Here’s and interesting bass, dating from the late ‘70s.  It’s a bolt on Aria Pro SB800 bass.  The SB700, 900 and 1000 were all neck-through basses, but this bass was produced and market for a brief period of time in 1978.  There is serial number on the neck, which says SB42A003.

This is a really nice bass and it plays and sounds great.  It came to me via its old owner Noel, who’d picked it up from Craigslist.  The bass was showing it’s age a little, but with all the hardware polished, frets and fretboard cleaned, a set-up and polish it doesn’t look the 30 plus years that it is. 

Controls are volume, tone as well a six tone ‘varitone’ switch controlling an 18V pre-amp.  There is micro-switch which allows the bass to run in passive mode.  The bass has a Powerplus II pick-up and an 860mm scale length.