The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Q&A, discussion, and information for the labels covered by The Guitar Gallery (Specifically and exclusively guitars made by Matsumoku up to 1987)
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PostPosted: Mon 08 Mar 2021 03:41 PM 
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Power Chorder
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Location: Madrid, Spain
Jorg wrote:
I've seen the (AP) logo before and thought it was a custom shop but Aria denies it. That's probably enough reason to believe it exists. . . :D

Just digging up this old quote (and I have seen other people saying Aria denied their custom shop existed in other places) as I have an "AP" logo bass (a 1992/93? SB-034T) on its way to me from Japan and have been doing some research around this.

Here's a page from an "AP Custom Shop" brochure showing my new bass at a price of 160000 JPY (I just bought mine for a quarter of that, but with some painful shipping and importation costs):
Attachment:
PRICES_apcustoms2.jpg
PRICES_apcustoms2.jpg [ 63.6 KiB | Viewed 983 times ]


So the AP Custom Shop most certainly existed :D

I also found the following info in some Japanese adverts for other "AP" guitars:

Quote:
https://auctions.kaiguys.com/auction/j478187166
ARIA custom shop ベース
SB-024 当時18万円前後と記憶しています。 名器と名高いSB-1000は1991年10万円前後、1996年12万円前後と記憶しています。

ARIA custom shop base
SB-024 I remember it was around 180,000 yen at that time. I remember that the famous SB-1000 was around 100,000 yen in 1991 and around 120,000 yen in 1996.

_______

Quote:
http://garakutaguitar.com/APcustomshopMA.html

AP ARIA CUSTOM SHOP MA 1991
1990年頃始まったと思われるAP“PRO MUSICIAN LINE”はセミオーダーシステムとも言うべきもので、ボディ・シェイプは既存のモデルの中から選択し、材やパーツ類は厳選された高級なものを選択できた。 ハンドメイド・ギターと比べてリーズナブルなことが売りだったようだ。(それでも10万、20万~)ヘッドに大きく入れられたAPロゴがその証。

The AP "PRO MUSICIAN LINE", which seems to have started around 1990, should be called a semi-order system, the body shape was selected from the existing models, and the materials and parts were carefully selected and high-class. .. It seems that it was reasonably priced compared to handmade guitars. (Still 100,000, 200,000 ~) The AP logo on the head is the proof.

I'll post some pictures of my new bass and a 1992 Aria Pro Musician Line catalogue later in the week.


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PostPosted: Wed 10 Mar 2021 06:41 AM 
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Virtuoso
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Aria has a Custom Shop.

To my knowledge the main focus of this workshop used to be acoustic guitars until recently.

AP branded guitars were/are typical made in small series. I don't think all of those AP branded guitars were made by the above workshop. However, they are all upscale and very nice instruments.


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PostPosted: Wed 10 Mar 2021 06:54 AM 
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Power Chorder
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Wutz wrote:
Aria has a Custom Shop.

To my knowledge the main focus of this workshop used to be acoustic guitars until recently.

AP branded guitars were/are typical made in small series. I don't think all of those AP branded guitars were made by the above workshop. However, they are all upscale and very nice instruments.


Mine just arrived here in Madrid an hour ago, having been picked up that the TC Gakki shop in Tokyo on Monday. I thought I would have to wait 2 weeks or more. Photos to follow.


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PostPosted: Thu 11 Mar 2021 08:34 PM 
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Power Chorder
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Here is a link to the 1992 Aria Pro Musician Line (Custom Shop) catalogue:

https://tinyurl.com/ariapml92

A Japanese SB bass collector on Facebook told me today that T's Guitars https://www.guitar-shop.co.jp/about-ts-guitar/ started to make high-end models for Aria in middle of the 80's and they made AP models for twenty years as the Aria Custom Shop. All of the first AP Custom Shop series were made by T's Guitars (but not the current AP II Custom Shop models).


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