Aria Telecaster Bass wiring help please?

[NickS]

Last weekend we stayed with a friend from way back whose husband died last year. As we were going out to dinner she said "Oh, you could take a look at Denis's old bass guitar. I threw away the wires and the pedal because I thought the guitar had already gone."

It turned out to be an old Aria Telecaster bass. The body is laminated (polite way of saying plywood) and the thing is in remarkably good condition considering it has spent time in the loft. Pickup DC resistance is 2.7k so it's pretty low output.

 It's not unscathed, though. The logo is missing, the truss rod adjustment is seized, the neck shows signs that one of the screws wasn't on target and some of the screws were partly rusted in.

 

 The main thing I have an issue with is the wiring. Someone has replaced the pots and the way it was wired it acted almost like they were both volume pots. I could do with someone pointing me at a schematic, please?

 

 

 

[JJMotown]

If the logo is missing, how do you know its an Aria? There were several brands of these types of basses in the 70s.

 

It's essentially a P bass, so any P bass wiring will work.

[NickS]

37 minutes ago, JJMotown said:

If the logo is missing, how do you know its an Aria? There were several brands of these types of basses in the 70s.

 

Well, that was the identification given me by someone in Tasmania who has an interest in guitars of this era, who said this:

"Love it - amazing condition. Aria were putting out these kinds of shortscale Tele basses in the mid-late 60s, I've always fancied one. I think maybe there were some branded Lyle/Pan as well?
http://www.rexbass.com/2010/09/aria-telecaster-bass.html "

If you can give me an alternative candidate please do; the logo was held on by two pins, if that helps (there are holes in the headstock). I seem to remember Zenta branded Telecaster copies being sold in the UK back in the 60s.

[JJMotown]

Zenta, Raven, Shaftsbury, Aria - there's a few others. Most of this type of bass were made in the early to mid 70s in Japan, but a similar line were also made in italy around the same time. They look almost identical with a few exceptions.

[Geek99]

@Bassassin will have some information I suspect 

[NickS]

1 hour ago, JJMotown said:

It's essentially a P bass, so any P bass wiring will work.

Great. The pots that are in there are marked B500K (volume) and D500K (tone) and the tone cap is marked .047; P bass wiring seems to use 250K pots and 0.047uF. I'll rejig the wiring and see if I can get a working tone control..

Edited 14 hours ago by NickS

[NancyJohnson]

11 hours ago, NickS said:

Well, that was the identification given me by someone in Tasmania who has an interest in guitars of this era, who said this:

"Love it - amazing condition. Aria were putting out these kinds of shortscale Tele basses in the mid-late 60s, I've always fancied one. I think maybe there were some branded Lyle/Pan as well?
http://www.rexbass.com/2010/09/aria-telecaster-bass.html "

 

If you can give me an alternative candidate please do; the logo was held on by two pins, if that helps (there are holes in the headstock). I seem to remember Zenta branded Telecaster copies being sold in the UK back in the 60s.

 

In answer to your last paragraph, it's going to be a little difficult to identify a bass based on a photo of the control cavity and a description that it's got two holes on the headstock fascia.

 

There were dozens of brands coming out of Japan in the 60s/70s; more photos needed!

[Woodinblack]

If the tone is acting like a volume it means that the capacitor is shorted, to big a value or the wiring around the capacitor is shorted. Buzz out the tone pot between the centre and earth and check that the level doesn't change when you alter the tone pot

[NickS]

1 hour ago, NancyJohnson said:

 

In answer to your last paragraph, it's going to be a little difficult to identify a bass based on a photo of the control cavity and a description that it's got two holes on the headstock fascia.

 

There were dozens of brands coming out of Japan in the 60s/70s; more photos needed!

It would be great if the late owner's widow hasn't yet thrown away the purchase receipt she mentioned seeing but I suspect she has. Here are some to be going on with, sorry about the (phone) quality of the first couple.