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Aria Pro II Question


Bloodaxe
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Does anyone else on BC have one of these?



Mine's from 1984 & I'd like to get a comparison shot of the bridge for possible repro purposes.

At the moment this is the closest shot I have:



It mainly differs from the standard SB bridge in that the saddle slots & ball retainers are open ended - were they all like this?

Pete

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[quote name='Bloodaxe' post='1239837' date='May 21 2011, 11:59 PM']Does anyone else on BC have one of these?



Mine's from 1984 & I'd like to get a comparison shot of the bridge for possible repro purposes.

At the moment this is the closest shot I have:



It mainly differs from the standard SB bridge in that the saddle slots & ball retainers are open ended - were they all like this?

Pete[/quote]

There's one in a Guitar Shop I know, I'll take a photo on Weds if you wish. Have you tried the various Aria websites? BTW he has another in for repair as well, a neck through but Ii think both have the same bridge -as we remarked upon it at the time!

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[quote name='yorks5stringer' post='1240238' date='May 22 2011, 12:29 PM']There's one in a Guitar Shop I know, I'll take a photo on Weds if you wish. Have you tried the various Aria websites? BTW he has another in for repair as well, a neck through but Ii think both have the same bridge -as we remarked upon it at the time![/quote]
Yes please to the photo. I've cross-posted on both the Matsumoku forum and Talkbass so the obvious bases are covered.

Ta,

Pete.

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That bridge seems quite a lump !

Only have the 4 string version I'm afraid , as you say mine doesn't have the open ended ball retainers , plus your bridge must be bigger in length than mine , as mine sits pretty much at the ass end of the bass.

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[quote name='plumbob' post='1241393' date='May 23 2011, 12:01 PM']That bridge seems quite a lump !

Only have the 4 string version I'm afraid , as you say mine doesn't have the open ended ball retainers , plus your bridge must be bigger in length than mine , as mine sits pretty much at the ass end of the bass.[/quote]
A touch over 400g (14.2 oz) of brass all up & the baseplate's 10mm thick :)

A bit of detectoring suggests it's a very early example... 1984 S/No but doesn't appear until the 1985 catalogue, & the 1986 cat shows a version with enclosed keyhole slots. Subsequent issues have a P/J pickup config & a different fixing screw arrangement.

I was considering either selling it on or de-fretting it, but if it is a 'rare' example (& virtually stock), it might be a keeper.

Pete.

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Heres mine

I think its about 1986 , the bridge pickup started squealing many years ago , so I opened it out and put a Seymour Duncan musicman and 3 band eq in it,

kept the neck pick up for cosmetic purposes , have often thought about making a fretless out of it , one day I may have a go. :)

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[quote name='Bloodaxe' date='May 22 2011, 08:54 PM' post='1240803']
Yes please to the photo. I've cross-posted on both the Matsumoku forum and Talkbass so the obvious bases are covered.

Ta,

Pete.
[/quote
Methinks should have looked more carefully, it's a 5 stringer and the ones I've seen are both 4's! Doh!

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[quote name='Bloodaxe' post='1239837' date='May 21 2011, 10:59 PM']It mainly differs from the standard SB bridge in that the saddle slots & ball retainers are open ended - were they all like this?[/quote]
That's the bridge design pictured in the Japanese APII Winter 84/85 cataloge, and in the Japanese and European APII Full Range/Summer catalogues. String it with a high C, and your bass would be just as it left the factory.

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[quote name='weepaul' post='1243113' date='May 24 2011, 04:28 PM']Wow,that looks great. I didn't know Aria made 5's back then. Hows it play and sound ? Hows the B sound ?
How much can you pick these up for ?[/quote]
It will be a nice player once I've got it set up properly with a decent set of strings (it's got an abysmal set of el-cheapo ultracrap Ebay specials on it at the moment), but the string spacing is quite tight so it takes a bit of getting used to. Neck profile is chunky without being 'clubby'.

It's last decent set of strings were some Warwick yellows about 3-4 years ago, so with my tea-bag memory I can't honestly give much of a view of the sound, other than to say it's an Aria with the big 4-wire humbuckers & two of those wide open in series make a lovely racket :) Don't recall any low B issues other than having to take a bridge spring off to get the intonation sorted.

As to current market value, again I can't say. They don't fetch up too often. I got lucky, it surfaced not long after a massive glut of Aria MAB (Magna) series 5'ers cleared on ebay in either 2005 or 2006, so I reckon it was 'last turkey in the shop' syndrome... except it ain't a turkey, turkeys don't have teeth :)

If you stumble across the much more abundant Magna, give it a spin, you may be surprised. They don't usually fetch much more than £150 & they're good value. I sold mine after the RSB turfed up as I couldn't get on with the slab body, sounded great though. Otherwise keep a watch on Ebay & Gumtree.

That's probably not a lot of help on reflection, is it?

Oh well.

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