The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Hello. New member here. I just bought an Aria Pro ii guitar and I am having trouble finding out which model it is and from which year it is from. It's a bolt on neck, neck plate reading "steel adjustable neck Made in Japan". I am not able to locate a serial number anywhere. The guitar shape is kind of Les Paul but with a sharper edge cut away. 3 humbuckers, 3 way switch, an extra on/off switch for the middle pickup. Color red wine I guess. The most similar guitar I've seen online is the LC 440 DGS but the knobs on mine are a little different as well as the pickups. I'm wild guessing year 1975 but have no clue about the model. Any help?
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Sorry about the quality, mobile camera and I had to resize to fit them onto this forum.....

That looks very like an LC440 that has had the pickups changed out and new tuners nailed on.

What do the controls do on yours? Mine had been seriously mucked around with so after much to-ing and fro-ing, I put it back to what we in here believe to be the correct wiring scheme, which is neck and bridge pickups through the 3-way switch, and the middle pickup straight to the output via a volume pot, which makes it more of a blend control. All pickups are coil splittable via that microswitch and I'll tell you what, it's a great playing, great sounding, very versatile guitar: I play mine every day!

Hello. Thanks, yes, I thought it might be a modified LC 440.
Do you know anything about which years they were built? In the catalog I saw the green LC 440 I think it was from 1979, but as far as I've understood Matsumoku used serial numbers at that time....

About the pickups and what they do. It seems the 3 way switch works as on a "normal" Les Paul - up - neck, middle - both neck and bridge, down - bridge. The extra switch seems to boost the signal when in down position - boost or more "fat" sounding. When I tap the pickups with something made of metal the bridge and neck pickups respond at very high/hot output, while the middle is a lot lower - almost unnoticeable compared to the other two.

I'm still experimenting but at first glance/listen it seems that the four knobs work like volume (the front two top/bottom) and tone (the back two top/bottom).
So, as far as I can tell at the moment, the middle pickup is turned on/off with the extra switch, but it also seems to respond to the volume knobs somehow.

I've attached some photos of the wires. Maybe you (or someone else) with more knowledge can figure out something from these photos?

....And yes, great sounding, great playing, great looking

By the way... Do you have a link etc to the wiring diagram you mentioned?
Or a step by step guide or something?