Please identify this Tokai Hard Puncher model I got yesterday :-)

[KF2B]

[color=#141414][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,]Greetings,[/font][/color]

[color=#141414][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,]long story short, [/font][/color][color=#141414][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,]I got this yesterday as a partial trade-in when I dropped off an amp I sold. I am not home at the moment so no clue how it sounds with my amp. Acoustically it sounds somewhat quiet with no noticeable resonance or sustain. The strings are old and pretty much dead so swapping those will make some difference there. It plays smooth: very light to the touch and light in weight also with no neck diving at all. Frets are nice - good job on that department. It´s has been kept well though the body has the typical ding or two in the lower part. Paint is still there so no biggie. Body is made of 4 pieces which can be seen in the right light and angle[/font][/color][color=#141414][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,]. [/font][/color]

The neck is made of one-piece with no skunk-stripes. T[color=#141414][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,]o add, there are no other marking on the bass other than the [/font][/color][b]081853[/b][color=#141414][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,] stamp on the back of the headstock (no markings at all on the neck-plate).[/font][/color]

[color=#141414][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,][/font][/color]

[color=#141414][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,][/font][/color]

[b]081853[/b]
[color=#141414][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,][/font][/color]

[color=#141414][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,]Now... I´ve browsed the web for hours and, yes, went through TokaiRegistry without much to gain. Maybe the info is there but I did not find it. [/font][/color][color=#141414][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,]Could you guys please help? [/font][/color] [color=#141414][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,]I am interested on:[/font][/color]

[color=#141414][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,]- possible date of manufacture[/font][/color]
[color=#141414][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,]- country of origin and [/font][/color]
[color=#141414][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,]- model number[/font][/color]

[color=#141414][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,]Thanks,[/font][/color]

[color=#141414][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,]J.[/font][/color]

[Geek99]

Id say relatively recent as the headstock isn't very fender
All the older jap ones I saw were very fender

[Treb]

The old Tokai basses came with a Fender shape headstock. They also had the old style logo, that looked like "7okai" instead of "Tokai". I had a Jazz Sound back in the day that looked like a 60's Jazz Bass. Lovely bass, which I had kept it. My nephew had a Hardpuncher back then. Lovely bass too. None of them had that gibberish on the headstock.
This one is a more recent one.

[Bassassin]

Looking at the more recent catalogues on Tokai Register, your bass is very similar (or, identical as far as I can see!) to the APB32 model which appears in catalogues between 1995 & 2000:



Regarding the date, I've read that Tokai's Fender clones don't use date-decodable S/Ns, although this doesn't seem very likely to me. I'm not really familiar enough with Tokais to have educated opinion on country of manufacture - but my MIJ Talbo reissue (from 2000-ish) doesn't state a country of manufacture anywhere, so the same may be the case for the Fender copies.

So, mid/late 90s APB32, from where I'm sitting. Unless anyone else knows different...

Jon.

[KF2B]

Hi mate,

thanks for the "vote". I asked the same in Talkbass and a guy there thinks it´s a APB-40. Darn if these Tokai´s are a hard to tell apart from each other...

Anyway it´s seems recent, probably Chinese made and most likely with a body made of Agathis. Let´s see if someone else casts a vote on model this is.

[Bassassin]

[quote name='KF2B' timestamp='1435956702' post='2814047']
Hi mate,

thanks for the "vote". I asked the same in Talkbass and a guy there thinks it´s a APB-40. Darn if these Tokai´s are a hard to tell apart from each other...
[/quote]

If it's recent, chances are it is an APB40, but still the same bass. For some reason, Japanese manufacturers (Tokai's a Japanese brand, wherever they're made) almost always derive their model numbers from the list price in Yen - APB32 costs 32,000 Yen, APB40 will be 40,000 etc.

It's not just Tokai who do this - Greco were using the same system at the beginning of the 70s, and still do. Odd!

[Geek99]

[quote name='Bassassin' timestamp='1435935438' post='2813808']
Looking at the more recent catalogues on Tokai Register, your bass is very similar (or, identical as far as I can see!) to the APB32 model which appears in catalogues between 1995 & 2000:



Regarding the date, I've read that Tokai's Fender clones don't use date-decodable S/Ns, although this doesn't seem very likely to me. I'm not really familiar enough with Tokais to have educated opinion on country of manufacture - but my MIJ Talbo reissue (from 2000-ish) doesn't state a country of manufacture anywhere, so the same may be the case for the Fender copies.

So, mid/late 90s APB32, from where I'm sitting. Unless anyone else knows different...

Jon.
[/quote]
I had a fender clone with a date decode able sn. Made in 1990 so I disagrer

[Bassassin]

[quote name='Geek99' timestamp='1435989305' post='2814152']
I had a fender clone with a date decode able sn. Made in 1990 so I disagrer
[/quote]

'Kay - so how does the date code work? Got a link to the necessary info?

As I said, that was just a bit of (mis)information I picked up somewhere, & I would expect it's not necessarily right - certainly not for recent basses anyway.