The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

I am trying to find out more information about the LC series. Ex. LC500, LC800 (pre-transitional) Aria Pro II Custom - a close copy of a 1970's Les Paul Custom - searching the forum there doesn't seem to be that much information on this model. I saw the photos of these models but some of the information does not seem to be applying. Does anyone have one?

I think member Ohjay from Sweden can give you more detailed infos. Send him a PM!

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All vantage-branded guitars were lower-priced instruments aimed at the beginner-to-intermediate market. It has no interest to collectors and very little demand among players! (www.allexperts.com)

Yeah I can help, but you need to be more specific in what you want to know.

Btw, why is this in Member's Treasures?

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Confessed MAA member since April 21st 2011.
Went through MAA detox in April 2012.

A Member Treasure!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pTBaMC- ... GqUFCg5LzG

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVkkvZXbBXc

This guitar has a two piece sandwich body with what looks to be two pieces of solid Maple and with what looks like an Ash back to dress it up. Some parts have been changed and some were original such as the strap buttons were gold, the jack plate was gold and still on it, my guess is that someone took off the older gold parts as they usually corrode such as the pickup covers and replaced the bridge with chrome. I had the pickguard shape copied from my LS-450 which was stock. I added a Gibson part here but have some original Mat pickguard assemblies, but not in gold. From the Website photos it looks to have come with black witch hat knobs - were they the same as Gibsons? Did they say Volume or just Vol. Any guess as to the model number of this guitar? The Gibson style deluxe tuners look pretty old, do not say anything on them, but also do not match with any of the photos. This guitar came directly from Japan.

Nice playing!

Got any images to show us apart from those videos?
It might end up a bit hard to correctly ID the guitar when so many original parts are missing, but I'll do my best. To do this though you'll need to give us some more info.

Serial? (first two will be enough if you're cautious about giving it away)
Are pickups stock, if so, any markings on the back of them?
Fret edge binding?
Is the neck 1-piece or 3-piece and do you know if it's maple or mahogany(excellent opportunity to check in the neck pup cavity when you check the pups for markings)?

Knowing the year is paramount for IDing Arias LPs because there were changes almost every year, models removed/added, specifications changed, etc etc.
Anyway, with the above info I think I'll be able to figure out the exact model and can give you a catalog shot of it so you can see how it looked stock(if that's what you want).

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Confessed MAA member since April 21st 2011.
Went through MAA detox in April 2012.

Thanks for the help - I guess it could be either a LC - 550 CH or 750 CH from the gold hardware evidence and logo but also could be a 500 - I cannot open the pickups yet as it was just set up, but I will follow up on it soon. Judging from the wear on this guitar it wasn't used that much. Probably had gold hardware judging from org. gold strap buttons and jack plate, No Serial Number, two piece solid wood body sandwich with an added crisscross cut maple cap on top, long tenon, double binding, neck binding, Rosewood board, replaced tuners, a new pickguard added that I had cut from a vintage Aria Standard pick guard shape, 70's speed knobs added by me, new black witch hats ordered, vintage bridge, vintage switch pickup selector plate, Alpha 500k pots - bought from Japan and shipped to USA. Very nice as is.

More images of the guitar parts

Here are a few more details...



This was the ad when I bought it:

This LC-500 was most likely Made in Japan in the late 70s based on the general build. It has a long neck tenon.
In excellent used condition. A carved-body guitar (it weighs 4.15 kilos) that is clean on the front. There is a slight seperation of the binding in the cutaway. The back has the odd minor scratch and a few small dings but is also very clean. The back of the slim-C profile neck is clean and unmarked as is the headstock which has a couple of tiny chips. The original hardware is in excellent order and all working well. The electrics are good and the pickups are original. The rosewood fretboard is fine with the frets showing some minor wear. Its playing nicely and includes a gigbag.

No serial number usually indicates 1977 as year of production, so at least we've narrowed it down a little. I can't see any evidence of fret edge binding on your images(they're a bit small ) , but if the guitar has had a refret done you might be able to see differently since you can inspect the guitar up close.
LC models in production according to catalogs are LC-1200, 1000, 800, 750, 550, 500 and thus it cannot be a 1200, 1000 or 800 because they all had fret edge binding. 750 was an export model in 1977 and had a different headstock(and also FEB). The 500 had chrome hardware so that one is out the window too, that leaves us with the LC-550.

I think it's a very good chance that yours is an LC-550, it looks like it has a mahogany neck(which the 550 only had in 1977), no FEB, gold hardware. All corresponding to an LC-550.
As for the specifications it was mahogany body, maple top, mahogany neck, ebony fretboard, AL-V humbuckers(this might be stamped on the back of yours), gold hardware.

The cherry version is not pictured in my [japanese] catalogs but I can show you the black one:


This was my LC-550:

_________________
Confessed MAA member since April 21st 2011.
Went through MAA detox in April 2012.

Thanks for the information so far. I am sorry about the small image size but the forum looks like it only supports 100 KB images, and only three at a time. Pretty sure that I know the difference between Ebony and Rosewood, doesn't rosewood have red in it and the ebony not? This looks like Rosewood to me. I will include some more photos. The guitar doesn't look to have been re-fretted.