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RARE Vintage Matsumoku Made 1970’s Aria Black Widow Acoustic

RARE Vintage Matsumoku Made 1970’s Aria Black Widow Acoustic

To understand Just how rare this guitar is we first have to go back to the original history of Acoustic an American company who made Guitar amps for the likes of Jimi Hendrix
They decided to diversify into Guitars (and this was their one and only attempt)
Harvey Gerst guitarist with the BYRDS was sponsored by Acoustic and actually owned the very first Black widow.
Jimi Hendrix had recently taken delivery of 4 Acosutic Amplifiers and could not get his head around them so Harvet Gerst was asked to go along and show Hendrix how to work them
As he could not get on with Hendrix’s Strats he decided to show him using his own L/H Black widow.
Hendrix loved the sound
and when it came time to go Harvey asked for his guitar back from Hendrix to which Hendrix replied “What guitar? This is my guitar, but you can have any of my other guitars.”
Harvey Gerst took one of Hendrix’s Strats. But could not get on with it and told Acoustic that Hendrix had his Black Widow to which he was told “Dont Worry we will give you another” Which they did.
There were a TOTAL of 3 Left hand Acoustic Black Widow 6 string Guitars made.

Acoustic designed the guitar and then contracted Bartell Guitars to build them but to carry the Acoustic Brand Name
Bartell could not keep up with the numbers required and so they outsourced to Sammy Mosely of Mosrite Guitars
Samy Mosely already had a Contract with Matsumoku to produce instruments under the Mosrite brand name.

However a few Aria “Branded” Black Widow Guitars managed to make it out into circulation.
They even carried the same MAXON Pickups and Cast (not tin plated) Gotoh Tuners as the Mosrite Guitar
as with the rest of the hardware.
About 100 Acoustic/Bartell Branded Black Widows were made and a Total of 200 Mosrite Black widow Guitars were made and only a few Aria Black Widow Guitars made (All right Handed)

The specs:
Semi Solid Carved top Body
Three Piece Maple Neck (the neck extends to and under the bridge where there is an adjuster screw to provide neck tilt for lowering the action or raising it THIS can be done without detuning the guitar or loosening off the other neck bolts
24 fret rosewood fingerboard
Gotoh cast sealed Tuners
Edgebound headstock and fingerboard
Edgebound Body
Padded Hourglass Back protector
Pair of MAXON humbuckers
Custom Bridge and Tailpiece
(Even the Aria Museum do not own one)
The Guitar is Big and Heavy and sounds AWESOME
It has a straight neck and a low and fast action
it has a Slim Neck that goes from a soft C to a Flat D at the guitar body end (Much as you would find on a modern shredders guitar) EXCEPT that this is 1970’s and totally STOCK

This is the REAL deal and some are asking great amounts for this Matsumoku made gem.

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