The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

i have always believed this was a Matsumoku guitar. it is a dead ringer for the Aria 5522G. there is no name on the headstock.
when i got the guitar the previous owner had installed some ESP zebra pickups. i replaced them with the pickups you see here, GFS Dream 90's.


you can see it is a 3 piece laminated neck. the tuners have been changed by previous owner


a little buckle rash on the back
sandwich construction on the body

the controls are different positions compared to typical gibson layout. the volume controls are both on the top and the tone controls are the lower two pots.

nice original hardshell case with gold trim

neckplate has the usual engravings

original gold bridge and tailpiece and posts. the gold finish is well worn on these. the previous owner had changed to the nickel bridge and tailpiece, but included the originals.

check out the spelling error on the bottom of the "brige"


one of the original pickups and both the trim rings


it is hard to capture the gold sparke but it looks NICE!

It hard to say definitively but it has that "Matt" look. An other possibility would be Kasuga who made some Electra LP's.

and here is his brother. nice flame maple top on this one. another unlabeled headstock, but a dead ringer for the Aria 5522N
http://www.matsumoku.org/models/aria/solid/lp/55xx.html












the two of these are so similar to the catalog pics, i am assuming they must have been Matsumoku made
they share many of the same attributes, including the positions for volume and tone controls, sandwiched body, identical bridge pickup
this one probably has had the pickguard replaced, but i'm not certain. one of the tone knobs is a replacement.

Two beauties!
(Dontcha hate it when they scrub he logo off?)

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