Aria was formed in Japan in 1956 by Shiro Arai as "Arai & Co., Inc". They began retailing acoustic guitars in 1960, although the company did not start manufacturing their own until 1964. Aria arranged for Matsumoku, the musical instrument maker, to build the guitars for them under contract. Arai and Matsumoku started building acoustic guitars in 1964, and then electric guitars in 1966, using Arai, Aria, Aria Diamond, Diamond, and much less frequently, Arita brand names. The Aria brandname was changed to Aria Pro II in late 1975, though this has been used mostly for electric guitars and basses. All guitars were made in Japan until 1988, when production of less expensive models was switched to Korea. In the mid-1990s a few models were made in the United States. Guitar designer and audio engineer, Ronnie Parker started his career with Aria in 1985 when they were located in the City of Industry, California.
Guitars
Aria Pro II did some copies of famous American guitars such as the Fender Stratocaster and the Gibson Les Paul though it also did its own style of guitars. In the 70s and early 80s the company came into its own in the United States with a series of high end professional instruments. The company had professional endorsements from Michael Schenker, Yngwie Malmsteen, Neal Schon, John Taylor, Henrik Flyman, Loose Wayne and SS of Dark Frost and many more. Cliff Burton of Metallica used an Aria SB Black N Gold I as well as an SB-1000 bass but was never an official endorser. He has a posthumous "Signature Model" called the SB-CB produced in Korea. Aria makes guitars ranging from beginner to professional models. Another user of the Aria Pro II SB-1000 was bass guitarist, lead vocalist and frontman Cronos of the band Venom. He can be seen using the bass in the 1985 performance at the Hammersmith Odeon, commencing with the third song of the set. Some of their professional models were known as Firebrands because of the Firebranded Aria logo on the reverse of the headstock. The Firebrand guitars were produced in very small runs. They were then given to either named artists who promoted Aria Guitars or to the very top dealers as gifts. Firebranded Guitars were produced to a much greater standard than production runs. Aria has also built amps, such as the 10W Birdy.
