The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Hello, this is my first post!
I skimmed through quite a few pages of this forum to find info on an Aria Pro II strat (ST-400 according to seller) that I intend on purchasing, to make sure my money won't be wasted. I tried to figure out the serial dating thing and to the best of my ability I could tell that the first three of the SN being 106 denotes the guitar being produced in june 1971 (bolt on neck)? Please correct me if I'm wrong. Second, on the head, the branding says: "Strikin' Sound", and also "Custom Body" in significantly smaller font. Is this just marketing gobbledygook? Any help on this is appreciated. I can provide pictures if one of you can enlighten me on just how to do that on this forum haha.

Thanks for reading

Welcome Frost!
I've drooled over a few of these over the years but never owned one so, just my thoughts. . .
Being that it is an Aria Pro II and not just Aria, I believe it to be from 1981. That will make it a much better instrument in my opinion. Not sure about month though.
Again, in my opinion, the Strikin' Sound and custom body probably came about to make it appear more fender-esque to the casual observer.
Either way, I believe them to be pretty nice.
I saw one in person back in the mid to late 80's and I couldn't tell a quality difference between it and an actual strat.
You won't be able to post pics until a certain number of posts. I can't remember the actual number but its not too many.

_________________
Quality service since 3:00 last Tuesday

Like Jorg said, surely it's an '81. I don't know if it's a problem on these Arias but I have '78 Tokai Strat which is well built and was all original and mint with the plastic still on the pickguard but the frets were small and made string bending difficult. I ended getting the frets replaced.
Good luck

_________________
My wife yes
My dog maybe
My Vantages never

Thanks both of you for the responses, I put in an offer for $350 usd and got accepted earlier today! It's on it's way from tokyo now. When I get image rights I'll be sure to post plenty for the community to enjoy. It's in arctic white with a black accented pickguard (strats in white are best in my opinion).

I look forward to hanging out around the forum more, I really love these classically formatted ones. Plus I'm sure my band and girlfriend will get sick of random aria facts from me eventually lol.

Congrats!
Please post pics when you can.
Now I'm curious what its fretboard radius is? Sometime in the 80's, Fender changed from 7.25 to 9.5 to help prevent fretting out while bending.
This is a 21 fret neck, correct? It may very well have a 7.25 radius. . .

_________________
Quality service since 3:00 last Tuesday

Yes it’s 21.