Aria Pro II CS-350

i feel obligated to contribute. i bought mine in 1980ish. i've had a dozen guitars in the past 30 years. strat, les paul, midi, prs, ibanez, and have played many others.

i put a kahler trem on it, and settled on some emg active pickups back in the mid-80's - and it is far and away the best playing guitar i have ever had my hands on.

i was embarassed by the lack of 'brand name' for a few years, and it sat in the closet.

brand name means nothing. i love my les paul, but......the heel gets in the way, the toggle is too high, the nut sticks because the headstock angle it too sharp, the pots arent linear.

the aria pro II is a fast fast playing guitar.

i've gutted the electronics and put in active EMG's. the coil taps and phase reversals used to be handy. it sounded good originaly - but i thought i need to be like satriani or vai or the fad at the time. oh well.

it was perfect from the guitar store on day 1.
i added the kahler and a locking nut 25 years ago, and havent had to do a thing to it.
i've eroded some of the lower fret wire, but its still got a very low action and no buzzing.
its been to the guitar shop for checkups, but no changes had to be made.

this thing has seen over 10,000 hours of playing and it still looks and sounds great. it has a satin red finish that takes stage abuse very well.
love it.

strats, les pauls, and prs's are way over priced for their usefulness. my aria smokes them all with playability.

if you find one in good shape, i cannot recommend it highly enough.

my band "fans" still look at it funny because it isnt a brand name - but once they hear eruption followed by a blistering comfortably numb solo, they could care less about the brand name.

1981 Aria CS-350, 22 frets, C-shape three piece maple neck, rosewood board, Japanese ash body, 2 volumes, 2 tone, 1 pickup selector toggle, 1 coil tap toggle, 1 phase toggle, 2 passive humbuckers, transparent blue finish, fixed bridge, string-through body, double cutaway, stock tuners. This would be a 10 if not for the ugly finish. Bought for $170.00 at an estate auction.

I play metal, grunge, and hard rock primarily. This guitar is quiet when it's supposed to be, and loud when it's supposed to be. A real wailing tone. This is through a crappy Crate practice amp. I've plugged it into a tube amp owned by a friend, and it's truly fantastic.

Don't know, I bought it at an auction. Everything appears to be correctly manufactured, and the electronics are all original and work great.

It's already 28 years old, was owned by a pro musician prior to me, and is still going strong. There's some fret wear, and the finish is not what it once was, but it's dependable.

No idea.

Fifteen years of playing, and I've owned a lot of guitars, this one is the best I've owned. I compared it to a lot of other guitars even at the auction that where I bought it, and it was far superior to some of the much pricier "famous" brands. The only thing I wish it had was a cooler paint job. I'd like to fix that, but the headstock is matched color as well, and I'm afraid of even attempting to mess with it.

This is a 1981 CS350, CS standing for "Cardinal Series", and it was the first year of production, that I have owned since new. It is made in Japan, at the famed Matsumoku factory, and it's a handsome double cut-away body style, somewhat similar to an SG, just shy of 8lbs. It has two humbuckers, 2 volume, 2 tone controls, 1 phase switch, 1 coil splitter, and one pup selector switch. The hardware is chrome. It is a string-thru-body, with a 3 piece maple bolt-on neck with rosewood fretboard. The body is also 3 piece ash, in see-thru walnut stain. And the headstock is just beautiful IMO, the best in the business, and one of the nicest features.

The 2 humbuckers provided are Proto-matic V pups, and they absolutely rock! Make no mistake about it, this guitar can hang with the best out there. Not quite a Les Paul, but it has a very pleasing crunch, and a distintive sound all it's own. When driven, it easily goes from dirty blues to all out metal when pushed. Split the pup, and hit the phase switch, and the harmonics jump out of this guitar. The notes are clear, cutting, and right there, no mud. Does an admirable Fender sound when split to. The neck pup can also do a very classy, smokey, clean blues or a jazz thing with no problem. I've read that players have put flat 011's on this guitar, and it put's out a very convincing jazz sound. Sustain? This guitar has that in spades to. Surprisingly good for a bolt-on, but notes ring forever. Does some very decent Gary Moore like sustain riffs.

Well this guitar is now 25 years old, and I have had zero problems with anything. And it travelled the world with me while I was in the Air Force, so it didn't have an easy life! All the electronics still work as advertised, with zero noise, no neck, fret, or bridge problems either. My action is set to a low 2mm, and no buzz. The finish is as beautiful now, as when I bought it. Quality control is at least as good, and I believe better, than the present day Gibsons. This guitar is solid, and built to last, just like a Japanese car.

Absolutely reliable, and absolutely durable. I have played this guitar mostly with garage bands, and in the studio, and have never had a problem. It can cover most situations with little fuss.

I will however upgrade the bridge saddles and tuners soon. The originals are still working OK, but in the 25 years since this guitar has been built, there have been some major strides made in aftermarket guitar hardware.

I've called Aria twice, to try and get some info on this guitar, and while they were courteous, they had zero information to give me. It seem's that Aria Pro II was a different company than the new Aria company is, or maybe just the Aria USA distributor has changed? Either way, they have little historical info on their older line of guitars.

Hey, but they did send me some cool Aria ProII stickers for my guitar case!

In conclusion, I love this guitar! It's like a favorite pair of blue jeans, it's just so comfortable. It handles almost all types of music well, it's good looking, dependable, and it is an attention getter, everyone wants hear what it can do, and when they do, they are surprised at how good it sounds. I would hate to lose this guitar, and if I did, I would hunt down another, it's that good.

The Japanese guitars, such as this one, were once laughed at as cheap junk. But now that most guitar production has gone to S Korea, and China, these Japanese gems are looking pretty good, with there great features and quality control, and I imagine they will only appreciate in time. Get one while there still cheap and undiscovered, you won't be sorry

early 80s Japanese
22 fret
solid body. I believe it's light weight ash
volume and tone for each pickup. 3 way switch and dual coil taps
dual humbuckers
stamped MM on back of pickups could be mightymite from when they made awesome stuff
ash body maple neck rosewood fretboard
sg body style
string thru strat style bridge
aria pro II sealed tuners
gibson scale 5 piece maple neck bolt in.
included HSC

These pickups are nothing short of breathtaking. I think they are vintage MightyMite. Nothing like the crap they produce today. the neck pickup measured around 10k and the bridge around 11k. Ceramic magnets and OH MY GOD TONE!!! This thing nails the late 70's and early to mid 80's hard rock and hair metal tone like nothing I've ever played. Not very subtle sounding, but man what a screamer. This would satisfy anyone looking for articulate high sounds. The coil taps like all coil taps suck and sound nothing like a single coil, but better than what you expect from say, a mexi fender.

Hard to judge on a guitar this old. There are some dings and dents. She's had a fret dress at some point. Came to me set up and playing perfectly. The bridge is of Fender string thru style, but way better. The bridge plate is approx 1/2" thick and is actually routed into the body. I'm not overly impressed with the original bridge saddles, but they are replacable. The original tuners were replaced with a set of higher quality Aria Pro II tuners. stays in tune great. The electronics are original and will be replaced/upgraded soon. I'm for shure keeping the original pickups, but not mabey in thie particualar guitar. They may make their way into a FR super strat.

This guitar has obviously been well played and will continue to be played on a regualr basis. The electronics are all original. The only things changed have been a fret dress and the tuners. This thing has held up extremely well. The neck joint goes all the way under the neck pickup much like a PRS. I may set the neck as is is a very thight joint.

Does Aria even still exist?

I've been playing for 10+ years. I own a several guitars ranging from the $200 range up to $3-$4000 custom shop pieces. I have nothing in my aresonal that comes close the the unique sounds that this guitar makes. This is a touch neck heavy as SGs tend to be, but once I set the neck I'l relocate the strap pin to where it should be and it'll probably balance fine. I thought is was sort of a fate deal me ending up with this guitar. I had looked at one for sale and then listed a guitar on HC and was offered this one as a partial trade. This is a pro quality axe for $200. If you can grab one and don't look back.

Made in Japan in 1981. Some have called the body shape SG-like. True, but this guitar has a higher ?waist? and the horn on the bass cutaway is slightly longer than that on the treble side. Body is three piece ash, neck is three-piece maple with a 25? scale and rosewood fingerboard. Mine has the transparent blue finish. Two ceramic Aria humbuckers, two tone, two volume controls, three-way pickup selector switch, mini switches for coil split and phase. Through-body hard tail bridge. For those of you who get excited about such things, Matsumoku is stamped on the neck plate.

The design suggests a cross between Gibson (electronics configuration) and Fender (woods). While this is a versatile sounding guitar, it really never approaches a Gibson-type humbucker sound?more like a fat Strat. Even with both coils together, the neck pickup has the clarity of a Stratocaster when played clean. The bridge pickup is rather nasal through a clean amp, but really snarls with moderate to heavy overdrive. With both pickups in single coil mode you can get close to Tele territory. I have played this guitar through a SF Princeton Reverb (my clean amp) and a 30 watt Marshall solid state amp. The pickups are a little too hot to keep the Princeton perfectly clean and the bridge pickup isn?t musical enough to excel in this situation anyway. Mild overdrive to all-out distortion is what it does best. Blues to classic or even heavy rock would be the optimal uses for this guitar. This was my brother?s backup guitar for two years while his SG (neck joint, of course) and Strat (worn frets) were out of commission. It is versatile enough to have done a decent job filling in for both guitars.

This guitar was hacked and worn by the time I received it. A previous owner apparently thought that finish stripping should be done with a hammer and chisel. The top of the guitar, which retains most of the original finish, shows a deep gloss transparent finish. The back, which was gouged, reveals that Aria used seven coats of polyurethane. The fingerboard is a good thick slab of rosewood with medium frets. I find the C-shaped neck very fast and comfortable. The tuners are Grover copies and hold the pitch pretty well, but a couple of them are very difficult to turn. The bridge is nothing extraordinary: it is lightweight and the saddles are pretty sharp. The neck joint wiggles enough that you can get a natural vibrato by slugging the neck near the heel while sustaining notes, the way funky old Teles will do. There is speculation on the Rat Hole website that the CS guitars have bone nuts. I broke mine; it was plastic.

It is a survivor! Two years as a road warrior with our band was the easy part of this guitar?s life. After 24 years of obviously hard duty, the CS-350 is still a good playing and good sounding guitar.

Aria USA has nothing to say about these old Japanese-made models. I e-mailed them once and never received an answer.

I have been playing for 32 years and own four Japanese instruments from the 70s and 80s. I also own a custom-built Tele and guitars made by Gretsch and Gibson. The CS-350 was an intermediate level instrument that offered lots of features for a low price. If you can get one for under $150, it would be a good deal, but it would be silly to make a ?vintage? instrument of this. The set-neck carved-top CS-400, reviewed here as ?Cardinal Series,? is the flagship of the CS guitars and might be worth a bit more. But as we?re living in the golden age of good, cheap import guitars, I see no need to mine midlevel guitars from the 80s as a new vein of vintage gold.

Made in Japan, with two small toggle switches, then one big one. Two volume knobs, and two tone knobs. Two humbucker pickups. Guitar isnt' in front of me so I don't know how many frets. Beautiful glossy red transparent finish. A really good looking guitar. Cardinal Series is on the headstock CS-350.

I can do anything with this guitar. It's made me a better human being.

This guitar rocks. Period. I play a Washburn EC 29 - a rare Washburn shredder, with EMG pickups installed and this CS-350 can run with it. It's sound is very high quality, more output than my ACTIVE EMG's. Seriuosly. MOre bass, more mids, more treble, but the sound isn't as refined as the EMG's. Just a great deal and a thick sound. Sensitive and just awesome. This guitar has opened up my mind to smaller name guitar companies.

I don't know. I got it used. It seems okay. I'm not an Ibanez playing loser that thinks by lowering the string height you play faster. Actually, I used to be. Listen, if you want to shred, you practice. When you lower the strings it ruins the tone of your guitar. But if you play an Ibanez, you don't know what tone is SON!!!

So far so good!!!

Been playing for 14 years. I play a Digitech 2101 running through a Marshall 9100 dual monobloc power amp to Avatar 2x12 speaker cab with Celestions. My other guitar is a Washburn EC 29 with EMG humbucker, an 81 I think, and a EMG SA bridge. I have in my possession a Jackson SL3, which I bought to resell, but have tinkered with it.

This CS 350 has just made me so happy. I've had it for about 4 years and it was such a great deal. I just can't believe how powerful these pickups are and how great this guitar sounds.

DON'T BE A RACIST JACKASS. Japanese made products are equal if not superior to American craftsmanship. Seriuosly. Have you been to Japan? Have you ever driven a Japanese car? Yeah, they rock. So stop this "made in the USA" nonsense. Go get your overpriced fender and apply for unemployment, cuz that's all that american made shiat gets you.

22 frets, 2 humbuckers (coil split). Bolt-on neck. on-piece bridge with strings through the body.
Ok, mine's been modified somewhat. Stripped the finish off of the neck and body (too many bangs over the years - now when I dent it, I just sand it out :)). Dimarzio Super Distortion in the bridge and the old bridge pickup is in the neck (with one coil completely removed). graphite nut, some cutting and contouring over the years to give me better access to the high frets. I've had this axe for 20 years and it's the only guitar that I'm emotionally attached to.

Despite what you think, it sounds awesome. None of my other guitars have this sound. Tight, punchy bass notes when it's distorted (more distortion just makes it sing better). The front p/u sounds light and clear when it's slightly overdriven and bell-like when played cleanly. Looks like I'll have to try and find used examples of the thing since I can't find any other guitars that sound like it.

This thing fits me like a glove because I've been playing it for 20 years, but I'll be objective:
It's not a high-end guitar. The neck is adequate. Nice transparent blue finish on the bod (at least before I stripped it off). Solid construction. The electronics are good (still using the original pots - never been cleaned - never heard any scatchyness). I would put it in the same class as Epiphones, 'cept the pickups are better that Epis.

frets seems to wear fast (or maybe I play too intensly). Been banged around for 20 years and still gives the goods. I feel for people who don't have that 1 special instrument. It almost becomes like a friend. I can't tell where my hands stop and the guitar starts. A good friend doesn't have to be famous or come from a good background.

I really don't think anyone would really be inpressed with this guitar. I just wanted to pay a little tribute to this guitar that's been with me for so long.

Modified SG shaped guitar with hardwood body & 2 humbucking pickups. 3 way switch with coil taps for both pickups. String thru body tailpiece. 22 fret 4 bolt neck with rosewood fingerboard.

I gravitate towards blues stylings and this guitar is just fine for that, and most anything else for that matter. Lots of sound options with the coil taps on the pickups. Controls/pickups have no hum or unwanted sounds. Neck to body fit outstanding. This fact and the oversized neck heel (part that fits into the body) design contribute to the excellent sustain the guitar has. Good bite and cracks like a whip.

I got the guitar used and it was set-up very nicely. Since it has adjustable bridge pieces and a truss rod neck adjustment you can set it up however you want. Superb neck to body fit. Nice comfortable medium weight body. Tuners could be better. No noises from electronics.

It appears to be durable enough for live playing. Since I got the guitar used it was beat up real bad, with the finish worn thru in a few places. The finish was thick, and would likely withstand normal sane usage by someone who had some respect for their instrument. Given the apparant beating this guitar withstood without any cracks or splits in the wood structure, I'd say they build them pretty tough.

I bought it used, so I don't care about customer support, warranty etc. Since Aria is a relatively popular brand name, I'm sure I could get parts if I needed them.

I've been playing almost 35 years. I test, buy and sell alot of guitars. I am keeping this one. I can't believe that it can do everything it does for the price I paid. I am now on the lookput for other used Aria guitars before everybody discovers their value.