Originaltext ARIA Guitar Archiv USA:
Aria Guitars
Arai and Company, founded in 1953 in Japan by Shiro Arai, began marketing Aria brand acoustic guitars in 1960, and began manufacturing its own acoustic guitars in 1964, followed by electrics in 1966, using Arai, Aria, Aria Diamond, and Diamond brand names. The Aria brand name was changed to Aria Pro II in late 1975, though this has been used primarily (but not exclusively) for electric guitars. All guitars were made in Japan until 1988, when production of less expensive models was switched to Korea. In the mid-1990s a few models were made in the United States. What follows is a listing of the Aria guitars we've been able to trace through this history. Obviously, this is not inclusive, and you should always take the dates as advisory, at best. Also, this whole listing is primarily related to the American market, but could also reflect dates and models from other markets as well.
Dating Aria Guitars
Dating Aria guitars is a mix of fair precision and historical triangulation. The early guitars did not contain serial numbers, so you have to go by the rough historical outlines here. There are no pot codes. In the mid-'70s serial numbers began to be used. At least for Aria guitars made by Matsumoku, the serial number contains the year of manufacture in the first one or two digits (Y##### or YY####). Thus, a guitar from 1979 might begin with 79####. One from 1981 might begin with 1#####. The scheme becomes less sure after 1987. Some Korean- made guitars use a serial number with year and week indicated in the first four digits (YYWW####). Thus 9628#### would be from the 28th week of 1996. However, this is not the case on all guitars, and some have serial numbers which are not date-coded.
Archive information and research created by Michael Wright
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