History of ARIA Pro II (Arai Co., Ltd)

The company was established in 1956 by Mr.Shiro Arai. The Aria Pro II is brand name
of their electric guitar range (they use the Aria for acoustic range).
The company started to import the classic guitars. The name of ARIA, they use for
exporting the classic guitar for Asian countries in 1958.
After that, they tried to export the Japanese made Classic guitars for overseas market.

They started to import the Fender guitars and amplifiers from the US, although at that
time the Japanese market was not quite ready for the electric guitar. Mr. Arai had a very
good business & marketing sense.
In 1963, they started to export the Japanese made electric guitars. It was a time
Japanese first electric guitars booming. They added several new models with Aria
Diamond brand. Under Aria diamond brand, they started to make the Gibson type copy
mainly full acoustic electric type.

The time of guitar history was very slowly from 1967-70. The band booming was gone for
a while. The Japanese guitar industries should wait a time of “Hard Rock” era.

In 1970-1972, they are starting the Gibson and Fender copy to distributing the Japanese
market. Arai was also distributor of Greco “Matsumoku Made” distributor of Western of
Japan (Eastern Japan is covered by Kanda Shokai).
In 1975, Aria Pro II was developed from Aria's custom shop making high-end models for
professional users. In 1976, Aria Pro II released its first original model, the PE-1500.
This is absolutely great guitar with originality away from Gibson and Fender.
The Designer of this guitar is Mr. N. Hayashi (currently the president of Atlansia Guitars).
He developed the original “hell-less-neck”. This unique design promises the very smooth
fingering around the neck setting high position.
After PE, they added the RS(Rev Sound), TS(Tri Sound) and CS (Cardinal Series) as original
design range. RS was designed as Japanese made Alembic style Guitar. TR was
cost effective type of RS series. Now, both PE and RS are getting the historical Japanese
vintage guitar with high pricing on collectors market.