Aria continued to produce the Herb Ellis signature model through the late 1980s, until he returned to his Gibson roots and they began producing the new ES-165 Herb Ellis model in 1991, which features his signature on the headstock. It was called the PE 175, and it first appeared in Aria’s catalog circa 1978. In the late 1970s, Aria began offering a Herb Ellis hollowbody guitar that featured two humbucker pickups and a sharp Florentine cutaway-a sharp contrast to the single-pickup, smooth Florentine cutaway ES-175. While he was never a Gibson endorser during the 1950s and 1960s, he did help bring the ES-175 to stardom. In 1953, Ellis bought a single-pickup Gibson ES-175 that became his main guitar for many years. Herb Ellis is a jazz guitarist who rose to fame in the 1950s, especially when he replaced Barney Kessel in the Oscar Peterson Trio. Aria guitars can be found with the trademarks of Aria, Aria Diamond, and Aria Pro II almost interchangeably, but since the early 2000s, all guitars are simply branded Aria. After the “lawsuit era” of copied guitars ended in the late 1970s, Aria went back to offering original designs, and they continue to produce a variety of musical instruments in numerous countries.
In the mid-1970s, the trademark changed to Aria Pro II, which appeared mostly on electric guitars.
At first, Aria focused on original guitar designs, but by the 1970s, they were doing what many other Japanese guitar companies were doing: copying popular American designs. Aria is the trademark of the Arai (note spelling) Company of Japan, which began producing guitars in the mid-1950s. It’s not every day that I evaluate a guitar with a serial number of 1! Your Aria Pro II model is unique and I’ll explain why, but first let’s look at the history of Aria and Herb Ellis. I am interested in its value and any information you may have about this guitar. The label inside the guitar indicates that it is a model TE 175 and the serial number is “1.” I’ve seen other Herb Ellis guitars with his name inlaid in the fingerboard and with different scrollwork on the head. I recently received a guitar that appears to be a Gibson copy Aria Pro II “Herb Ellis” model.
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