The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

I have an opportunity to buy a Pan (aka Aria, I think) black beauty (model 5522) Les Paul for about $400 Canadian. I'm a bit familiar with Aria, as I already have a 1984 Vantage Les Paul copy (hollow archtop, wine red). Does anyone happen to know what kind of woods the 5522 black beauty was made out of? And is it hollow underneath the arch?

I'm looking for a LP copy that's a bit more "Gibson-y" than my Vantage, which has a birch top (I think) and hollow arch.

Also, is 400 bucks a good price? It's in decent shape.

Thanks!

Marlow

Hi Marlow,

Pan are good instruments in my mind but have diferent guitar models compared to Aria in the late 60's and beg 70's. Some are almost the same and some are quite different. In my opinion Pan are not Mats... But that is just my opinion and based on my wife, I'm never right!

$400 is high in my mid... I could see $250 but $400 would have to have upgraded pickups and be in great mint shape with OHC. Any chance of you posting pictures?

P.

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MAA Member since June 29th 2009, taking one baby step at a time..... and failing miserably!

Is it a set neck or a bolt on? Bolt necks of lesser known brands like Pan usualy go for under US$200 here. A set neck could go for a fair amount more but $400 looks quite high to me (that is assumeing that the US and CA $'s are with 10% or so of each other)

Thanks for the responses!

I think you are right that $400 is high for a Pan. I did a bit more research, and it looks like Pan was an imprint of Aria manufactured for the Canadian market to be sold through Simpsons Sears (like Silvertone, I guess). The guy who has it is being sticky about the price -- he wanted $500 originally, and the lowest I could get him down to was $350 plus a few vintage tubes (my guesstimate of an equivalence to $400 was probably a bit low). It has an electrical problem, too, he says, and no case. I think I will pass. Too bad, though; I think it would be a great $200 guitar.