The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

I am looking for information on a guitar which I bought recently. It is an Aria "Ike Isaacs" model hollow-body archtop jazzer. I believe its designation is TA1500 and that it was exclusive to the UK. Manufactured 1979-1983.

I can find little on the web except a few catalogue descriptions and photographs. These describe a guitar having dot markers on an ebony fretboard and a solid spruce top. My guitar is different in that it has block markers on a rosewood board and a spruce ply top. Also, the control knobs on my instrument are positioned differently to those in the catalogue photographs. There is no label in the soundhole, only the ink-stamped number 504961.

Any information you may have would be very welcome.

There's a photo of the Ike Isaacs model on this site (check the Aria Pro II model section).

The Ike Isaacs model has a solid spruce top... if the top of your guitar is ply wood, it should be a cheaper model.

Anyway, it's easier to help you, if you have a photo of your guitar.

The only shot I have of the TA-1500 is of the transition period (gullwing headstock). The catalog shot I have is from 1980 but considering some of the Aria Pro II guitars did change some from year to year as time went on I would not find it hard to believe that the inlays changed. I have seen several versions of the Herb Ellis model.

Is there a number stamped into the back of the headstock? This is where the serial number would appear. Normally the numbers stamped inside are arbitrary or were used for in house production.

Thanks guys. I suspected that my guitar was a cheaper version of the real thing, having a ply top. However, it's definitely an Aria (says "The Aria" on the headstock) and it has the "Ike Isaacs" inlay on the fingerboard.

There is no serial number stamped on the back of the headstock or anywhere else. Just the ink-stamped number inside the body. There are no other marks and not even a trace of glue where a label might have been. Unable to upload photos at present, but I'll try in the near future.

I thought that it could just possibly be a prototype, since the headstock is very slightly wonky. Not immediately noticeable, but the headstock definitely veers away from the centreline of the guitar towards the treble side. This is clearly the way the guitar was manufactured and not due to damage or string tension.

All that aside, this guitar is amazing. Very light and resonant, fantastic neck and great jazzy sound from the twin humbuckers. To be honest, I would never have considered buying an Aria. My wife saw this in a shop, liked the look of it and persuaded me to try it. The rest is history.

Guys.

I've posted some photos of my baby.

They're hosted on the web by Lycos and you can get there by going to http://members.lycos.co.uk/guitardunc/

If it asks you for a password it will be "aria".

Enjoy.

guitardunc

FYI...curiosity got the better of me and I loosened the pickups from their mounts to see if there were any identifying marks. They are "Patent Applied For" by Goto (=Gotoh, presumably). The really cool thing is the pole piece spacings are different (narrower on the neck pickup).

Like this one?


Do you know how many wires the pickup has? The one in the picture only has 2 so it is not splittable.

Pretty much identical to your photo, except only one mounting screw hole on each side plus two additional very small screws which seem to hold the cover on. Difficult to see how many conductors run from each pickup - I used an inspection mirror to look through the f-hole at the back of one of the volume pots and as far as I can tell there are only two.

To go back to the question regarding the solid/ply top (see above)...I've had a really good look at this and I'm quite mystified. The top appears to be two-ply comprising a 3mm thickness of solid spruce with a much thinner (1mm) layer of what appears to be...spruce! Why would they do this? I'm sure there are some luthier types out there who would know.

That's very much consistent to my observations so far... the only non-Matsumoku pickups I found in Aria Pro II guitars so far are the two wire Gotoh and the DiMarzio Dual-Sound ( four conductor versuion of the Super Distortion).