Tokai T Bird

[Aidan63]

Please can anyone shed any light on this bass, https://reverb.com/item/34284507-tokai-t-bird-thunderbird-bass-pre-owned-black
the serial number is printed in gold at the bass of the neck apparently, is this Korean or Chinese production ? Vendor thinks late 90s or early 2000s, but I suspect it's newer, I've had a look around the Tokai serial number sites and can't get any definitive info about where the serial numbers are placed or how they format
Is it likely to be worth the asking price as I'll be buying without trying
thanks you for your help

[Basvarken]

Welcome Aidan,

This is more of a Gibson forum rather than Tokai. So our knowledge about Tokai may be somewhat limited.
I've heard the older ones are decent basses.

[Dave W]

These are fairly recent, I think they came out 10-12 years ago. It looks like they are still made and retail for $1299 Australian (model TB-65). Not retailed in the US, so I can't comment on the quality, but the price for the one on Reverb sure seems reasonable for mint condition.

[TBird1958]

The shape of the pickups remind me of the ones Epiphone uses on their bolt on model.

[doombass]

Like Dave said they were sold new 10-(I'll stretch it to) 15 years ago and IIRC the price then was around 500£ (I'm not sure they were offered on the U.S market but several online stores in the U.K had them). I'd say they are pretty much like the standard bolt-on neck Epiphone Thunderbird but set neck.

[Alanko]

I had one of these for a while. Set neck, Fender-style bridge, black hardware and Epi-style humbuckers. Very little to write home about really. From memory it felt bigger than an Epi T-Bird. Electronics were okay; generic full-size pots and a bit too much wire used in the harness for whatever reason. The finish on mine was a bit brittle.

£350 is the top end for what I would pay for one, but I'm not in the market for one at all. 

[Aidan63]

many thanks for your replies; one of the guys over on basschat forum suggested here might be worthwhile, as you like Gibsons I thought that you would probably know a bit about the copies even if you just want to burn them, some of the Japanese instruments had some quality and maybe helped push Gibson into reissuing the old designs for those many who couldn't afford the few real vintage items

[Alanko]

many thanks for your replies; one of the guys over on basschat forum...

I'm banned on there. I think I said too many nasty things about the owner's BMW? If you get bored look up the company name that Basschat is registered in. Go to Companies House and look at their annual turnover. Next time you list a bass for sale on there and get tire-kicking non responses for months on end, ask yourself where that subscription money is going, as I doubt it is all swallowed up in hosting costs. The notion that you're listing basses for sale in a rarefied climate of fellow bass fanatics is a myth, sadly.

Basschat is like Talkbass in that it is very Fender-centric.

Actually, that is maybe a bit unfair. The Basschat model is to buy a B-stock Harley Benton P Bass from Thomann for £89 shipped. You then have to instantly compare it favourably to your mate's CS Fender (plays just as good once I fettled it up). Then you cut the headstock with a hacksaw to look a bit more like a Fender outline, and add a bootleg Fender decal from Ebay (but its fine, mate, because I'm never selling this bass as its perfect). Sand the body up to 180 grit (probably should have gone a bit higher, but it looks okay from five feet away). Then respray the body some '60s Fender colour using rattle cans. Don't bother spending too long polishing the body either (looks okay from five feet away). Add a tort pickguard that doesn't fit properly, one of those Kigion wiring harnesses (because nobody else on Basschat seems to know how a soldering iron works), then play through a 100 watt Trace combo from 1992 or one of those MarkBass amps the size of a small shoe box. Get bored with it and list it on Basschat's marketplace for £400 the next week (plays as good as any real Fender), but only once you've taken a sizable chunk out the finish on the front by hitting the bass off of something.

I never get Basschat's totally relaxed attitude towards counterfeit Fenders and totally uptight attitude to real Rickenbackers.

I also imagine its totally full of old English blokes called Bazza and Dazza complaining about how Covid-19 lockdown has cancelled their once-per-month cover band gig down at the Dog and Duck, playing to five people for £20 and four drinks vouchers (and I get Dazza's voucher as he can't drink any more). Death of the live music industry! I'm warning you now!

[uwe]

 

Alan did at Basschat what he does best, being a riot! They are still taking care of the debris there.

[uwe]

"Fender-centric"? What is that? 

[TBird1958]

Well now!