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A clutch of proper Arias


Bloodaxe
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A bit of a repost this. It was originally on one of BC's previous incarnations, but I must have overlooked it when we moved.


First up, a 1983 RSB Special-1 S/N 3080865




This has had an unkind life up to now, being resident in a school music room & then some chap's attic until about 3 weeks ago when I picked it up off the Bay for £50. I need to order a new MB-IV from Aaron Armstrong to fill the hole, but this is growing on me as a players' instrument - acoustically it's a tone monster.

BayBuy No. 2 - 1984 RSB Deluxe-5 S/N 4050094...




Completely stock apart from fitting a TremNut, was tuned high-C, but I've decided to experiment with a low B.
Fast & comfortable now that I've discovered Warwick Yellow Label strings.
I've changed the string retainers for some neater roller ones.

And now for something completely similar...

TSB-400 No. 1050066




The Business end...




As you can see, she's had a few mods over our 25-year affair, some of which haven't worked out (mainly experimentations with home-grown actives, hence the extra holes). The Kahler is a mod that always raises consternated eybrows (esp. from guit*rists) until people try it out. I wouldn't be without it. The other mod is to the bridge pickup where I've added an extra set of pole pieces for a tad more bite. The original bobbin was already moulded for these, so fitting was a fairly simple affair.

Last years' main catch was a 1980 "Batwing" SB-900. Had it for a year now & it's fast becoming my number one favourite:




Off-camera are an SB-1000 (S/N 049140) that's being subjected to a fretless conversion, there's a Build Diary thread that covers this (SB-1000F), and a rather lairy ZZB Custom explorer which I aven't got around to photographing properly yet.

Pete.

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Lovely stuff Pete!

That 5 string looks great but it must be very narrow string spacing?

I've just recently joined the Aria club with a mid 80's fretless ProII RSB special that I bought from Pete Young here on the forum.. I'll put a picture up at some point soon..

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  • 9 months later...

I used to have one too, bought new around '83-84. Fantastic rock bass, allthought it gave of a lot of click noise and didn't have that much of a punch (mine was passive). Got myself a white ESP/Kubicki/EMG P-jazz job instead (ah, the eighties). Sorry about the striped trousers. Love Your respectful rebuild. Great.

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