Rayman

Sat here with a large coffee, after a morning session with my (current) favourite 3 basses. Regardless of price…. these Arias are absolutely my go to basses right now. Lovely players, comfortable and awesome sounding. It does make me wonder why I still hanker for expensive gear, when instruments like these are around for peanuts. I hunt around for the Korean ones mostly, or the Japanese ones if there’s a bargain to be had. The 5er at the top is an IGB68 and was 200 quid. Awesome tone, beautiful fretboard, crap tuners, I intend to change them. The Integra on the left was a 100, fabulous tone, the pickups are brilliant in these, nice neck…. and the GTB on the right was 50 quid….. absolutely ridiculously lovely bass, again great neck, great pickups. I put Gotoh GB707s on both of those basses. It massively improves the playing experience. To be honest, between the three basses, I really don’t need any of the others, they’re that good, in my opinion.

Ashdown are the best. Dave is a lovely and very helpful chap…. and everyone upstairs in the office are just as friendly. Great amps, great company.

Although the OP is sorted, just a quick plug for Matt @ House of Tone in Chester. Anyone needing pickup work doing in the NW (of England) he’s your guy.

So there it is finished, complete with its new Gotoh GB707s. As you can see, it bares a few scars, but man, this is a lovely comfortable bass that sounds killer. Very happy.

😍

Fabulous, love it

I’m loving this….. An antidote to the extortionate prices of some of the gear out there at the moment.

Oh we absolutely need to see that……

………. 😧

Manias are fantastic basses. So having played this little Aria a lot over the last few hours, I love it even more. The only change I’m going to make, and I think it’s worth it because I’m absolutely keeping it, is a new set of Gotoh GB7 tuners. Everything else will stay as is. It’s great.

Holy c**p on a cracker........ that's a stunner. Beautiful bass.

It's an enviable position, to have just one great instrument, that you really love and know inside out. Many have tried to get there, by selling off most of their basses and just keeping that special one, that becomes two again, then four.... and up the numbers go once again. I don't know anyone who's managed it.

The history or Aria and the man that started it is really fascinating. High end instruments made in Japan that rivalled the other Japanese builders. Down the years its been relegated to a perceived budget brand, which is a shame. I have no idea if the new Chinese stuff is any good or not. All said, there’s a lot of very affordable MIJ & MIK basses that punch well above the used prices.

Oh yes, very nice

Yes my IGB68 5er is a MM pickup bass. Bizarrely, they used a ‘neck’ position pickup in them as standard, so the pole pieces don’t quite align with the strings.

Get a good one, they’re really great. Worth every penny.

Yes the SB series, MIJ, were great basses. Subsequently production moved to Korea, and they became more intermediate, good, but not quite up there with the Japanese made instruments. The 90s and early 00s MIK Integras were great. I have a couple, my 5er is an IGB68, great bass. Now, they’re made in China I believe, but even Chinese production is getting good now. All that said, there’ll be more knowledgable Aria enthusiasts on here with more accurate information than me. I’m just a big fan.

Yep, always a plus point with these.

I bought this last week, and I just got around to cleaning it and setting it up… ’90s Korean Aria GTB II J. Pretty tatty on collection, but the seller assured me it sounded amazing, and all was well with the neck etc…. he was correct Having just spent an hour working on it, new (old but newish) strings (yes they need trimming down a bit) put on it, cleaned and oiled etc, it’s a belter. Fantastic pickups, very jazz like, but very bright and punchy. I really do love these 90s Aria pickups, they’re very potent and very clear as they are on all my old Aria basses. My Integra 4 string, very similar to this, is also a beast. Not light, but not heavy, just a sold piece(s) of wood. I saw it on Gumtree and knowing what I know, I had to add it to the stable, I beat a lot of folks to it apparently, there was a bit of a queue by all accounts. It was £50. 👍🏻

WOW...... that's absolutely fantastic, thanks so much for that. I would never have thought of trying something like that, but I'm absolutely going to have a go. Thank you.

It’s satisfactory I guess in terms of the fretboard. It plays fine but looks patchy close up. I’d thought about removing the frets, lightly sanding it back and replacing the frets, but that’s a bridge too far for me. The error I made was using a stripper that was way too aggressive and lifted the grain. Because the fretboard is bound, I have no clue how thick the rosewood is, so sanding isn’t something I fancy doing at all. Any suggestions for how to make this thing even better are very much welcomed.

Absolutely. Matt is a fan of all things retro, and if it’s worth bringing back to life, he’ll do it for you.