Members dwne Posted December 20, 2009 Members Share Posted December 20, 2009 Hello, I just picked up an interesting used Aria Pro II PE-Series guitar for a low price, mainly as a curiosity. It's got P90s and a Bigsby-style vibrato, and a bolt-on neck. To my surprise it's a great guitar. Great raunchy tone through a Blues Jr, lovely neck, nice wood with a carved top, Bigsby stays in tune. I'd love to know more about it. I can't find it in any Aria catalogues, and there's no serial number. The pickups are anonymous. It says "Made in Korea" on the back of the headstock. Has anyone seen anything similar? Is it old? Should I be surprised that a MIK guitar sounds so good? Thanks, David The only similar guitar I can find on the net is for sale here and looks like this: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members -Assy- Posted December 20, 2009 Members Share Posted December 20, 2009 its a mid to late 90s model. Aria was never a big company, so i wouldnt expect to find much on it. they are mostly great guitars though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Super Bass Posted December 20, 2009 Members Share Posted December 20, 2009 DAMN thats nice!! Most of the late 80's/ 90's higher end Aria's made in Korea didn't have serial numbers. I guess it was due to the factory producing them. The quality on any of these I've seen is amazing though. My main bass is a late 80's MIK Aria Pro II. Beautiful and sounds excellent. I have japanese ones but I bonded with this one more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dwne Posted December 20, 2009 Author Members Share Posted December 20, 2009 Thanks guys, good to hear that they're decent guitars. I'm also tempted by the older MIJ Les Pauls after doing a bit more research... I might email Aria and ask if they can tell me more about the pickups, wood, model number etc. I'll post any response back to this thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members -Assy- Posted December 20, 2009 Members Share Posted December 20, 2009 They wont tell you much, trust me ive tried. If youre going to buy any 70s les paul made by aria, make sure its got a set neck. otherwise its 99% a laminated body. one of mine was laminated, it was only two pieces of mahogany sandwiched together, but still laminated. most were basically plywood. the set neck models with the gibson mustache "open-book" headstock are very very good guitars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frets99 Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 I don't know a thing about that guitar except that it's beautiful!! How does she sound? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members soundcreation Posted December 20, 2009 Members Share Posted December 20, 2009 If you go for an older aria try to get around 79 to 81. Those were kind of the glory years. And don't forget there are also the japanese made early PE's. And that series ran a little longer than the strats and LP's. Like to 1987 or something. They can be had out of japan for pretty cheap. Check out the matsumoku forum/site http://www.matsumoku.org/guitars.html Lots of good info there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members vintage clubber Posted December 21, 2009 Members Share Posted December 21, 2009 me likey! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members twotimingpete Posted December 21, 2009 Members Share Posted December 21, 2009 all I can tell you is that I chubbed up a bit just now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members zenbu Posted December 21, 2009 Members Share Posted December 21, 2009 I disagree that they were never a big company, they may not have exported lots but they were extremely popular in Japan for a long time, even now quite a few people seem to be after the older ones. The Japan Vintage series of books on electrics has 2 volumes with Arias on the cover...no other MIJ brand can say that, not even Tokai. Volume 5 has the Aria Pro IIs and Vo. 3 has the Artist series...both books have extensive articles along with many photos and a history of the company. I have two...a TS-800 and an early `80s Leopard LP type...both are great guitars. Interest in the outsourced models doesn`t appear to be nearly as high but the older MIJs have their following in Japan...and rightly so, they made some outstanding guitars...even into the `90s with their custom shop models. I was in the local Shimamura last week and saw some hanging on a wall, first time I`ve seen any there...got closer and saw they were priced around $2000.oo...now I don`t expect they`ll be selling any up here in the boonies but they are still building high quality machines. Aria doesn`t seem to garner the same kind of attention the `80s Tokais or Grecos do but they sure did build some hgh ends back then as well...get em while you can before people overseas start paying crazy money for those too. Got my Leopard for less than $100.oo a couple of years ago in a local pawn type chain shop...in the junk section!...not a thing wrong with it either...but I did see another Aria with no serial recently and when I took the back plate off in the shop I saw it was plywood...not a laminate top but plywood...so they certainly made a lot of junk too...those books have helped me a lot. Heres my Leopard...who among us would not have paid under $100.oo for this one... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members soundcreation Posted December 21, 2009 Members Share Posted December 21, 2009 Yeah I remember tons of aria's as a kid in shops. The ZZ model in particular and also the RS series I think. They've always been a pretty global company I think. I think maybe many people don't realize they were doing copies as well. The old strats are just amazing value for money....fabulous necks..better than ANY mexican strat i've ever played...low number of body pieces...mine is 2 piece alder..how many fenders have 2 piece bodies these days? And they are routinely under 300 bucks on rinkya/yahoo. I've seen some of those new aria's (on line) and they look great..hard to tell where they are made though. A few have some pretty hefty price tags so I'm assuming they are MIJ but who knows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mc5nrg Posted December 21, 2009 Members Share Posted December 21, 2009 Post the end of Matsumoku as a manufacturer, Aria in the USA has gone through several changes in ownership/distribution. I have no idea how Arai still figures in to what Aria now is as a corporation. At some point in the early/mid 90s- at least in my understanding- Aria US distribution/design was purchased by a jobber/wholesale house based in South Jersey(Pennsauken?) across from Philadelphia called NHF. In the years since then near as I can figure, NHF went bust or sold out and their efforts to promote the brand in the USA -they had some cool models- faded and someone else now has rights to the name and distribution in the USA. When Aria branded instruments were MIJ and the company was Arai and much of the product was Matsumoku the instruments were often very high quality. Towards the end of the 80s and the end of Marsumoku guitar manufacturing production moved to Korea. With the changes in MI retail and rise of megachains and monolpolies like GC/MF/M123/etc.ad nauseum in the USA, there is much less room for less well known brands like Aria and distributors like NHF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators The Eristic Posted December 21, 2009 Moderators Share Posted December 21, 2009 There were a couple USA-made Arias, too, one of which was the high-end of the "Fullerton" line. Wilk trem, locking Sperzels, Duncans, etc. I've seen only ONE in real life, and I should've bought it. One of the better strats I've played. Kick myself for leaving that one all the time. :^/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Super Bass Posted December 21, 2009 Members Share Posted December 21, 2009 I've seen some of those new aria's (on line) and they look great..hard to tell where they are made though. A few have some pretty hefty price tags so I'm assuming they are MIJ but who knows. There's a wide price range in the new Aria's. Some are Chinese, some Korean and then the highest ones are Japanese. I have an SB-1000CB bass that is one of the recent Japanese custom shop instruments. Very well made and sounds excellent to boot! Please do not confuse the 1000CB with the SB-CB. Huge difference, the other is made in Korea and not so nice. There are a few Japanese PE's now also, including the wonderful Supra. It gives me GAS any time I look at pictures of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Super Bass Posted December 21, 2009 Members Share Posted December 21, 2009 Post the end of Matsumoku as a manufacturer, Aria in the USA has gone through several changes in ownership/distribution. I have no idea how Arai still figures in to what Aria now is as a corporation. At some point in the early/mid 90s- at least in my understanding- Aria US distribution/design was purchased by a jobber/wholesale house based in South Jersey(Pennsauken?) across from Philadelphia called NHF. In the years since then near as I can figure, NHF went bust or sold out and their efforts to promote the brand in the USA -they had some cool models- faded and someone else now has rights to the name and distribution in the USA. When Aria branded instruments were MIJ and the company was Arai and much of the product was Matsumoku the instruments were often very high quality. Towards the end of the 80s and the end of Marsumoku guitar manufacturing production moved to Korea. With the changes in MI retail and rise of megachains and monolpolies like GC/MF/M123/etc.ad nauseum in the USA, there is much less room for less well known brands like Aria and distributors like NHF. Aria USA is just a distributor. The company behind it changed a year or two ago. The new distributor seems to be better from what I've heard. After Matsumoku was sold to Singer and stopped production Aria moved most production to Korea or other companies in Japan. They retained Japanese production in the AP Custom line. I believe that this then changed into Aria Pro II custom shop in the later 90's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JR13 Posted December 22, 2009 Members Share Posted December 22, 2009 I have nothing to offer as far as identification, but that thing is beautiful imho Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.