#J s series aria pro 11 pro
Probably a boring story, and way off topic, but I hadn't thought about those Arias in years.1975 Aria Pro II Guitar Catalog Volume 1 (Japanese Text) - 08 Pagesġ976 Aria Pro II Guitar Catalog Volume 2 (Japanese Text) - 08 Pagesġ977 Aria Pro II Guitar Catalog Volume IV (Japanese Text) - 08 Pagesġ977 Aria Pro II "Jolly Bible for the Young" Guitar Catalog Volume V (Japanese Text) - 20 Pagesġ977 Aria Pro II American Issue Guitar Catalog - 08 Pagesġ977 Aria Pro II Stringed Instrument Brochure with Handwritten Prices - 06 Pagesġ977 Aria Pro II Masterpiece Prototype Guitar Brochure - 04 Pagesġ979 Aria Pro II Guitar Catalog with Pricelist - 18 Pagesġ979 Aria Pro II Guitar Catalog (Japanese Text) - 24 Pagesġ979 Aria Pro II Vol. I pretty much immediately forgot all about the Arias and went home with the Fender. It was at that point that he showed me a brand new Fender Strat from a new line of Japanese made models he'd just gotten in, and was priced comparably to the Arias. I had every intention of walking out with one, and even remember mentioning to the guy (who was actually the shop owner) that I wanted one because I couldn't afford a Gibson or Fender. I remember finally being at the point when I had saved up enough, and my Dad took me to a mom and pop store that had them. They were heavily advertised in all of the magazines, and were fairly affordable at the time, especially in comparison to Fenders and Gibsons. Saving up was kind of a lengthy prospect back then, but I remember having my eye on an Aria 2. But I began saving up for something better. Shortly after I started playing, my first electric was a used Hondo II SG copy. Initially, I only had access to an old knock off of a Harmony acoustic that belonged to my Dad. I started playing in the summer of 1981 at age 14. I never had one, but they were definitely on my radar. Some more demos from another Japanese Youtuber, Jake Cloudchair. It is common for brands to have travelling fairs where their guitars are on display for sale at different stores then move around the country. I saw a tweet from G-Club Shibuya (The Kurosawa Gakki store in Shibuya) and they said these were hard to find domestically and that they were holding a APII guitar fair to feature these guitars. Here is a recent Youtube video (from Kazuya Yamaguchi's channel) featuring the Aria Pro II high end models (APII). The MIC guitars are priced competitively but again face a lot of competition for other MIC guitars for other Japanese brands like the MIC Ryoga Guitars or Sago's Seed line. There are a few FGN models below $1K but expect to pay at over $1K USD for a MIJ guitar. It's hard to find MIJ guitars under $1K USD.
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There are also mid-range guitars with the lowest MIJ models around $1100-1200 USD. They do have some interesting designs in the low end. Hard to say what the quality is based only on photos. The MIC low end guitars seem really cheap in price. Black Cloud is unveiling similar modernish guitars next week at Sound Messe. The founder of Dragonfly came from Aria Pro. They are up against companies like T's, Sugi, Freedom Custom Guitar Research, Dragonfly, etc. This segment of the market is really crowded and their guitars go up against a lot of newer Japanese brands that only make guitars in Japan and have more cachet these days.
![j s series aria pro 11 j s series aria pro 11](https://www.therider.com/files/Sharon1Dec.2021-original.jpg)
![j s series aria pro 11 j s series aria pro 11](https://www.vintagejapanguitars.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/1981-Aria-Pro-II-Guitars-Dealer-Slicks-2-PG1-214x300.jpg)
These are listed as coming from the Aria Pro Custom Shop. The high-end guitars range from $2800-4500 USD. They got coverage of the high end MIJ guitars on a couple of Japanese Youtube channels. Recently, they have been making a push to really get back into the market. They are not that easy to find in Japan since very few shops carry them.