OPINION

In case you hadn't noticed, the snappily named Tokai JSD653 is an oriental guitar of the genus Super Strat: pointy head-stock, humbucker at the back, flesh-ripper tremolo, locking nut.

The British distributorship of Tokai has been 'mobile' of late. However, Audio Factors have taken over now and their first shipment of guitars has proved remarkably popular. So popular in fact that the only instrument they could find for us to review was a reject. "Scratched," they said. "Crappy finish, cracked fingerboard," they went on. "But it plays OK." Taking their comments to heart, I subjected the Tokai to the full Making Music Alphabet Of Abuse (Assault and Bashing, to Yanking and Zapping). One good trick — and we advise you not to try this at home, readers — is T for Twanging; forcing the trem down until the strings hung off the neck, then letting go. Ter-waaang! But the guitar would not go out of tune. At all. Holding it by the superbly adjustable wang bar, and (R for... ) rattling the Ayer's Rocker (ha ha) Floyd-Rose-licensed tremolo also did nothing. Very full marks.

The four-bolt neck joint was firm enough to handle cricket practice (N for Nets), though the finish was fairly easily (S for... ) scratched. But then it was a reject.

The wide flat fingerboard had high frets which resisted my (P for... ) pliers, and the whole satin-finished neck had a taut and responsive feel. That pterodactyl's head... er, headstock is made from a separate piece of maple, jointed at the third fret. Looks odd, but it saves wood, bearing in mind how far the angled head protrudes away from line of the neck itself.

The black placcy scratchplate, apart from being scratched, is too thick and looks ugly. The pickups are not EMG copies, but ordinary-looking Strat types with chromed polepieces. The volume and tone knobs resisted any amount of P for pliers, thereby revealing the absence of coil tap — a significant omission on a £380 guitar.

It made a very good noise, hard and wiry, kind of Strat meets Telecaster. The humbucker is noticeably less bright than the single coils, but is beefier and a tad louder.

DECISION

I didn't like the heavy and chunky body, which seems slightly thicker than the Fender original; this lumpiness is enhanced by the scratchplate, and the length of the tremolo. And I hate pointy headstocks (would that Wayne Jackson had been an accountant rather than a carpenter).

What I did like was the way it played and sounded. The pickups are well-balanced, with both out-of-phase positions coping — even against the added clout of the humbucker. It sustains well, wiggles on the wanger quite happily, and generally does the business. Maybe Tokai's hyperbolic claims in their brochure about design detail and wood selection are true. You can have the bits back now.