Whitstable Guitars

1983 Aria Pro II CS-400 Deluxe Cardinal Series & OHSC

£469.00

Aria Pro II guitars were made at the well known Matsumoku factory in Japan during the 1970's & 1980's. Matsumoku made a lot of guitars for many different brands including Washburn, Westone, Vox, Westbury and of course Aria Pro II. These were always built to a high standard and a quite sought after these days.

This guitar sits at the top of the range of the "Cardinal Series" A solid bodied, twin humbucker guitar  with the same scale length and configuration as a Les Paul, but with a double cutaway. They were also quite a bit lighter as the body was made from Ash with a Maple cap. The guitar also had a Maple neck with 22 frets.

The CS-400 Deluxe has a set in neck (other models had a bolt on neck) MMK 45 Humbuckers with split coil & out of phase options via two micro switches & gold coloured hardwear

Despite being 35 years old, this particular guitar has not been used much and is in great condition. There were a few very small chips and light scratches around the body but that was about it. The gold hardwear is quite tarnished at the bridge and at the machine heads. The frets are excellent with no indents. The guitar also comes with it's original fitted and branded hard case which is also in great condition.  All in all a really nice guitar to add to anyone's collection

There is lots of information on all the guitars built at Matsumoku at this excellent website

www.matsumoku.org

Aria Pro II CS-400 Specifications

Body: Ash body with Maple carved top

Finish: Black

Neck: Maple (set In) with 22 fret Rosewood fretboard 

Width at nut: 42mm

Width at 12th fret: 52mm

Scale Length: 633mm (24.75")

2 x MMK 45 Humbuckers (Matsumoku made)

3 way switch

2 x Volume & 2 x Tone knobs

Coil Split Switch

In/out phase switch

Weight: 3822 gm (8lb 6.5oz)

Original hard case

As stated many times, due to courier damage, all my guitars are shipped in hard cases (usually new) this one being the original fitted one. 

So to sum up, a very nice guitar from Aria Pro II & beautifully made in Matsumoku, Japan. The CS-400 is quite difficult to find in the UK .