Firstly - sorry if this has been answered before but for the life of me I can't get the forum search to work, and while I've tried to find the info paging through hundreds of posts my brain started melting, so I thought I'd just ask
Secondly - I am a new owner of an Aria Pro 2 Wildcat and I've been trying to clarify the history of the various models bearing this name so I can work out exactly what I've got. My first reference was to the specs on this site, however the
Wildcat details appear to be incorrect. The linked page has details of 9 models (inc. Wildcat) but only pictures of 7 (no Wildcat) making identification a bit trickier, however it specifically lists the Wildcat as having 2 Protomatic IV humbuckers and a die-cast bridge. Every single picture of a guitar bearing the Wildcat name that I've seen has S-S-H pups and some kind of trem block. This then makes me wonder if the other specs for the Wildcat are correct.
Thirdly, I have seen pictures of at least 3 variants of the Wildcat, that I have very tentatively labelled Mk1 - 3 as follows:
'Mk 1': My guitar has a black finish, a headstock bar instead of string trees, truss rod adjustment at the body via a notched pickguard, controls close together with two screws holding the pickguard by the output jack, and a bold logo on the head reading 'Aria Pro 2 RS Wildcat'.
'Mk 2': Another guitar has a cream finish with black pickguard, the same bar instead of string trees and body-accessed truss rod as my guitar so pickguard also has suitable cut-out,
but the pickguard has only one screw by the output jack and the controls are further apart. The logo reads 'Aria Pro 2 RS Wildcat' like mine, but in a non-bold font. The neck plate says 'Made in Japan' like mine.
'Mk 3': Yet another guitar has a natural (tobacco brown?) finish & pickguard, controls further apart and one screw by the output jack like 'Mk 2', but two round string trees instead of a bar, truss rod adjustment now at the head, and a non-bold logo reading 'Aria Pro 2 Wildcat Series'. - unfortunately the pics of the brown guitar don't show the neck plate clearly.
Other than the above differences and possibly slightly different knobs the guitars appear identical - one humbucker and two rails, trem block, same tuners and body shape etc.
So, can any Aria experts please clarify? At some point the control layout was slightly changed (so different pickguards), as was the truss rod access (also so different pickguards) and string trees were used instead of a bar. The logo changed to/from? bold and the name to/from? RS Wildcat to Wildcat series. Any info on when or why these changes happened, or clarification on the apparently wrong specs posted on the RS2 page linked above would be much appreciated.
I will try and sort out an account somewhere so I can upload pics as I can't link to ebay.