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The Aria Pro-II TS-500.  It’s a super-strat, it’s a hippie sandwich, it’s a mock BC Rich…  Aria II was better known for their basses but plenty of guitars were sold as well.  All of the guitars in this post were once common sights at pawn shops and ‘somewhere in the back’ of yr neighborhood music store.  Many were made by the Japanese Matsumoku corporation and then sold in a variety of brand-names around the world.  I don’t see them too often any longer, except for the occasional flea-market appearance.  Since they had neither the baby-boomer appeal of Gibson/Fender/Gretsch nor the flash of 80’s shred-axes, these things traded in the $100 range for decades.  Now, like the mustache, some cachet seems to be building around them and prices have risen to the $500 – $1000 area.

The Aria Pro II PE-1000 of 1979.   I can recall playing some of the PE-series decades ago; they were very fine guitars; note the heelless neck. 

The Washburn Hawk of 1979, a good-quality instrument from their Wing series. 

The Westbury Custom S circa 1981, imported by Unicord (importers of Marshall/Korg/etc…).  Note the similarities to the Aria Pro IIs.

The Westone lineup of 1979. 

Any Matsumoku collectors out there?  Any know of any relevant players using these things nowadays?

Above: an Electra ad from 1979 which seems to be suggesting that by using their sound-effects controls incorporated into the guitar itself (rather than in foot-effect-pedals), you will develop a unique style and attain success.  Okey…  Anyone using one of these today?  Thoughts? 

Electra was a brand-name for Japanese-made guitars imported by the St Louis Music Co. in the 1970s.  There were also Electra-branded amps:  I had a pretty rad solid-state piggyback with a 15″ driver and footswitchable phaser/reverb/overdrive (i think…) in the early 90s…  pretty good sound for a solid-state amp… Anyhow, I can’t find any info on the amps online but maybe someone can send us a catalog?  As far as the guitars: there is pretty good documentation on the web: start with this page.  These dudes also posted the full 1977 catalog, which is one of the best I have ever seen.  To wit:

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Goddamn hippie cowboy space invader!  Nice.  Anyhow… here are some more interesting Electra ads from the mid seventies which I think no one else has bothered to upload yet… enjoy…

The Electra MPC guitar with modular electronic-effect plug-ins.   Gimme TANK TONE baby.

The Electra ‘Tree of Life’ guitars, part of a larger ‘carved-top-design’ trend in the 70’s…  see here for another example.

The Emrad amplifier was designed to the needs of jazz-guitar great Johnny Smith.  Handmade in a Colorado workshop, these 100-watt solid-state combos were soon also used by Sugarloaf, performers of this genre-defying 70s classic.

I rank this track with other ‘it could only have happened in the early seventies’ hazy-vibed jams such as Ride Captain Ride and Brandy.  Is it rock music? Pop? Lounge music?  The Emrad saga was a brief one; follow this link for the details.

With the estate sale/ flea market season upon us, I thought it might be an interesting experiment to try a Tumblr account. I’ll be posting images, sounds, and videos of the various audio-historical related flotsam that I happen upon across this great land of ours.

You can check us out at:  http://exploitandindustry.tumblr.com

…or follow us, if you are a Tumblr user – it’s super easy, fast+free to join.  Just go to Tumblr.com.

Hondo II: the First Name In First Bands.   Marketed as ideal beginner-instruments, Hondo II was the US brand name for certain guitars built by the Korean Samick corporation.  According to wikipedia, Hondos were built in Japan between 1974 and 1983.   Samick is among the world’s largest manufacturers of musical instruments, with much modern production of guitars taking place in Indonesia.  Anyways… by the time I started playing the electric guitar, the Hondo II name was already retired and they were simply branded ‘Samicks.’  Not sure what was up with the awkward name Hondo.  Was is supposed to invoke Honda, then known to Americans as a leading manufacturer of motorcycles? Here’s a look back at the company’s big push into the US market in the 1970s. 

The Hondo Longhorns circa 1981; updated versions of the circa 1960 Danelectro instruments.

The Honda II lineup circa 1981. We see copies of: Gibson’s THE PAUL, the Fender Lead II, an early Fender Telecaster, an EVH-style strat, as well as some generic-looking but original instruments.

The Hondo 781 EXP, a lurid instrument sure to inspire fist-pumping.

In 1979 Hondo offered Asian-made licensed-versions (not copies…) of the respected SD Curlee instruments. 

Anyone out there using Hondos these days?  Are any of the models worth recommending?  Let us know…

For the next two weeks at PS dot com: we’ll be taking an extended journey through the 1970s.  I was born in 1976, and according to a lot of very smart people, the early impressions that we experience become deeply imprinted on our minds.

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As far as audio culture, sartorial style, musical taste, etc: which of these impressions formed my Hero paradigm?  Which became sublimated to create my Shadow self?  My Anima?  How might these concepts be present as projections in my conscious life?

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Perhaps a scan through the RocknRoll audio-culture of the 1970s will shed some light on these hidden operations.  Join us for what promises to be an interesting journey…

Daion guitars were built in the Japan in the late 70s/early 80s.  I believe that the model depicted here is the L999 Legacy. Note the stylized ‘tuning fork’ logo on the headstock; Yamaha has used a similar motif for a century.

For previous Ladies of Psychedelic Folk coverage on PS dot com, click here.

Flipping through some circa 1960AES journals I came across this pair: The Scott 140B preamplifier and 250B fifty-watt power amp.  The 140B pre claims a response of 1hz to 3.5Mhz.  This is absurdly good performance for a vacuum tube amplifier.  I am guessing that this is a transformerless piece.  Anyone have any experience with this unit?  A schematic?  Drop us a line.  The 50-watt power amp likely does use an output transformer; it claims a response of 5hz to 60K hz, which is outstanding as well.  Let us know if you’re using these in the studio..

Above: From DOWNBEAT magazine 1966: Bassist Ben Tucker discusses his home hi-fi system.  Tucker played with a real who’s-who of the mid 20th century jazz world.  I really like this idea of profiling the hi-fi systems of studio-savvy musicians; seems like a potentially good way of cutting through the audiophile obsessiveness, the marketing hype, and the bargain-hunting mentality that seems to inform a lot of sound-system purchases.  Musicians tend to know what things are supposed to sound like and tend to respond intuitively to the emotional aspects of music reproduction, and they also tend to be on real-world budgets.  Seems like a good sort of individual to take home audio advice from.  Tucker used an Electrovoice 1177 receiver, AR3 speakers, Koss Pr-4 headphones, a Stanton Longhair cartridge, and a SONY 500 tape recorder.

Are any current publications/sites running similar features today on contemporary musicians?