NGD- eBay Inbound..

[scole]

Been eyeing these for a number of years and found one that looked to be in pretty good shape without too much damage for its age. Weren’t any bids on it so I threw an offer and the seller accepted. I’m out of town next week so it won’t arrive for about 2 weeks. It’s a cousin to one of my existing guitars. I’m not going to say someone won’t guess what it is but it’s not common brand.

Obligatory teaser-

[Chris]

Oooh been a while since we had one of these.

[scole]

I’m taking one for the team

[Tony]

Bugera trirec..


Thought this was in the amp section.


So new guess. A telecaster of some sort

[Iron1]

An Aria Pro of some sort? Been seeing a lot of them resurface lately...

[Markus]

The knob looks a little (but not quite) like the ones on a Yamaha Revstar.

[scole]

An Aria Pro of some sort? Been seeing a lot of them resurface lately...

Oh, shit- you are correct! It IS an Aria Pro..

[Chris]

An Aria Pro of some sort? Been seeing a lot of them resurface lately...

God damn that was Randy-esque.

[Mike]

Oh, shit- you are correct! It IS an Aria Pro..

[scole]

Right?? That’s a brand that won’t immediately come to mind for most folks. It’s a 1985 Aria Pro II ZZ Custom in the exact same finish as my 1st guitar- an RS Knight Warrior. ZZs do come up fairly often but usually in the other finish options and not with the ACT 3 licensed Floyd.


This one is fairly clean from the photos. All the pointy horns look to be intact. I did notice after buying it that someone may have messed with the input Jack area but it’s hard to tell from the low light photo they used. I don’t think it comes with the trem arm so I’m not sure what I’m going to do about that. Once I get it, I’ll measure the post spacing and see where that leads.

Not looking to do anything that’s irreversible but I’ve already ordered some replacement parts and a new pickup set.

[Iron1]

Oh, shit- you are correct! It IS an Aria Pro..

It came to mind because my first ever guitar, that I bought in 1985, was an Aria Pro (don't remember the model, just that I bought it from Harmony Hut in Laurel Mall for like $100... and it sucked) and you and I seem to have similar tastes.

[jacksonplayer]

Very cool!

That trem looks a lot like the Washburn 600-T that came on my old EC-36M. Didn't find anything that was compatible, but I was less knowledgeable back then. A Gotoh Floyd would be the likeliest replacement candidate.

[Bloody_Inferno]

Very cool!

That trem looks a lot like the Washburn 600-T that came on my old EC-36M. Didn't find anything that was compatible, but I was less knowledgeable back then. A Gotoh Floyd would be the likeliest replacement candidate.

Yeah my first inclination is to replace that bridge with a gold Gotoh 1996T.

Sick axe!

[scole]

While I’m not going to do anything to it that isn’t reversible, I would like to find a modern Floyd that will fit so I’ll keep that in mind, for sure. Once I get it, I can measure the post width and check the dimensions for all that.

I’ve already got the replacement pickups and a few other upgrades ordered.

[Iron1]

Right?? That’s a brand that won’t immediately come to mind for most folks. It’s a 1985 Aria Pro II ZZ Custom in the exact same finish as my 1st guitar- an RS Knight Warrior. ZZs do come up fairly often but usually in the other finish options and not with the ACT 3 licensed Floyd.


This one is fairly clean from the photos. All the pointy horns look to be intact. I did notice after buying it that someone may have messed with the input Jack area but it’s hard to tell from the low light photo they used. I don’t think it comes with the trem arm so I’m not sure what I’m going to do about that. Once I get it, I’ll measure the post spacing and see where that leads.

Not looking to do anything that’s irreversible but I’ve already ordered some replacement parts and a new pickup set.

The more I look at this, the more I want one.

[Mike]

Nice score. I wanted the blue V-trem version of this soooo bad when I was a teenager, but I could not find one until like 3 years later, at which point I had moved on to wanting Charvels. I look forward to you letting us know how it is...

[scole]

I kind of feel like I know already what to expect since I have my RS Knight Warrior but I could be wrong. My RS has the narrowest neck in my collection and also the chunkiest neck. It has a Kahler trem so I don’t know if that plays into things. I was surprised to see that this is a 24 fret neck since my RS is 22..

[Webdood]

ooo that is nice! 24 frets to boot. I used to always see ads for Aria's in magazines, but absolutely nobody had them in stock/sold them locally.

[Budda]

Im sure its the photo angle but my brain went "long boi" immediately . Looks fun!

[scole]

The guitar finally arrived yesterday. I was out of town last week so I asked the seller to delay shipping it for that reason. Anyways, It's lighter than I was expecting (alder body and maple neck). The condition matches the listing photos for the most part. It's almost 40 years old so it's bound to have some dents & scratches. One thing I noticed in person that I didn't see in the listing photos was some cracking around the neck pocket. It's normal to see the crack on the side near the upper horn but I haven't seen crack between the neck pickup and the neck pocket before..





I did notice this in the listing photo but that was darker. Kind of looks like the jack plate was longer than what's there now? Whatever..



The "Act 3" tremolo did come with the arm so that's a bonus (wasn't sure it did). It has a 39mm block and the post spacing is 71.5mm. As was suggested, I've ordered a Gotoh 1996T and will see if it will work with the factory posts. It's a top mount with no recessed route so I think it will.Pickups seem newer than stock but I'm not sure what they are. I have a replacement set ready to go but I'll wait until I get the Gotoh and some other replacement parts.









The neck had a bow to it so I tightened the truss road a little bit (best I could with strings still attached). Probably be another week or so before I can tackle the upgrades I have in mind. Nothing drastic or irreversible but excited to see it through.

[Chris]

IMO the beat-ness of this thing makes it even cooler.

(Except for the crooked flathead screws on the jack plate, wtf? )

[Iron1]

Nice! You're really making me want to find one... please update this thread with progress.

[scole]

Haha, for sure.

[scole]

The Gotoh 1996 arrived today and...



I mentioned the post spacing but I didn't mention the bridge saddles. I tried measuring the Act 3 saddles and the saddles from a Floyd I have on another guitar and they seemed to be about the same and I didn't give it much thought. Welp...





It's gonna be real close. I feel like the outside saddles might conflict with the trem posts but we'll see. I've got a bunch of other parts coming during the next week so I'll know more this time next week..

[desertdweller]

That's going to look amazing!