The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Hi. About 40 years ago, I bought an Aria classical guitar that says made in Japan. The model is 1558 and the serial number is 00001. I never played it and it is new condition. It's been sitting in a clothes closet for all this time. Can you give me some information about it? What year was it made? Does it have any value? What materials is it made of? etc. Does the 00001 serial number make it valuable? What should I do with it?
Thanks in advance, Igal
I've added some photos, but the site says they are too big. Soon I'll figure it out

OK. I figured out the photos

Can you post a picture of the headstock and a close up of your bridge?

Is the paper label a light off white outer border with yellowish background behind brown print? Or just off white?

The rosettes seem to be very similar.

I posted in regards to an Aria A558 and these could be very close. Mine has a Torres styled headstock.

Look forward to a reply.

John

The paper is just off white. It doesn't have the outside white strip that I see on your unbridged guitar. The headstock is similar, but a bit different.

Thank you for your reply.

Very nice looking bridge, the wood inlay inside the white border set it off.

Mine has the Torres style headstock, as I've been told, and it dosen't appear in any of the catalogs I can find.

From what I have found on the Aria archive site catalogs, yours could be in the 70's to 84 range.

http://www.ariausa.com/Archive/catalogs.html

Using the "EBay" encycloepdia as a reference, there are descriptions that claim that this label and headstock are from the 60's. Reader, Buyer beware.

No ones lies on the internet right?

There is no reference I have found yet that can date this era of label style or headstock. I'm communicating with an Aria representative in Japan about these questions. But their records are patchy.

From Wikipedia, I found a reference that Aria used 2 other manufacturers other than Matsumoku for Classicals and medium grade and specialty guitars. I think I may have to enlarge my hunt.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsumoku

I hope others can help shed some light on this.

Another mystery of the East, veiled from my eyes.

Such is life.

I bought it new somewhere between 1968 and 1972. I'm a little hazy about the exact year-those were the dope days.

Aria started out as an importer of classical guitars into Japan and branched out into production. In my experience they have all been nice instruments and very good value for the prices they sell for. That is great if you are buying but not if you are selling. The early days of Aria are poorly documented and short of finding someone from the company who was around back then, I think it would be hard to get more detail.

To me, those where dope-days too, but in a slightly different way (I was build in '66). These Aria clasiccals are pretty good, but not renowned (yet?). Here in Western Europe they sell for 20 Euro's (I got one for that amount on a fair this year) to 150 on local e-bay like websites. Yours being the first of its kind could mean something to some crazy collector (there's a few of them around here, including me), but I don't expect it to fetch more than some $200 (if in correct condition).

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

To GD K9.

You seem to have an interest in Aria classicals. Please review my post regarding Aria A558 Classical -- need picture of the bridge.

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=9393

Any insight you can share would be greatly appreciated.

John