The Guitar Wishlist is the place for those guitars I’ve never owned, but looked at lovingly and thougt yeah, would like one of them. The first one needs a bit of scene setting. We’re talking about the time of Brit Pop and Cool Cymru. I was living in North Wales and in the market for a guitar. There in the window of our local music shop stood this, the Aria Pro II TA40 – Welsh flag edition.

It was a time of national pride here in Wales, the likes of Catatonia and the Manic Street Preachers were at the forefront of Welsh music, and I was back home after spending a few years living in England. The big bold dragon on the front did it for me, as did the TA40’s sleek ES-335 based appearance. Sadly the price tag was beyond my means, so it was always a wish away.

I’ve since learned that it was part of a Korean made series of UK ‘flag’ guitars released in the mid 1990s by Aria including a George Cross, Union Jack and Saltire/St Andrew’s Cross. Several sources mention that the Welsh Dragon model is the rarer of the series. You can see the other flag guitars here, alongside more info on the Welsh Dragon model.

Depsite the price tag back then, the guitars were at the budget end of the market, albeit at the top end of the budget area. I think they were around £250 at the time, not a fortune, but more than this poor boy could afford. I don’t need to worry about if the guitar was any good, this was purely an aesthetic love for me. They don’t come up very often on eBay, but here’s a list of current TA40’s available. Maybe one day one will pop up here. I’ve seen them go for around £250 on other sites.