The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Hi Folks

I am awaiting the arrival of a 1980s Aria, maple neck guitar that looks very similar to this one I have found on the internet. I can find no model number or information about this guitar on the web. Has anyone any ideas ?

Thanks for your help

Wailing

Do you have pictures of the actual guitar? If not yet do post them. All the images of that model appear to be hosted on domains or forums in Europe.

The body shape appears to be consistent with the Thor Sound. The base model TS-300 on up had humbuckers and at least a phase/series-parallel/coil cut/"dual sound" switch(es) along with three 5 piece (natural-3 piece maple-natural) bodies with veneer in between the maple and natural.

Arai Co. did test runs with different and sometimes lower end models in certain markets. Some were regular offerings in specific markets also. There were different lines offered in Europe that never made it to US shores.

With that headstock shape it would have to be 1981 or later.

This one has covered tuners and a solid body rather than sealed tuners and laminated body.

Hi Crusty

The guitar should be arriving on tuesday, so I will post pictures asap. I have a good feeling about this guitar, I think it will have a Tele, Strat ring to it... which is my preferred sound.. Fingers crossed

I am guessing, as you suggest it is one of the budget models of the era, however if the body and neck have been created out of good enough timbers, I will be happy to replace pots and pickups to fine tune the beast.

There is no doubt about the quality of the woods. Nobuaki Hyashi (H. Noble) insisted on good quality naturally aged woods.

I have a feeling you'll be pleasantly surprised with the entire machine.

_________________
Quality service since 3:00 last Tuesday

I don't think you are going to have to replace the pots. The Japanese Aria Pro IIs were equipped with good full size pots as opposed to the tiny low quality pots you would find in the later Korean models. I would only replace them if they were the dinky ones.

The pickups are also going to be a high quality (possibly even Japanese Fender clones). About the only thing you would want to do is dip them to reduce harmonic feedback. My advice there would be to use bread wrapper twist ties to keep the covers on the pickups while dipping. It doesn't hurt the covers at all if you keep the temp at 140F.

If the tuners are not solid enough to hold the string tension and if you don't mind the possible extra holes the Gibson's Klusons are about the best covered gear tuners. Even so, the covered gear tunes it has are going to be a cut above the covered or open gear strip tuners of the earlier Arias and their twins.

For an Aria from 81 onwards you should be able to find hardware in the current Gotoh line-up that fits without woodwork. The obvious exception are there tuning pegs on a lot of the 80s guitars the ones that fit without drilling extra holes are from Schaller.

Pickups should be good quality, but especially the single coils are not necessarily my favourites. Anyway, it's a matter of taste (I prefer unpotted pickups for a more open sound).

True on all points. With tuners you have to look at how they mount. Is the hole aligned with the mount tab at an angle, below the tuner, or at a right angle from the tuner. A few I've had to enlarge the peg hole a bit to use the fastening nuts.

I've used the Schaller roller bridge on a PE-60 and it fit without changing the anchors. Just the posts and bridge.

Gotoh is Japanese so I'm fairly certain they are metric. Come to think of it I've used Gotoh tuners that matched the angled mount point. I don't recall if I've used a Gotoh bridge but memory fades with time and age and I have too much of both.

Thanks Crusty, Jorg and Wutz.... I will take a few pictures and post here when the guitar arrives, I originally considered buying an Aria PE back in the late 70's when I saw Gerry Cott of the Boomtown Rats playing one, however was distracted by a 1970 Telecaster (which I still have). I tried the PE 1000 out in a dealership back then, and even with my limited ability in those days (not improved that much ) the Aria was so easy to play, and very comfortable I still cannot believe I didn't buy it. I know the guitar that is winging its way in my direction will not be in the same league, but am still looking forward to playing an Aria again.

Thanks again for your input, and I will let you know how I get on

Kind regards from sunny, but cold Cambridgeshire

Wailing

On most of my guitar tart-ups I've used Gotoh hardware simply because it fits and is readily available down here. That is, once I'd been burned a couple of times by the cheap Chinese gear available for pennies on the web, eh!!

I might have a look at Schaller for my latest "thing" now; thanks Wutz!