The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Ive got an aria les paul copy that has aseven digit serial number and i need help finding out when it was made the number is 0200641, the number is on the neck plate and it says steel adjustable neck made in japan.

Hello kirby007. Welcome to the boards.

WAY wrong response removed by Slo-hand.

The serial numbers on "Steel Adjustable Neck" plates are largely random & you can't use them to date a guitar. These were common on earlier Arias, and suggest yours is probably from the early 70s.

It will be a lot easier to date it from details of hardware & construction - and for that we need pics. Plus we like looking at pics of old Arias.

Jon.

As Trevor's research has revealed, the 'old' 'reinforced ...' neckplates have been applied to the bolt-on Vantages until 1980. I reckon these plates all came from one and the same basket, picked randomly.

My 2 euro-cents ...

Kees.

_________________
http://www.GuitarDir.com has been hacked by some mindless fool, destroying years
of gathering info on guitars by non-commercial guitar lovers. Why?

http://s828.photobucket.com/albums/zz20 ... /?newest=1

hey guys there are the pics i believe ive got it narrowed down to a 70-72 it was originally black and i just finished repainting it today, the knobs are brand new and the tuners are brand new the pickups are the originals but they dont have a number on the back of them

I think you're about right with the date - early 70s for sure.

With these (and this applies to early MIJ LP copies in general) if the neck has rounded corners on the heel end of the fretboard and position markers (also with rounded corners) that stop at the 17th fret then these are usually thought to be '73 or earlier. Most MIJ Aria (as opposed to Aria Pro II) guitars are pre-75 and the "arrowhead" shape truss rod cover is an early Matsumoku trait, like the Steel Adjustable neckplates.

Dating Mats from serial numbers can be a bit uncertain because several formats were used but it seems the plates on early examples were random. Several double-neck guitars have turned up with two plates that have numbers which bear no relation to each other - I'd say that's pretty good evidence!

Jon.