The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

I am a long time bass player/collector playing everything from my beloved Alembics, early BC Rich Mocks and anything Fender. My two Japanese holy grail basses which I always admired from afar are the Ibanez Musician and the Aria SB Elite II. Just got my first ever Aria in a gorgeous SB Elite II in Padouk Red. It's near mint with the exception that some bonehead removed all original electronics and did a small routing mod on the neck pickup space. I will meticulously restore the wood, but I have no idea where to get the original pickups and pots/switches. Any help here would be GREATLY appreciated! First time post, and I hope I am in the right place for this project!

Sorry, I can't believe that I didn't see this thread! The best source for replacement pickups would be with Aaron Armstrong (http://www.armstrongpickups.co.uk/) or the more expensive Reed James (http://reedjamescustom.com/id22.html). The specific pickups in the SB Elite II were (IIRC) MB-IIs which would means specifying pickups as a pair of Jazz bobbins loaded only with 4 AlNiCo poles per bobbin sensing two strings each. Essentially a P-Bass type pickup utilising Jazz size coils. The difficulty is that the poles most winders use are a different size to those in the originals. You should consult whichever winder you use of course.

The electronics are a very simple volume and tone on the Elite I, and I believe the Elite II was the same except for some switching which is probably parallel/serial mode for the two pickups. You have a fairly blank slate to work from with a bare Elite II. It is even feasible to "upgrade" it to an SB-1000 style active circuit.

Whereabouts are you with this one at the moment?

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