Aria Pro II

I bought my second hand Aria Pro II Viper VP-40 ("deep" purple) in 1994  for 2500 French Francs, the equivalent of € 380 with a hard case. It's a model made in Japan Number of Frets: 24 Type of bridge: Floyd Rose Neck type: C, the "shred of the time." Frets: higher than on a guitar shred. Merit may be a slight work to reduce their height. Pickups: SSH. Not exceptional. Only the midlle pickup sounds not too bad. Very good overall quality of manufacture. This is a guitar that ages very well. 9/10 UTILIZATION Neck: Slightly less comfortable than my Ibanez S770FM but when the action is set very low it behaves very well ! Ergonomics: I like Access to the latest freight: not bad at all For sound: ------------ I made the choice to finally change all three pickups. Current configuration: Neck position : Seymour Duncan Little 59 (splittable humbucker). The tone knob had already a push-pull switch, I decided to split the neck pickup through it. Single coil mode (split) it sounds pretty strat mode and not split it almost sounds like a (Gibson) classic 57 : very hot and quite clean jazz. Middle position : a Seymour Duncan vintage strat. Excellent for country Bridge position : A (genuine part) Gibson Classic 57+ (zebra model). Very clean and warm sings well in saturated harmonics. I love this pickup !. With this combination which cost me an extra of less than 250 €, now I have the most versatile guitar of my collection. (To be precise) in addition to the Aria pro II, I own : - Ibanez S770FM (2010) - Epiphone Les Paul Standard 1995 (Made in Korea) on which I put a Gibson Classic 57 in neck and Gibson Burstbucker III bridge - Hagstrom HJ500 2008 on which I put a Gibson Classic 57+ (neck) and a Gibson Burstbucker Pro (bridge) - Greg Bennet Royale (1) 2008 on which I put two Gibson Classic 57 - Fender Jazzmaster 1962 (my birth year) Fiesta red on which I did not change anything. - Gibson ES-335 1974 sunburst (I would have preferred a Cherry one, but it was difficult to find). Same, I have not changed anything. - A Squier Strat 2007 sunburst (model copied from those of the 70s, with a large head (like J. Hendrix's) and rosewood fretboard on which I think I will not change anything except maybe the color (because we see that the body is in 4 parts (the wood veins do not match well) : this guitar is a bomb. I bought it used for 150 € with its 15W Fender made in USA! The big clean sound. A little less good with an overdrive but this may be because I'm too used to the Gibson style humbuckers and I have not found the right tunings ... To say it again, the Aria Pro behaves very well compared to her friends, especially since the change of pickups making it quite a friendly and versatile tool. I forgot: unlike others this guitar is well (weight)balanced. Some others have a propency to lean headwise or bodywise. In terms of comfort of play, it is a very important point to take into account, not only when playing with the guitar on the knee but also in standup position (with the strap) ! SOUNDS Without modification, not too bad : say (generously) 7/10. The single coil pickups are pretty warm. But when you have tried other guitars, you can feel that something is missing. After the changes I made, see 2): it goes 10/10 I play a lot today with a Roland Cube 80 XL, otherwise I like my setup with VOX Tonelab ST pedal plugged into two stereo amplifiers coupled Roland KC-550 (stereo) (=2x180 Watts RMS on 15 inch + tweeter, so a sound of great thickness in low volume) OVERALL OPINION I love this guitar. My daughter did not want it to because of the color (you know, girls!) When I decided to look into it seriously, and I tuned it (tuning of the voltage Floyd tension (it had moved ater these years) + intonnation and tuning the neck) for it to accept 10-52 strings set. "She" behaves now very well and sounds much better than with the 8-43 strings set  in place when I purchased it. Since the pickup change  it became THE guitar that fits everywhere. She follows me when I move. So: 9/10 to 10/10 as the overall score, taking into account the durability. (She is 20+ years old ...)

I bought my Magna second-hand but in mint condition for £279.00 from the Academy Of Sound in Norwich, England. It was mainly because I found myself attracted to its unusual looks at the time and was impressed with how easy it was to play. It has a quilted body in orange, very tasteful without giving up any of its eye catching features, that is to say its body curves in to the edges, exaggerated points, generally a very sleek looking guitar. The Duncan Designed pick-ups really do themselves credit, double single coils, one at the neck, centre, and a humbucker at the bridge. Standard volume and tone controls are nothing special, but it does have one very nice feature, I've no idea what it was called but there's a switch which seems to only have an effect when tone is at its fullest and the channel changer is set to treble. It makes the sound much fuller, almost like an acoustic, great for playing clean. Other things of note are the incredibly low action, I remember my friend trying it and trying a bend, promptly exclaiming, "Where'd all the string go!?". I have left the tremolo arm off on purpose but the shop made a big deal about the bridge, Wilkinson if that means anything to you, doesn't to me. 24 frets is always a bonus too. The volume control is ineffective in my opinion; it makes little difference till you get to the lowest then it drops to silent, very irritating. Also, and this is most likely simply trouble with my guitar specifically, but there is a little buzz on some of the channels, nothing noticeable but enough to complain about. It is perhaps a little heavy but not excessively so, I've had worse, and as nice as the low action is it does seem to make bends a little more difficult as mentioned previously. They might've done a better job embedding the pick ups too, being able to see wires is a little unpleasant but that's just being picky, it would make changing easier if it came to that. A well-built guitar. There really isn't much else to be said. It has taken a bump or two; the paint cracks easily, which is unfortunate. Other than that it is a solid guitar, never been taken to a gig but I could easily picture it holding up well. For the money you could do a lot worse, second-hand you might get an Ibanez RG-550 for the same but in my opinion it only equals the quality. I've never been bored of this guitar, it is my first and there's never a moment I regret buying it. Maybe not the best of guitars if raging metal is your preference, but if what you're in the market for is a good quality guitar for all purposes I would thoroughly recommend it. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Aria pro II CT series. 2 single coils, 1 humbucker with coil tapping. 1 volume, 1 tone Don't think it's a rosewood fretboard (too light) Brown/ gold sunburst with black crackle finnish UTILIZATION Strat shape / traditional aria headstock. Plays beautiful! Multitude of tones! Heavier than expected! SOUNDS Marshall 50 watt combo Fender 100 watt frontman. Can get just about any sound out of it you want. Screams harmonics with distortion! OVERALL OPINION Always wanted an Aria! Back in the 70's they were too pricey. Gibson priced themselves out of the market. / Fender quality dropped & flooded the market. Very happy with it but somebody snapped out the whammy bar connection on the tailpiece. Would love to find another & return it to mint! Would buy another in a heartbeat!

Japanese built, neckthru guitar. Two single coil pickups with humbucking dummy coil, volume and 2 low pass filters with 3 position corner frequency switches. Alembic style tuneamatic/stoptail, 6 on a side, non-locking tuners, 24 frets. UTILIZATION Flattish neck, big frets, flat radius fingerboard makes playing quickly easy although harder on the hand than a fuller neck. Heavy but not terrible (maybe 9 pounds). The LPF instead of a tone control definitely takes some getting used to. Tone can vary from strat or even tele bright to smooth jazz dark. Fairly high output system (18 volts, two batteries). SOUNDS Some folks call the pickups sterile, I think I could live with them although they cause many overdrive devices to sound a big "fizzy". Definitely a bit more finicky to get a target sound, but if really wide varieties of clean, LOUD tone are your thing (Gerry Garcia anyone) this could be your axe! OVERALL OPINION For some incomprehensible reason, in the early 80s, Alembic sent pickups and perhaps electronics to Aria Pro to build their Alembic copy RS850 (the 750 had passive electronics, the 850 had 18v electronics). The specs are identical to the Alembics of the time: two single coils with a dummy coil for hum bucking, neckthru design, 6 on a side tuners, 18v electronics with proper low pass filters with 3 positions for each and hardware that seemed to be a copy of the Alembic stuff. Not sure why they decided to help Matsumoku out, but there it is. The main difference between the guitars was that the Aria had the wings for the neck thru design made of solid walnut or other wood, whereas Alembic had the wings veneered top and bottom with highly figured woods for a more deluxe appearance. The inlays were very similar. The Rev Sound had a painted on logo vs the Alembic metal badge. I just got an RS850 in really nice shape and I'm definitely enjoying it. I"m waiting on an Alembic for a straight AB comparison, but from my 10 year old memories it sounds the same. Very cool tones from straty*jangle to smooth jazz with stops for hard rock in between. Some have complained that the Alembic pickups sound sterile and cold, but I think I could live with them. The only problem is learning how the 3 position low pass filters sound in various combinations and positions. BTW, the thing KILLS with distortion. Doesn't seem to matter what pedal but either the Klon or the Honeybeest into the CAL Holy Fire is a wonderful sound, with moving the LPFs giving almost a wah feeling to the whole thing. Worth finding (the RS850s seem to sell in the $1200-1500 range vs the Alembic $2k to $10k depending on how deluxe and how old). __________________

A friend took me to Muncton New Brunswick be cause I wanted to trade my accoustic for an electric. It was selling for $200. I love the guitar. I especially like the tone it gives. I haven`t found anything I like better. The finish is really nice to. I get a lot of compliments on it. Can`t really say that I`ve found anything I don`t like. This is a very solid guitar. It has 24 frets. The body has sycamore wings with maple through the center and walnut stripes going through the center. The neck is also maple. It has 3 way selector swith plus a 6 way ratary tone selector switch. It has a switch to play it in and out of phase plus two swithes to split the Protomatic 3 humbucker pickups. There is also an onboard power boost. I`ve had a few guitars and I can honestly say that this is the best I`ve ever owned in every catagory. I have a feeling it`s mine for life. I wish I could find the list value of it today. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

A friend give it to me because he bought a jackson, so I thought "this must be a piece of s**t", but no, now, I m a fan of aria vintage guitars. It´s very comfortable, the design is beautiful, there ´s a lot of people saying that aria guitars suck, they think that the only good guitars are fender and gibson they prefer a squier than an aria squier guitars are the biggest piece of s**t that I ever seen, the wood is cheap, the freatbord sucks, they re horrible. One of the things I don t like from aria guitars are the pickups, they re cheap, but they can be replaced (It s not the perfect guitar)but they re very well made The aria vintage guitars are very well made, the quality is amazing, and for all those a**holes out there that think aria sucks, the most important thing is learn to play, then when you can think that you re best than eddie van halen, buy the guitar that you want. no more descriptions, just play one and you will understand me This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I'm am in the school marching band and this is the bass of their choice. It's a 5 string bass and I'm not completly sure how much it costs but models that look like this one run from $900.00 up. I love the sound you can get out of this bass. It has 2 jazz style pickups and they sound great. The action is pretty good and the neck plays great. On a plus side it can handel a lot of abuse. It's a school band bass and A) I've dropped it 3 times. B)It get tossed around going from competition to competition. C) People in the band are idiots so it gets abuse by getting hit with mallots, case stepped on, and it was thrown around on a shelf and manhandeled. In short it sounds great, has a great feel and can handel absuse. They had this bass for 5 years and it looks barely used. Their is only 1 thing I dislike about this bass and that is that the bass constantly goes out of tune. It's not because it's outside, but while inside it can sometimes get out of tune heavily. I also don't like the machine heads but that's probably from the abuse so I won't hold it against the bass. The qualty of the unit is great! It comes with a lifetime warranty with the bass but I don't know how they live up to that. As I stated before, it takes constant abuse for 5 years and still looks, sounds, and feel almost new. This is a high quality piece of equipment. I love this bass sounds great, feels great, great quality just the tuning thing This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

2nd hand £150 24 frets, very thin neck, double humbucker, reverse pointed headstock, licensed floyd rose double locking trem. Explorer shaped body Body it too light! Nech tried to dive to the floor every time you let go, neck slightly bent, more likely a result of age and abuse then design. Reasonable, good considering the price A excellent guitar for the pricfe, but will definately be buying a *real* guitar sometime soon This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I recieved this guitar as a gift about 15 years ago. I have no idea how much it cost then and Aria doesn't make them anymore This is a good guitar for punk rock and metal which is what I was playing at the time I got it. It's got some funky hybrid pickups that are like single coil and humbucker mixed together. I'm not all that please with the action or the sustain and the tone is somewhat limited to thrashy kinds of music This guitar is very well made for a Korean model. I've had it 15 years and nary a problem with it. Not a bad guitar for beginners if you can still find one This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com