Grateful Dead Music Forum

I always enjoy reading about builds and guitar modification here, so I thought I'd share this project. I recently acquired an Aria Pro II YS500. It's a well built Japanese guitar from the Matsumoto factory. It's a 24 fret maple neck through, with ash wings. The scale length is 25.5". The electronics and pickups are not original to the guitar and are pretty junky. I purchased it planning to replace all the innards anyway. I'll be putting a Super 2 in the middle and a UGB to get those Jerry sounds. I'll be putting in a few personal preferences as well...

I'm just getting started but here are the before pictures.

Looks like a worthy project! Curious, about how much does it weigh?

It should be a nice project guitar. I modded a very similar Vantage VA800 and it came out great.

mk

Those Arias can be a very fine foundation for a Jerry-style build. My Jerrified Aria was done by Leo at Scarlet Fire. Here's a link to that old thread:
forum/viewtopic.php?f=426&t=13958&p=125 ... ia#p125357

Jon S. wrote:Looks like a worthy project! Curious, about how much does it weigh?

I pulled the electronics out but according to my scale designed to weigh human beings it is roughly 6.5 pounds without the electronics.

Less than I'd thought!

Well I thought I'd have this project done by now. Between work and more importantly playing music I haven't had enough time to finish it. Hopefully tomorrow I'll finish the wiring if all goes well. I have the pickups in and about half way done with the wiring. Here's what the plan is:

Super 2 in the Middle
SD Pearly Gates in the Bridge and Neck
Each pickup has it's own switch for Humbucker/Single
Waldo UGB
OBEL
Master Volume
Tone for Middle
Shared tone for neck and bridge

One thing I'm excited about is the Freeway 6 position switch. It feels just like a Gibson SG/LP switch but more options. It's basically two Gibson style three way switches in line with each other. when it's on the left side I wired to work like a standard Gibson - neck, neck and bridge, bridge. When on the right it selects neck and middle, middle, and middle and bridge. It allows for every position except all three and it's in a configuration that I think will be easy to adjust to from a Gibson switch. The switch goes up and down or left and right and seems to be well built. Here's the wiring diagram.

I've got a Freeway 6-way switch in a project guitar I made. It is a dual humbucker w/ master vol & tone. What I like about it is I don't have to drill any additional holes for toggles to coil tap. Looks like a fun build, you've got a lot of wires to solder,don't burn your fingertips!

I finished it up yesterday! I'm REAL happy with the sound. I need to spend more time with the pickup combinations, but I'm really liking it so far. The super 2 produces the goodness that I'd expect in the middle position and I'm really liking the Pearly Gates in the neck too. I'll be playing it with my band for the first time on Monday, and I think it's going to go well.

Nice!

It looks similar to my Poor Man's Cowboy:

forum/viewtopic.php?f=420&t=8810&p=1211 ... 7s#p121103

mk

mkaufman wrote:Nice!

It looks similar to my Poor Man's Cowboy:

forum/viewtopic.php?f=420&t=8810&p=1211 ... 7s#p121103

mk

I saw your thread before I began surgery on this and like what you did with the guitar. Really cool. I considered doing a bob setup on this one too. Maybe the next one.

Jon, I forgot to mention it is now weighing in at 8 pounds with the electronics on board.

Hey CW,

Nice work!

What year is that model?

Any sound clips?

Peace

James

Thanks James. I believe it is a 1980 model but I'm not certain. I'll try to get some sound clips posted soon. I'm still playing around a little bit with pickup heights. I'm absolutely loving the sound I'm getting.

I've noticed that both of the linear 500k tone posts don't give me much adjustment. From 1 to 3 the treble is rolled way off and then from 4 to 10 it sounds like it is on 10. Are others finding this from linear tone pots? I may switch these out at some point to an audio taper.

Washburn Falcons or Eagles should be great candidates for mods. Here's one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dl ... 0967029147

mk