1980 Aria Pro II TSB-400 Bass (Made in Japan) - *SOLD* £425 St. Helens

[Davi]

An exceptional well built bass, from the legendary Matsumoku factory in Japan, this bass is built like a tank, well balanced and easy to play, weighs 4.5kg, medium scale with nice low action in amazing condition, featuring 2 superb sounding humbucker pickups that can be toggled to suit whatever your style might be, comes with the orginal hard case thats had a hard life but kept this bass in the excellent condition that its in. I can post out for £20 if needed.

Edited April 6, 2023 by Davi

[MarkBuffaloStokes]

What’s the neck width at the nut please?

[Davi]

9 hours ago, MarkBuffaloStokes said:

What’s the neck width at the nut please?

 44mm with a fairly slim neck profile

[francisabear]

Lovely looking thing. I was watching this particular one sell on eBay last month, here is the description from ebay which provides a bit more info, GLWS 

 

“A 1980 Aria Pro II bass from the legendary Matsumoku factory.

 

(The serial number beginning with '0' means 1980 production year)

 

This was the time when the Japanese manufacturers were switching from churning out copies, to original designs intended to challenge the established makers head-on.

 

To overcome the perception of Japanese guitars being cheap copies and get some attention from the market, they adopted a simple strategy: absolutely superb build quality.

 

These instruments are renowned for that, and this is an exceptionally well-made bass.

 

Which is really the reason I'm selling it. It's built like a tank and therefore VERY heavy (5.5 Kg) and my poor old back can't really cope with that for long gigs any more.

 

But it plays superbly well, 32" medium scale is very playable, the sound from those custom humbuckers is phenomenal (if you're after those 80s Duran Duran tones, this is for you!), and it's really in superb nick for a 43 year old bass.”

[Davi]

41 minutes ago, francisabear said:

Lovely looking thing. I was watching this particular one sell on eBay last month, here is the description from ebay which provides a bit more info, GLWS 

 

“A 1980 Aria Pro II bass from the legendary Matsumoku factory.

 

(The serial number beginning with '0' means 1980 production year)

 

This was the time when the Japanese manufacturers were switching from churning out copies, to original designs intended to challenge the established makers head-on.

 

To overcome the perception of Japanese guitars being cheap copies and get some attention from the market, they adopted a simple strategy: absolutely superb build quality.

 

These instruments are renowned for that, and this is an exceptionally well-made bass.

 

Which is really the reason I'm selling it. It's built like a tank and therefore VERY heavy (5.5 Kg) and my poor old back can't really cope with that for long gigs any more.

 

But it plays superbly well, 32" medium scale is very playable, the sound from those custom humbuckers is phenomenal (if you're after those 80s Duran Duran tones, this is for you!), and it's really in superb nick for a 43 year old bass.”

I would like to add that the bass weighs 4.5kg not 5.5kg and is in no way as back breakingly heavy as the previous message suggests.