1980s Aria Pro II PW-65-12 12-String Dreadnought

Overview: This is either a late '70s or early '80s Aria Pro II, made in Japan, and it's a good-quality, mid-grade, fancy-looking box. It has the usual Martin-copycat outline and looks but features "vine" inlay in the board, a smiley-mustache bridge, and D-35-style back panels. The top is solid spruce but the back and sides are ply rosewood. I'd say it's about on the same level as a Daion or Yamaki build from the same time -- which is high praise! It's got a big, chimey, up-front sound and, as you'd expect, it sounds rather Martin-like -- it really does remind me a lot of their 14-fret 12s introduced in the '70s, save that the neck is faster.

Repairs included: Molly gave this a level/dress of the frets and setup work. It's playing spot-on and ready to go!

• Weight: 4 lbs 14 oz
• Scale length: 25 5/8"
• Nut width: 1 7/8"
• Neck shape: medium C oval
• Board radius: 12"
• Depth at first fret: 0.95"
• Depth at seventh fret: 1"
• Body width: 15 5/8"
• Body depth: 4 7/8"
• Top wood: solid spruce
• Back & sides wood: ply rosewood
• Bracing type: x
• Bridge: rosewood
• Fretboard: rosewood
• Neck wood: xmahogany
• Action height at 12th fret: 1/16" overall (fast, spot-on)
• String gauges: 42w-9 extra lights
• Truss rod: adjustable
• Neck relief: straight
• Fret style: medium-lower

Condition notes: While there's some light scratching and usewear here and there in the body, it's overall quite clean and in good shape. The top has UV-darkened to a nice, creamy yellow. There's a little finger-wear on the fretboard but nothing that hurts playability (it's visual). When built, the saddle slot was located slightly too-far-forward, so we were not able to 100% compensate the saddle like we usually do for 12-strings. It plays like a normal 12, with octave notes on the lower strings slightly more "wet" than when we can compensate spot-on for each string.

It comes with: I may have a chip case to put it in.

Consignor tag: CKAM