It looks like what you have is an Aria Diamond 1720 bass . It appears to be an early one. In 1966 Mr. Arai introduced electrics made by him in existing factories he had bought. The earliest ones can be found under the Arai Diamond or Aria Diamond names, from the same time period. The 1720 was introduced in 1968. The Diamond line was around in the catalogs as late as 1974 but by 1970 they don't seem to have the Diamond name on the headstock. So my guess is 1968-69.
Wright mentions that the Strat copies of 1968 had solid maple bodies.He doesn't mention the body wood in the paragraph on the Mosrite guitar and bass copies, but if what you bought turns out to be close grained, it could very well be a maple species.
This is the same bass later imported by Merson under the Univox Hi-Flyer name.
Thanks Dave, this is really interesting, and I'm grateful for the model ID. Given the Matsumoku connection, it's not hard to believe that the line might have been converted from Aria to Univox. I did some surfing and with your ID, I found this page with pictures of the bass and the companion guitar:
http://www.matsumoku.org/models/aria/solid/mos/17xx.html This web page shows the production dates from 1968-71. Both bass and guitar were available in Sunburst, Black & White...and it appears that the original pickups would have been black-face with black trim rings.
I love knowing this kind of stuff.
those almost look like DeArmond Turbojet (sp?) pickups
http://www.curtisnovak.com/pickups/repairs/TurboJet-Bass/
Exactly right! I've looked at those DeArmond PUs at the Angela website. I learned more about them from the Novak site. I wonder if there's a DeArmond/Mastumoku connection? From watching numerous Ebay auctions and doing a bit of digging, I've observed that the same pickups were used in Lyle, Univox and Epiphone hollowbodies from that same 70's time period - which makes sense, as all built in the same factory. I've clearly seen the same pickups in Univox, Lyle and Epi guitars and in basses from those lines.