TOKAI GOLDSTAR TST-50 1984

The first Stratocaster I wanted was, like most other guitarists of my generation, Hank Marvin's. The first I got (in 1983) was an early Squier JV sunburst 1957 copy, which I was never entirely happy with.

I saw this Tokai ST-50 in a small shop in Chelmsford in 1987 and loved the colour, the sound and the wonderful action. When the guy offered to exchange it for the Roland guitar synth I then had, and throw in a digital chorus pedal as well, I couldn't resist.

The Japanese firm Tokai were producing Strats with a better build quality than Fender at that stage - to the extent that the latter sued them and forced them to change their headstock to a different shape... but they'd made this one first.

It's in Tokai's subtle "metallic blue", and I'd fallen in love with the unusual Fender equivalent shade when someone was playing "Crossroads" on one in the music room at my college in 1971.

The guitar is as-manufactured, with Tokai VII pickups, except that I fitted a capacitor on the volume pot to get rid of the annoying habit of Strats of losing top-end when you turn the volume down. I've also lately connected the tone pot to the bridge rather than the middle pickup, and it's had a new nut.

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