Aria PE help

I know a few of you guys own these old and new

I played one in a shop yesterday and liked it but it confused the hell out of me.

The shop owner was insistent that it was late 70's Japanese, it certainly looked the right age and the build quality seemed very nice. However the headstock had Aria only on it (not pro 2) which made me think it might not be. the serial was 1 letter and 9 digits which didn't match up with anything I could read on matsumoku info on my phone.

it was trans red with "Duncan designed" covered (heavily pitted) humbuckers, gold hardware and had toggle switch and 1 each tone and volume, also had block inlays with a diaganal stripe

I may go back and get it regardless of its providence as I liked the look and feel, just wanted to see if you guys could shed any light before I handed over my my hard earned cash.

they also had a fretless thunder 1a bass in black for £125

If the letter was S then, together with the Duncan designed humbuckers and the Aria badge it is recent and Korean.

You see them all the time on Ebay so do not pay too much for it.


Hoax

http://www.matsumoku.org/models/ariaproii/pe.html

The PE series made by Matsumoku were all under the nomenclature Aria Pro II, so yeah; probably Korean.

They are a fine guitar; I've been lucky enough to play a few, though I don't know much about the Korean ones.

thanks Hoax
it was an S


I'd done some google image searching of headstocks after I posted and had come to the conclusion it was probably Korean and may have been not treated well for 10 to 15 years rather than aged naturally over 30


I'll hold onto my gas money for now