since then there have been numerous companies in Korea, China, Indonesia, Taiwan and others I can't think of that are now building Squier products.
It seems that they are all getting very good at it which explains the Vintage, Encore, Harley Benton, SX, Sire and the rest of them we see on offer. My guess is, they are basically the same guitars with various different headstocks and different logos. The pickups are certainly generic as they appear on all makes, unless like Vintage who specify Wilkinson pickups and hardware, but Encore who are owned by JHS the same as Vintage, use the generic pickups of which I speak, unless you buy their deluxe model with Lace Sensors and Wilkinson hardware , which is another great guitar at an affordable price.
Dave Robinson