History of Tokai Guitar

Tokai Gakki Co., Ltd. (Tokai Musical Instruments) is founded in 1947 as harmonica manufacturer.Tokai has produced acoustic guitars, electric guitars, electric basses, autoharps, and melodicas. Tokai has built a lot of Gibson and Fender replica models
over the years such as the "Love Rock Model" and "Les Paul Reborn" Les Paul replicas and the "Springy Sound" Stratocaster replicas and the "Breezy Sound" Telecaster replicas. Tokai has also made a lot of Gibson and Martin Acoustic model replicas as "Cat's Eye".

In 1965 Tokai started making classical guitars and in 1968 started making the Hummingbird electric guitar series and in 1970 started making the Hummingbird Acoustic models.
In 1972 Tokai went into a joint venture with Martin to supply Acoustic guitar parts and also build Martin's solid body Sigma guitars. Next year, the "Cat's Eyes" Martin Acoustic replicas were started.

The Tokai "Les Paul Reborn" Les Paul replicas started around 1976 and around 1978. Well, It was a starting time of "lawsuit" guitars. Tokai made replicas are very good quality. The wooden materials are much better than original Gibson - Tokai investigated the original 59 Gibson standard and analyzed.
Now, their 70's LS series are very difficult to find out, even for the collectors.
The price of these guitars are expensive than original list price as premier.
Tokai used several logo on the peg head like "Les Paul Reborn" and "Love Rock Model".

Fender replicas were started in 1977 officially. These were great guitars too. Using good quality wooden material with great craft man ship. "Springy Sound" Stratocaster replicas and the "Breezy Sound" Telecaster replicas are superior to the original Fender. Tokai has own factory and has built guitars for many famous known brands such as Fernandes and Fender Japan. For that mean, Tokai is only one original electric guitar manufacturer in Japan. (Note: Fender Japan used many sub constructors such as Fujigen, Dyna, Tokai, and Terada. The JV and E serial were made by Fujigen. Tokai made has "Made in Japan" under serial number in cursive handwriting)

Serial Numbers

Tokai uses a 7-digit number usually press marked on peg head back for the Gibson type replicas. Love Rocks series use the first digit for the made year, 10XXXXX=1981.
1989 made Love Rocks has 89XXXXX=1989. Reborn series use first digit for the made year's 800XXXX = 1978.

The Tokai Fender replicas have a production, serial number with no year information. They have
We should estimate it from the logo mark and other parts information.