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Help identifying this bass

#21
I have an Aria Pro II guitar that appears to be from that same era. (I think mine is late 70s to early 80s). Mine has the original "Aria ProII" logo on top the headstock painted over, and a gold plastic logo replacing it vertically between the tuning keys. The dude at the pawnshop where I bought it said Aria got a "cease and desist" letter Gibson and so repainted or removed the infringing logos from some instruments that had already been built but hadn't shipped.

bholder said:
See if you can get a closeup picture of the neck plate in back. If it says "Made In Japan", likely Matsumoku, buy it.
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The ones I've seen say "STEEL REINFORCED NECK Made in Japan"

I will say that the Matsomoku instruments came with cheap electronics, but that's really not a problem, as the passive electronic bits (pots, switches, caps) are standard, cheap and relatively easy to replace. No doubt this bass is wired like a Les Paul.

If the neck is straight, BUY IT.
 
#24
This is simply a rumor so get out your salt shakers.

Most of the MIJ copy instruments were built by a few factories for multiple companies. Minor configurations were used to set one from another. I read that sometimes these were sold as factory directs and therefore a silkscreen wasn't applied (unless removed by the user). I've come across a few P bass and Rick copies that were identical to branded models.

Notice that none of the instruments in the 1972 catalog have "Ibanez" on the headstock. Extra stock on annual rollovers was probably sold naked: 1972 Ibanez Guitar Catalog

Greco/Aria has some in the catalog but, they're almost the same as Ibanez for 1972: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
 
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#25
Crater said:
I have an Aria Pro II guitar that appears to be from that same era. (I think mine is late 70s to early 80s). Mine has the original "Aria ProII" logo on top the headstock painted over, and a gold plastic logo replacing it vertically between the tuning keys. The dude at the pawnshop where I bought it said Aria got a "cease and desist" letter Gibson and so repainted or removed the infringing logos from some instruments that had already been built but hadn't shipped.
Click to expand...

Actually the closest things came to an actual lawsuit was in 1977, when Gibson threatened Elger, the distributor of Ibanez instruments in the US, with a copyright infringement suit over their headstock design. Elger quickly agreed to stop using the Gibson headstock design, which was easy because Ibanez had dropped the Gibson headstock design in 1976. Other brands were doing the same thing. Ibanez and Aria largely stopped offering copies in Western markets around this time in any case.
 
#27
Obese Chess said:
This sure looks like the one, but again the six polepieces are weird.
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I could be wrong about this, but I think they were just standard guitar-humbucker sized pickups. Would have been easy for somebody to swap them out for something else or if it was a restoration of a husk, they may have just installed whatever they had on hand that fit.
 
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#28
GretschWretch said:
I'd like to know why in pic two the pickups appear to have six pole-pieces. If it's like a similar bass I bought years ago, I wouldn't touch it. Multiple BAD dead spots and it weighed a ton.
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And the bridge and strings are different. Photos of 2 different instruments? Something not right here. How and why? One has deep grooves in the bridge saddle and the other does not. One has silk on the strings behind the bridge and the other does not.
 
#29
mellowgerman said:
I could be wrong about this, but I think they were just standard guitar-humbucker sized pickups. Would have been easy for somebody to swap them out for something else or if it was a restoration of a husk, they may have just installed whatever they had on hand that fit.
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That's my recollection from owning an Epiphone of a similar vintage many years ago, too.
 
#30
DanDBassist said:
And the bridge and strings are different. Photos of 2 different instruments? Something not right here. How and why? One has deep grooves in the bridge saddle and the other does not. One has silk on the strings behind the bridge and the other does not.
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There is only one picture showing the bridge and pickups in the OP. I think you might be also looking at the picture in post #12, which is indeed a picture of a different bass posted by a different TB'er.
 
#32
soulstew said:
There is only one picture showing the bridge and pickups in the OP. I think you might be also looking at the picture in post #12, which is indeed a picture of a different bass posted by a different TB'er.
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Whoops, I must have had the four photos somehow displayed when zooming in. My bad.
Thanks for straightening me out. I did just get back from an eye exam with dilated eyes, but still no excuse. lol
 
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#33
DanDBassist said:
Whoops, I must have had the four photos somehow displayed when zooming in. My bad.
Thanks for straightening me out. I did just get back from an eye exam with dilated eyes, but still no excuse. lol
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No excuses necessary--I do it all the time. Once you click on a photo, it seems like all the photos on that page load into the viewer, and it's hard to keep straight which ones go with with post.
 
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#34
My curiosity has grabbed me on this one...The bass is 2 hours North, I'll see it this Saturday. I'm hoping the screws in the bridge have it fixed to the body, and not decorative. I hope the neck is straight and it actually makes noise...I hope, I hope...starting to sound like Red at the end of Shawshank. The 'guitar' pick ups are a little odd too, but I do agree that they may have put in whatever they had at the time. I'm half hoping it's a hunk of crud so I don't think about it after Saturday. But, the other half wants the damn thing, just because it's different. We shall see come Saturday. Thanks for helping out, all. Looks like a National Big Daddy to me.
 
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#35
Well, I couldn't help myself. This bass seems to be a National Big Daddy by appearance, but there are no markings on this thing, whatsoever. I have not taken the neck off, maybe there's an identifier under there. All electronics work, neck is straight. Had to make some adjustments to the pickups, tuners are a little loose, but that's about it. Bridge is floating, which wasn't a deal breaker. This bass was picked up and played by the old gents' brother in 1974, and it's been sitting in the case since '88. Instruments are meant to be played, not stored in a coffin. So, I plan on putting in some different pickups/tuners and gigging the crap out of this thing. Thanks again for the help, all.

JM
 
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