darkandrew Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 (edited) Having bought an SB1000JT for about £1500 a few years ago and being very, very pleased with it (of all my basses it's probably the easiest to play) I was interested to see that Aria have brought out a 5 string version: [url="http://www.ariaguitars.com/english/products/sb-1000-5b"]http://www.ariaguitars.com/english/products/sb-1000-5b[/url] So I emailed Aria UK to find out about availability and pricing in the UK and was quite surprised to be told that the RRP is £2500 I know that this will no doubt be a very good bass and that it compares with the price of many other quality basses but I was still a bit shocked when you consider that only a handfull of JTs were made, all of which were handmade in Japan (according to the Aria info at the time) and that cost me £1000 less than this one. It's a shame because, like I said, I'm sure it's going to be a very good bass but at that price I can think of quite a few other 5 stringers that I'd probably buy over the SB1000/5b. Edited August 17, 2011 by darkandrew Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noelk27 Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 (edited) You do realise the SB1000-5 has been available for years? To be honest, a bit like the SB1000JT, the 5 is very much a let down. The updated pickups and electrics have nowhere near the character of the originals, and the neck on the 5 is not a comfortable taper or profile. Aria would have been much better advised to use either the original SB900 or later SB-ELT template as the basis for a "modern" 5-er. Edited August 17, 2011 by noelk27 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkandrew Posted August 17, 2011 Author Share Posted August 17, 2011 (edited) Maybe it has been available for a while but I'd never seen one - probably something to do with that £2500 price tag. As for the SB1000JT being a let down, I couldn't really agree with you on that one. I've got a number of fairly half decent basses (Custom shop Warwick SS1, Spector Euro LX, Etc) and the SB1000 holds its own very well against these - not bad considering that the SS1 is shown on Warwick's custom shop gallery as costing its original owner 4500 euros, infact compared to the SS1 the SB1000JT is actually more comfortable and has an equally good, but very different, tone - very well suited for Bernard Edwards/John Taylor style funk/pop. For £1000 less I'd probably consider the SB1000/5b or at least ask my local dealer to get one in for me to demo - by the way Aria are very good like this, they've always been happy to send stuff on approval but I really think they are just pricing themselves out of contention with this one. Edited August 18, 2011 by darkandrew Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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