Just got this little guy.
Was a little unsure about buying it, seller made a 40% off asking price so I bit.
He nicely threw in a capo and it came with an old beat up cheapo chipboard case.
The truss rod (I find out the next day) was completely loose.
So the neck was bowed down a lot – way too much ‘relief’.
The adjustable bridge was about as low as it could get and the action was high for my tastes but I took a chance.
I was really impressed by the little LC-5 parlor MIJ Aspen I had a couple years back so I have a soft spot for this brand.
It’s a mystery though. AD-18-0 is stamped inside the soundhole and a 6 digit serial which does not follow the frequently seen MIJ serializing. Did I get skunked with a Korean or worse Chinese model? We shall see…
Investigating it more…
Nut width 1+ 11/16″ full width. Looks to be plastic, if it isn’t it’s the cleanest looking old bone nut I’ve ever seen. Some cracks starting on the soundboard too, yuck.
6 ply binding on body Black/white/black/white/black/white. Single ply black body binding on rear.
Unbound neck – looks to be rosewood not ebony.
Bridge pins were replaced 5-6 years ago as a few were split seller told me, string replace then as well.
No name on the tuners. No country of origin anywhere 🙁 Just used mechanics mirror inside with light. Only thing is at the end of the guitar body farther from neck there is a black stamp that matches color / tone of the stampings elsewhere. Looks to possibly be a ‘star’ shape stamped there – perhaps a builder’s signature?
Very unusual I noticed looking at it when I picked it up at seller’s porch: it has a 2 markings at the 12th fret but wait! I said unusual – also at the 5th fret. I don’t recall seeing this ever.
The logo is old style ‘Aspen’ at the headstock and also has their logo Gold Leaf. Cute. The fanciful old vintage curly ‘Aspen’ logo is stamped in the soundhole : where a sticker would normally be on most guitars. Don’t know if this is missing it’s sticker, it was removed / fell off… Hard to detect there was ever something there. I’d say that with 75% certainty – there could have been, I’m not 100% sure.
Next day playing: Wow, the sound grew on me. I noticed a nice bright voice on this Aspen when I capo-ed the 2nd fret to strum out “Angel for Montgomery”. Sounded really nice. Then I removed capo to play the cowboy chords and a ‘full G’ and wow it sounds really nice.
I started Pepsi challenging this against my extremely expensive in the day Epiphone NV180 jumbo. No contest, this Aspen destroys it (at least in the jumbo’s current state with shit saddle, bad nut, and crack in neck that pulls together under string tension at least). This Aspen is very alive. The sound.
Funny thing is the Suggested Retail price as seen in sheet photo in 1975 was $99.50 for this model. Which is what the seller’s original asking price was (well, 50 cents higher lol).
