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Help Identifying this Aria bass

tomd03

tomd03

Oct 8, 2004
150
0
Alberta Canada
#1
Hey there,
I've had this bass kicking around the closet for many a years now, and I just pulled it out to play again, and was surprised that it was still perfectly in tune! With the new strings I had put on it as well haha, totally forgot about those! Anyways, all I know about it is what it tells me on the headstock:
Aria Pro II Rev-Sound Bass, Original custom body. Pat. No. 555719

It has a brass nut, Aria Pro II brand Machine Heads, A neck-thru body with what appears to be maple and mahogany for the body and neck woods, with a mahogany fretboard, two humbucking pickups, 2 switches (i believe one is a phase, the other I'm not sure) and two stacked pots, controlling volume and tone for each pickup.

Now, With some research I've sound some close possible matches to this bass, but no definitive ones. There were subtle differences, such as placement of knobs, the fact that this does not have a selector switch (just the two switches), and the stacked pots. Also, the fingerboard inlays are like eyes, which is unlike any other I've been able to find.

I will post pictures along with this post, so hopefully someone can give me a hand!

IMG_1510.jpg


IMG_1512.jpg


IMG_1515.jpg



Thanks all!
 
#2
Looks a lot like a 1980 TSB650 but with different pups. Prior to '80, the headstocks appeared to be more Fender-like. After '80 they became more of the typical Aria block/scroll style..

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I have a Vantage Performer VA900B, the top of the line Vantage bass from that period (both, the Aria and Vantage were produced by Matsumoku in Japan). It, like yours, has held up impressively and never seemed to go out of tune.
 
#3
Oh wow, good call - I'd never run across that one in my searches...
Hm, You're right, the only real difference appears to be the pickups - and I was way off with the body wood if that's ash!

Oh! and another difference between this and the 650, it says there that it has 22 frets, this one has 24 for certain
 
#5
Hi, I am new here.
I have the same RSB as you, but the top model RSB-900 that was similar to the SB-1000 with one PU only..
You got the RSB-800 which was similar to the SB-900.
As far as I can see is the only thing that differs from the more common and famous Super Bass-series (SB) are the headstock. I had an Aria Pro II SB-900 before but I liked the look of this headstock so I decided to upgrade.
There are very little written about these basses and hard to find info.
I believe they only was made in 1980. (Serial number 0xxxxx)
 
#7
Mitril:
That's awesome! I've literally been looking for years for all that information, and you have all of it! Thank you a ton, it's very nice to know what I have now, and nice to know that there are at least a few more that exist out there :P
Thank you again, and again.
-Al
 

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