Unknown model ARIA Bass

[stewyh]

Hi all, nice to be a part of vintaxe!

Just purchased a vintage aria bass from friend of a friend. Am trying to find out some info, ie year of manufacture, model name / number etc. Paid Au $200 for it (Us $130) Looks a bit like a Jaguar bass although they were not released until 2006. Cannot find any pics or info on this model anywhere on the www, believe me I've looked and looked. So basically its a solid body 34" scale bass 21 frets, bound fingerboad, slightly angled headstock. Body looks to have laminated top and back, nice reddish sunburst. 2 single coil pickups 2 vol 1 tone, on/off switch for each pickup, chrome pickguard, sealed tuners. Have disassembled it and The only identifying marks I can find anywhere on it are the Aria badge on the headstock, steel reinforced neck made in japan on the neck plate, and the pots have "TBM 243N B5" on them. Think I may have got a bargain here, it plays and sounds great. Any info would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers!



http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3476/326 ... 1a.jpg?v=0

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3300/326 ... f0.jpg?v=0

[VintAxe]

Hey stewyh,

As you have already determined, getting a positive model ID on this Bass will be difficult. Judging from the heavy, chrome plated control cavity cover I would say the Bass was made sometime between 1964-1968. Unfortunately, the pot codes are no help. The code does not appear to be from an American producer (big surprise} and to my knowledge, there is no published index of Japanese pot codes in English.

Contributing to the difficulty of obtaining a positive ID is the lack of 1960's Japanese Electric Guitar literature. I've searched for this literature every day for 8 years and my meager collection speaks to the difficulty of obtaining this stuff.

In 1996 Michael Wright published a 2 part series on the history of Aria guitars in Vintage Guitar magazine. I'll dig out my old copies when I get a chance and see if he describes a Bass like yours in his article.

[stewyh]

Hey thanks for the info. Stripped it down and assembled it again ready for setup only to find the truss rod was faulty and caused the fretboard to lift at the 1st fret.
Removed fretboard and found the rod has a ridiculous design of a flat plate that sits parallel with the fretboard fixed in with 4 small screws at the adjustment end, and this simply ploughed forwards when I tried to adjust the neck relief.
Am in process of installing a dual action rod and regluing the board with a refret as well. Cant wait to play the finished product!

[stewyh]

[audiodrome]

I've got an old Aria semi-hollow body bass that my father bought back in the early '70s. The model number is HF-5120 but I have no other info about it.

[Michael Ambrose]

[cheepaxes]

I have an Epiphone EA-260 bass that's pretty similar to that. That Dano baritone looks just like mine. Did you replace the pickguard or just put something under it? I put a print out of my family tartan under my pickguard.

-Scott