When my marriage went all to hell, about all I took was my cat, my Univox electric, my Vox bass, & hundreds of LPs. A few years later, I bought the Alvarez. But on a whim, a few months later I bought a "refurbished" (damaged in transit) Aria. Bluish-green transparent, double-bound, nice cutaway. Well, & the logo & headstock art is silkscreened...

And to date it's the only one like it I've ever seen.

Though it's mostly been my backup acoustic for 15+ years, & thus not used a whole lot, it's been going with me to a few gigs. In all those years, all I've done is replaced a jammed tuner & add a strap button. It just now occurs to me that the tone has aged beautifully -- it was really stiff when I bought it, which likely explains the $120 pricetag. I wouldn't mind finding another like it.

One source says the AE-73 is an electric; another says it's an acoustic-electric. Trust me: it's neither, & it never has been.

There's no MADE IN marks anywhere. FWIW, the serial # is 172475. Any hints appreciated.

Edited by user Monday, February 04, 2013 6:50:16 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

A small update, because I feel guilty about not getting some photos done this week.

Like the goofy Washburn model numbers for acoustics, there's brief glimmers of usefulness from Aria. So, this guitar is an AW-73. "C" = cutaway, "BLSB" = blue sunburst -- I've also spotted listings for black (BK) & natural (N). If a 73 has a piezo bridge, then "E" will be in there somewhere.

I did see photos of an AW-20BLS that's a close cousin, but it skews my numbers, as it's outright BLUE, not aqua like I've got. The 20 is maybe a decade newer, so I guess they shortened the SB.

added -- spotted an Aria stamped AW-75BLS that (but for no cutaway) could be a twin to mine. The rosette seems to be b/w inverse; top binding about identical; bridge, pickplate, head shape, & lgo identical. Unbound neck, though.

BlueBook says the 75 was available until 2005 (!!), in "Black, Black Sunburst, Blue Sunburst, Brown Sunburst, Natural, Red Sunburst, or White."

Also spotted a somewhat later red (non-cut) AW-70RS. Different logo, square bridgeplate, otherwise pretty much the same, like binding.

Edited by user Thursday, February 19, 2015 3:04:01 AM(UTC)  | Reason: -