Aria Pro II RS Series Special

S/S/S. One Tone, One Volume. Maple neck & fretboard. Oh, and dig it, the guitar's measured in METRIC (still strat scale though). I think www.matsumoku.org has some more info on it.

Good luck finding a replacement pickguard (you'll have to modify one to fit).

I own an Aria SB1000 "Super Bass" from the late 70's, early 80's. That has got to be the heaviest bass on earth, but the build quality is ridiculously good for the price. So I'm thinking, a Matsumoku-era guitar should be pretty sweet as well...

...and they are! The second time they introduced the RS Series, Aria Pro II decided to do the strat thing. It's like the "vintage strat" for the poor-man--just about anyone can afford one! And that's pretty much how it sounds too. I must say, the neck & middle pick-ups are bad-ass. Maybe they've aged a little, but they sound crisp, full, loud and have plenty of sustain. I'm guessing it's a hard-ash body (although... it doesn't weigh a ton like it should), which would account for the sustain and the bright tone. The sound is brighter than most single-coil guitars I've played, but it never sounds thin & wimpy. If you're looking for old-school sounds, then you should snag one of these.

I did replace the bridge pick-up with an overwound '72 tele-style bridge pickup. Routing the body was defintely no fun, but it sounds really good now. The bridge pick-up matches the other pickups in terms of output and sound.

I'm not sure how many times this one's changed hands (by the looks of it, I'd say several). After a setup, it plays very well, with no intonation problems, no warped neck, and amazingly, very little fret wear (I lucked out there). Since it presumably came from the Matsumoku factory in the early/mid 80's, I have no doubt of it's quality and workmanship.

The electronics need a bit of work though. It looks like someone did a patchwork job (not sure who). Probably just needs new pots and rewiring. That can be easily remedied by a visit to the guitar doctor.

The maple neck is sweet--the right amount of chunkiness and fretboard width for my hands.

I plan to gig with this one once the electronics are up to snuff. I found another on E-bay and I hope to gig with that one as well. They're not the prettiest looking guitars (it's like a strat with an SG fetish, if that's your thing), but they're really fun and comfortable to play.

I'll see about the tuners--so far they're good, but I'll need to rehearse with them a bit more before I decide to keep them.

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This guitar works for the bluesy, funk, jazz thing I do. It'll do what a good strat should do. This one's got personality in spades--probably the most bad-ass sounding guitar I own.