Aria!

[JMR]

post them. post about them. I love these guitars and I have no idea why I do. I must have one.

[CoqBelliqueux]

I think Aria likes Ibanez.

 

[Weiner_Bomb]

I used to have a 70's Aria II pro les paul custom copys. 60's slim profile, bolt-on. It was a pretty good guitar.

[cratz2]

 

1986 Aria Pro II The Cat.

 

There was an exact matching bass (same color, same year) on the Indy CL for a while back.

[kayd_mon]

My first guitar was an Aria Pro II Fullerton Strat copy. It wasn't the best guitar out there - the frets wore out pretty quickly, and the electronics were horrible. Still, the neck profile was ok, and it was really light. If someone put a lot of work into it, it might be decent guitar.

[peskypesky]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-1972-Aria-Pro-Artist-Electric-guitar-RARE-/270732046169?pt=Guitar&hash=item3f08e32f59#ht_3055wt_898

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Aria-FA-80-Electric-Guitar-EXC-ORANGE-w-TKL-Case-/280663730084?pt=Guitar&hash=item4158dca7a4#ht_500wt_1147

 

now you have me GASing for an Aria or three! arghhhh

[Surfdude]

My first guitar was an Aria strat. I see them on the bay once in a while but they are the orange ones. Have never seen the white ones. Wish I had this one back for sure.

 

Surfy

[Brainfertilizer]

Aria was made by Matsumoku before that factory shut down.

 

As such, they rock. Matsumoku made great guitars.

 

The Matsumoku Aria Pro II Les Pauls are known to be great products...they seem to go for no less than $800 on eBay.

 

But the other Matsumoku-made products aren't quite as well known. I don't know if it takes a tipping point before they are known and people are willing to put serious coin down, or what.

 

But my personal favorite Matsumoku product is Vantage. I have 4 of them, all grabbed for about $250, shipping included. All four are in near-mint condition for 30-year-old guitars...they have minor dings, but none go through the paint into the wood. From 3 feet away they look flawless. The tone on my Vantage X-77 and FV-575 (mine is royal blue) just about bring me to tears, they both sound like angels singing, whether with distortion or clean.

 

I have two AV-325s. One is blue transparent, and has the most scratches...but all on the backside. The other is a silver/gray (not an option shown at Matsmoku.org, but I'll send 'em pictures soon). Unfortunately the silver actually needs some work, because the jack shorts out...maybe just cleaning the contacts will fix that, but I haven't made the time to do it yet.

 

I went for the AV-235s because as much as love the X-77's tone and feel (among the best of all my guitars for action), it only has 21 frets. Plus, I never had a guitar with a brass nut, and the AV-325s do.

 

But to be honest, neither the action nor the tone seems to be as good on the AV-325s as on the X-77 and FV-575. That kind of confuses me, because I would think the X series would be the cheap, entry-level.

 

But this is a major thread swerve, isn't it? Only tangentially connected to Aria via matsumoku. I'll post about my Aria experiences next.

[Brainfertilizer]

My first bass (first guitar of any kind) was a P-bass clone, I don't remember the brand.

But I didn't like it. I lusted after a J-bass style.

I finally found it in an Aria bass. Not an Aria Pro II, an original Aria. Bought it for $150, sold it for about the same, back in 1990.

 

I still miss that bass, I regret selling it.

 

I'd been lusting for an Aria Pro II Thor Sound/Tri Sound guitar for ages, but they were always just a little bit more expensive than I was willing to spend. I like the Thor Sound because they are fixed bridge, 24-fret guitars with coil taps...not that easy to find among vintage guitars. The TS-400 adds phase switching and set-neck, the TS-500 adds an active boost (distortion) channel and a 6-position varitone, and the TS-600 adds neck-through and ebony fingerboard.

 

I finally found a TS-500 for $450, and grabbed it. It was everything I'd hoped it would be, except for the tone. The pickups were Dimarzios, and I guess I'm a Seymour Duncan guy. Plus, the varitone wasn't all that useful and I didn't like the distortion effect at all. So I sold it for $450.

On the plus side, I really liked its flat/wide fingerboard, and I did finally find about 3-4 positions that I did like the tone quite a bit. It seemed to be better for Loudness tunes than for Night Ranger, say.

 

So having sold it, at some point I'm either going to get a TS-400 (for the set neck and phase switching, but w/o the things I don't care about) or move up to a TS-600 (for the neck-through and ebony fingerboard). But I'm on a guitar purchasing hiatus for at least a year while I enjoy and learn the strengths/weaknesses of the 23 guitars I have, and do some recording.

 

But the last guitar purchase I made before the hiatus was also an Aria Pro II, a Magna Series. It has a hardtail bridge, maple fretboard, 24 frets, H/S/S, double cutaway with scallops, black strat-style pickguard w/ black-painted body. I'm having a difficult time finding any information about it, because all the info on Magna series either have trem bridges, or 22 frets, or lack the cutaway scallops. So it is possible that this is a frankenstein with a magna series neck on a different body.

It also lacks any sort of construction location identifier, no neckplate at all.

 

I think that means it was probably made in Korea, because all the matsumoku-made Aria Pro IIs have a neckplate w/ "made in Japan" and I think all of them have "precision set-neck" stamped in the neckplate, too.

 

One compelling (to me) argument that it was still made in Japan, though, is that it has really great tone. The Single Coils have all the character I could hope for in single coils, great for funk or blues or soulful soloing. The bridge/middle position seems to split the HB, but at some point I think I'm going to add a push-pull coil tap to increase my control.

 

A definite keeper...makes me lust for some other Aria Pro IIs, preferably ones I can verify as matsumoku made.

 

To the best of my understanding, 70s and 80s Aria Pro II guitars always had great tone, but my main complaint is they all had licensed Floyd Rose or vintage-style trems, which usually don't stay in tune vary well. I can't stand a guitar playing out of tune, and I can't stand bending strings on a vintage-style trem, so most Aria Pro IIs are barred from my collection for that reason.