1977 Aria Pro II RB-750 Lawsuit Bass Review

Hi there!

This is the story of the one that got away. I saw one of these beautiful Aria Pro II Rickenbacker 4001 copies at a secondhand store in Japan a few years ago, but I already had already picked up a few SB-1000 basses and there was simply no more room to bring this one home.

I did some research after I got home, and figured out that it was a 1977 Aria Pro II RB-750CH, finished in a lovely cherryburst fade. The body and headstock shapes, as well as many of the features were direct lifts from Rickenbacker, and one could easily see how this may have upset them. As far as I can tell, these basses were only made in 1977 and 1978.

If I remember correctly, it was neck-through bass and even had the dual-truss rod system. The wood looked like alder to me, with a rosewood stringer for the maple neck. There was a simple 1-ply white binding around the top and back as well as along the edges of the fretboard. The fretboard was rosewood with triangular mother of pearl inlays. Unlike the 4001 basses, there was no heavy clear finish over the fretboard, which is a huge improvement in my book.

The electronics were strikingly similar to the Rickenbacker as well. There were two single coil pickups that were wired for both mono and stereo (Rick-O-Sound!). Amazingly, the neck pickup still had its cover on it. The controls were also the same as a Rick, with volume and tone for both pickups, and a three-way selector switch.

The hardware was a bit of a hodge-podge with a swoosh-shaped trussrod cover, faithful copies of the Rickenbacker tailpiece and bridge, and some cheap-o closed back Japanese tuners. The tuners are really the worst thing about this bass, and putting some Schallers on it would make it look more like a Rickenbacker. They would surely hold better, too.

And holy cow this was one really slick-playing bass. The neck and fretboard radius had more of a Fender profile, and it was very comfortable feeling, unlike every 4001 or 4003 I have ever owned. It was well under ten pounds and was nicely balanced on a strap without any neck-dive. On top of this it sounded great – very much a Jazz Bass tone.

Pretty much it was a winner, and was priced at only around $400 – keeping in mind this was when the Yen was around 120 to the dollar. It would have been a no-brainer to buy it, if only I had the room to bring it home. If I had it to do over again, I would have figured out a way to ship it home or have a friend hold it until I got over there again to pick it up. Opportunities like this don’t come up every day, you know….

Mahalo!