Still got my first electric guitar

Rowby1

It's actually not that great a guitar and hasn't seen any gigs for more than 25 years. However, it was the first proper electric guitar I bought (I had a Zenta Telecaster before this) and was the first thing I bought after leaving school and starting work.

It's a 1979 Aria Pro II LC440-DGS and cost me £216 brand new in December of 1979. Bear in mind that as a 16 year old apprentice I was on less than £40 a week before tax!

On the plus side it looks great (even now) and the three pickups and coil tap switch made it a very versatile first gigging guitar.

On the downside the pickups are best described as "slightly squeally" if you try anything with more than a moderate amount of gain at volume.

Although I now have a number of other electrics I have no intention of parting with this one.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a226/Rowby1/Guitars/Aria%20Pro%20II%20LC440-DGS_zpsgwphprrd.jpg

Adam_MD

Looks quite cool actually.

Rowby1

Oh yes, it's a looker no doubt

mart

Very nice! 

But it needs a Bigsby. )

usedtobe

Looks ace.

ICBM

Replace the pickups - those are excellent guitars otherwise.

I recently acquired another example of the very first electric I had - an Aria RS Standard, which is a sort-of Strat copy in the same way as yours is a sort-of Les Paul copy. The pickups were still equally crap, so I've replaced them with a set of Bill Lawrences which aren't too dissimilar to some of the better pickups used by Matsumoku.

Rowby1

Construction is quite interesting. The Sycamore flame top isn't carved as you'd think but is pressed ply. There's a small air gap around the pickup cavities between the top and the body of the guitar. It is however a mahogany body, bolt on 3 piece neck with a really nice dense grained rosewood board.

Having said what we have about the pickups, gain squeals aside, the coil taps make it very "Straty" indeed. I recall jamming with a guy some years older then me when I was about 17 or 18 who had a "real" Strat (probably early 70s, had a vee neck profile as I recall) and my Aria actually sounded closer to the Knopfler tone we were trying to emulate at the time than his did.

Don't know what I'd go for with replacement pickups, having just put BKs in my "real" LP. A set of three BKs with aged gold covers would probably be a bit OTT

DrBob

That guitar would look the nuts with three filtertrons in it

ICBM

Rowby1 said:

Construction is quite interesting. The Sycamore flame top isn't carved as you'd think but is pressed ply. There's a small air gap around the pickup cavities between the top and the body of the guitar.

Ah, that's not quite what I expected - a lot of cheaper Japanese Les Paul-type guitars were made like that, but I thought all the PEs were a bit further upmarket.

That also might explain some of the microphonics, although I don't doubt the pickups are at least part of the problem.

Rowby1 said:

A set of three BKs with aged gold covers would probably be a bit OTT

Not really, the guitar is essentially free after all this time, and even three Bareknuckles won't cost more than it's worth.

ThePrettyDamned

Plenty of other pickup winders in the UK that are great quality and cost less than bare knuckle. It looks a worthy guitar! Oil city or mojo are two that spring to mind.

Don't bother getting aged gold stuff - gold just ages super fast all by itself!

Rowby1

Hmm yes, food for thought there chaps. The old Green Machine may well live to fight another day

usedtobe

Still got my first, as it goes..

57Deluxe

In 1973 I bought this... (£45 new)

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/c1/6d/18/c16d18172abed108fe423b0b9dd4e2ea.jpg

and sold it a year later for the same money I paid for it for this new 1973 model Fender (£195 new in a sale)

http://oi59.tinypic.com/fwffp.jpg
.....Did I make a bad judgement then??

Ianpdq

I manage to get my first Guitar back it's a Burns 63 Splitsonic

Grumpyrocker

I wish I still had my first electric - an Epiphone 435i. It wasn't a brilliant guitar but my late mother bought it for me when I was 16/17 and it had sentimental value.

But I wore the thing out. Eventually the bridge disintegrated, the neck was knackered too. It needed so many replacement bits that there wouldn't have been much of the original left. So I binned it a year or so ago.

I don't regret getting rid, it was just a pile of broken junk. I just wish it had lasted.