Cheap J bass - What a revelation!

[Conan]

We're doing a music week at my school at the moment, and the music department have just bought in a few new budget instruments (they get a very hard time from the students!).

Anyway, I thought i would have a bit of a play about with one of the bass guitars. It is an Aria STB-JB in black with a white PG, so it has a kind of passing resemblance to a Geddy Lee J... (well, if you half close your eyes!).

[url="http://www.ariauk.com/aria-stb-jb-bass-guitar/"]http://www.ariauk.com/aria-stb-jb-bass-guitar/[/url]

I wasn't expecting much, as these things retail at around £100-120, but I have to say that I was VERY pleasantly surprised!

A lovely Jazz Bass tone and extremely playable. It just feels really sweet in my hands. It hadn't even been set up, so the volume levels were a bit variable across the strings - but that was a five minute fix.Truss rod could probably do with a bit of a tweak too as there was a bit of buzz at around fret 15. No big deal.

I even did a bit of recording with it and it sat really well in the mix, with a certain degree of authority! Incredible at this price, and thoroughly recommended to anyone looking for a very good quality beginners' bass or even a reasonable back-up. Even swapping back to my Spector didn't seem like too much of a downward step!!

Have a try of one of these if you can

[iconic]

Yup, bought one a few months back in 3TS, a great jazzer all round and with a P bass neck, stunning value for money. I've got have a mind to buy one of the DX active versions.


..my STB-JB came very well set up too which makes a change cos I love a fiddle - no pun intended- !

Edited July 18, 2013 by iconic

[JapanAxe]

The only thing that puts me off Aria basses is sheer snobbery

The ones I have tried have been light, nice to play, and decent sounding.

[Maude]

I picked up an Aria STB P bass for £40, with 1/4 pounders and Chromes it's awesome, tort pickguard and a bridge cover and it looks awesome, my opinion? This bass is awesome .
I want a matching J to go with it.

They play really well for the price,I'd say they play really if they were four times the price.

Edited July 18, 2013 by Maude

[Dingus]

[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1374150858' post='2145814']
We're doing a music week at my school at the moment, and the music department have just bought in a few new budget instruments (they get a very hard time from the students!).

Anyway, I thought i would have a bit of a play about with one of the bass guitars. It is an Aria STB-JB in black with a white PG, so it has a kind of passing resemblance to a Geddy Lee J... (well, if you half close your eyes!).

[url="http://www.ariauk.com/aria-stb-jb-bass-guitar/"]http://www.ariauk.co...jb-bass-guitar/[/url]

I wasn't expecting much, as these things retail at around £100-120, but I have to say that I was VERY pleasantly surprised!

A lovely Jazz Bass tone and extremely playable. It just feels really sweet in my hands. It hadn't even been set up, so the volume levels were a bit variable across the strings - but that was a five minute fix.Truss rod could probably do with a bit of a tweak too as there was a bit of buzz at around fret 15. No big deal.

I even did a bit of recording with it and it sat really well in the mix, with a certain degree of authority! Incredible at this price, and thoroughly recommended to anyone looking for a very good quality beginners' bass or even a reasonable back-up. Even swapping back to my Spector didn't seem like too much of a downward step!!

Have a try of one of these if you can
[/quote]

Hang on a minute , do they have school teachers with Spector NS Series basses nowadays ? The World has gone crazy!