Underrated MIJ Aria Pro ii

Yeah he was happy to hear you guys appreciate that axe. His first gig with it was the NSJ seen here around 1980. My Aria arrived safely from Japan and is getting a once over by my Luther.

Geez!!!...there's a ton of cool stuff in this thread!

Old Aria and Aria Pro II guitars are underrated. I had an early 80's Aria Pro 345 years ago that I never should have sold. Probably the finest 345 I have owned from any maker. Still have an old 60's Raven that sounds and plays great.

Haha I actually had multiple auction pages open and ended up putting in a sniper bid and winning an aria pro II standard recently by mistake. For the life of me I can't really tell what model it is. It does have a faint either impressed into the wood serial number or it's in black ink. I can't see a seam. Sometimes I see nibs and sometimes I don't. I won't be seeing it for a few months. Anyone with better eyes than me wanna guess ?

@USTTRM said:

Yeah he was happy to hear you guys appreciate that axe. His first gig with it was the NSJ seen here around 1980. My Aria arrived safely from Japan and is getting a once over by my Luther.View attachment 850535View attachment 850537

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Man, i bet your Uncle has some stories to tell.

Respect

brokentoeswalker said:

Haha I actually had multiple auction pages open and ended up putting in a sniper bid and winning an aria pro II standard recently by mistake. For the life of me I can't really tell what model it is. It does have a faint either impressed into the wood serial number or it's in black ink. I can't see a seam. Sometimes I see nibs and sometimes I don't. I won't be seeing it for a few months. Anyone with better eyes than me wanna guess ?

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It's a stamped serial most likely because that's generally what they used on the early guitars.
Can't make out the third digit, but it's defintely not from '80 because those tuners were not used that late.

To me it looks like it has nibs, so that would most likely make it either an '76 LS-700 or a '77 LS-600.

Ohjay said:

It's a stamped serial most likely because that's generally what they used on the early guitars.
Can't make out the third digit, but it's defintely not from '80 because those tuners were not used that late.

To me it looks like it has nibs, so that would most likely make it either an '76 LS-700 or a '77 LS-600.

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I think so as well. I would go as high as ‘78 and likely a 600.

@USTTRM said:

Yeah he was happy to hear you guys appreciate that axe. His first gig with it was the NSJ seen here around 1980. My Aria arrived safely from Japan and is getting a once over by my Luther.View attachment 850535View attachment 850537

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So how do you do you like the Legend ??

Double bound goodness !!

Sorry for the thread hijack BTW. Got carried away lol.

brokentoeswalker said:

So how do you do you like the Legend ??

Double bound goodness !!

Sorry for the thread hijack BTW. Got carried away lol.

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Oh I didn’t see it that way, it’s all good! I will say that it’s on par with a MIM tele for sure, more when I get it back.

I live in Japan, and I am not aware of Legend every being made in Japan. Even back when many Aria Pro IIs were Japanese made, both Blitz and Legend were always imports. Both are still available today domestically, but Legend is entry level, running just over $200 new and under $100 all day long used.