1970s Aria-Style Les Paul Copy Electric Guitar

Overview: This particular guitar is unmarked but this style of Japanese-made Les Paul copy often has an Aria, Univox, Ibanez, or similar branding at the headstock. I've worked on tons of them and most are not cherry sunburst like this fella but rather vanilla-flavored colors. Most are also not-gone-through and so play like dogs. This one's ready for action, has good tone and an easy neck.

Tone: It's warm and punchy with decent-enough output to drive an amp nicely. It's not high-gain sort-of stuff but functions more or less like an old Gibby, save that the pickups are a bit more microphonic. The neck is warmer and mellower in sound than the bridge and while that's normal, it's also more distinct inthis guitar.

Feel: The neck is a pretty standard, slimmer C-shape and has a 12" radius so it's a little less-steep than a vintage Gibson-style board.

Interesting features: A lot of these Les Paul-style copies were painted black or a murky brown and so a cherry sunburst version is kind-of rare. The body is strangely-built -- it has an interior block of ply-mahogany with exterior veneers The top is press-arched and fit to the body and actually has air gaps here and there inside. It's a curious and functional solution to portraying a "carved" top look at scale.

Repairs included: I leveled/dressed the frets, replaced the 3-way switch and jack with new parts, cleaned-up the wiring, fixed minor crunch-up damage in the cutaway, and set it all up. It's playing quick and easy and is ready to go.

• Weight: 7 lbs 15 oz
• Scale length: 24 3/4"
• Nut width: 1 5/8"
• Neck shape: slim-medium C
• Board radius: 12"
• Body width: 13"
• Body depth: 1 3/4"
• Body wood: ply mahogany
• Bridge: ABR-style
• Fretboard: rosewood
• Neck wood: mahogany
• Pickups: 2x original humbuckers
• Action height at 12th fret: 1/16” overall (fast, spot-on)
• String gauges: 46w-10
• Truss rod: adjustable
• Neck relief: straight
• Fret style: medium-low

Condition notes: Overall, it's in pretty good shape. It does, however, have a repaired "crunch-in" to the treble side of the neck joint -- in the cutaway. This is essentially just veneer crunch-up as the body underneath the side and top veneer is a big hunk of ply mahogany. The joint is stable. Also, despite the bolt-on neck joint, I did use a bit of fill and shims to get the neck joint nice and rugged and tight. Its original factory cut was fairly loose.

It comes with: It has an original hard case which is beat-up but will serve for storage.

Consignor tag: JW